Joliet Amazon Paramedic's DNA Found On Lockport Murder Victim's Body

JOLIET — A pair of forensic scientists at the Illinois State Police crime lab in Joliet testified on Tuesday morning that their analysis of the fingernail clippings and the shirt worn by Lockport strangling victim Ashtin Eaton recovered major DNA profiles belonging to the murder defendant, Anthony Maggio.

In addition to those items, state police forensic scientist Lyle Boicken testified that he analyzed the box cutter knife the Lockport police officers found near Eaton's slain body on her kitchen floor on Oct. 2, 2020. She had a three-inch-long bloody wound to her left wrist, according to trial testimony. However, that box cutter knife, the jury learned on Tuesday, contained Maggio's DNA.

This week marks the second and final week of Maggio's double murder trial at the Will County Courthouse beforef Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak.

Maggio, now 30, and Eaton, 32, worked together at the Joliet Amazon warehouse, where they became close friends and had a romantic relationship that resulted in the birth of their daughter, Hazel.

Maggio was also engaged to another woman, and he has two small children with her.

The Will County State's Attorney's Office prosecution team of Chris Koch, James Zanayad and Ashley Kwasneski maintain that Maggio killed Eaton and Hazel after several days of back and forth arguments over the topic of Maggio paying court-ordered child support for the infant, who was 14 months old at the time of her death.

Maggio is being represented by Chicago criminal defense attorney Michael Clancy. At the time of the Lockport murders, Maggio was 26 years old. He was aspiring to join the Cicero Fire Department as a firefighter-paramedic; he was already working as a paramedic at the Phoenix Fire Department, in a tiny community in Cook County near Harvey.

According to last week's trial testimony, Maggio's cell phone was in Crestwood, where he lived, at the time of the double murders on Oct. 2, 2020. The jury also learned that Maggio left his cell phone at home in Crestwood on the night of Sept. 20, 2020, when he sneaked out of his condominium while his fiancée and his two children were sleeping.

On Sept. 20, 2020, Maggio made the 30-minute drive to visit Eaton at her Lockport apartment. He stayed there for approximately two hours to have sex with her, before driving back to Crestwood in the middle of the night, and returning while his fiancée was still asleep.

Here are some of the key DNA highlights from Tuesday's testimony involving Illinois State Police forensic scientists Lloyd Boicken and Kelly Krajnik:

• Boicken told the jury he analyzed the DNA sample taken from the box cutter knife near Eaton's body. Boicken also analyzed the vaginal, anal and oral swabs taken from Eaton and found no male DNA profile detected.
• The Lockport police found no sign of a sexual assault involving Eaton or her infant. Boicken also testified the blood recovered from the blade of the box cutter knife belonged to Eaton.
• As far as the DNA recovered from the bloody knife's handle, DNA samples came from three different people.
  • "Ashtin Eaton is one of the three contributors," Boicken told the jury.
  • As for Eaton's ex-husband, Jordan Eaton, the DNA tests came back as negative, the jury learned. "Jordan Eaton's buccal swab is excluded as a contributor," Boicken testified. "The profile is simply not there."
  • The male contributor to the DNA recovered from the knife handle near the murder victim's body, Boicken told the jury, came from Maggio, the double murder defendant.
  • "The third unknown profile, it was female," he testified.

The Illinois State Police ran the unknown female DNA specimen through their nationwide DNA database, called CODIS, but no matches were found.

After Boicken finished testifying, ISP forensic scientist Kelly Krajnik was called to the stand by prosecutors. She has 22 years experience in her career field.

According to her testimony, Krajnik analyzed both sets of fingernail clippings that were taken from Eaton's body during her autopsy.

Maggio's DNA was recovered from both sets of Eaton's fingernail clippings, according to Krajnik's testimony. The jury also heard that while Maggio's DNA was found on both sets of fingernail clippings, there was other DNA present on one of Eaton's hands.

However, the Illinois State Police's DNA analysis on several key people familiar with the victim, including her ex-husband, Jordan Eaton; Jessica Eaton, her oldest child; Hazel's grandfather, Russell Onderisin; as well as the murder defendant's father and brother, Martin Maggio Sr. and Martin Maggio Jr., ruled them out as being the source of that DNA.

Krajnik was also asked to conduct DNA testing upon the neck area of Eaton's shirt that she wore at the time of her murder.

"At least four males on the neckline of that shirt," Krajnik told the jury.

Her additional DNA testing revealed that only one of the four DNA samples was a major contributor, Krajnik told the jury.

The prosecutor asked Krajnik to reveal the name of the person whose DNA was found on the neck area of the murder victim's shirt, making them the major contributor.

"Anthony Maggio," she told the courtroom.

She said that the remaining DNA samples of the other three male contributors were so tiny that the Illinois State Police considered them unsuitable for additional DNA testing.

During cross-examination of the witness, Maggio's lawyer asked Krajnik if it was true that she did not know exactly when the major DNA or the three minor DNA profiles were placed on Eaton's shirt.

"That's correct," she agreed.

Clancy also asked her whether the Lockport police could have provided her crime lab with DNA samples from Eaton's neck, where she was strangled, as well as her jaw area.

Krajnik agreed that the police, in theory, could have provided her crime lab with such DNA samples; however, "that's not very common, no," she explained.

Clancy also questioned why Lockport police did not have the bedding and blankets near little Hazel's body tested for DNA.

The 14-month-old infant was found wrapped in a cocoon of blankets at the time of her smothering. Lockport police did have the infant's clothes tested for DNA, according to the trial testimony.

Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak sent the jury home for the day late Tuesday morning because the prosecution's next witness is flying in from New York and won't be ready to testify until Wednesday morning.

The prosecution expects to finish calling its witnesses on Wednesday, and the defense plans to begin calling its witnesses in the afternoon.

Both sides expect to finish their cases sometime on Thursday.