Juror Collapses As Autopsy Photos Of Lockport Mom Shown In Trial

JOLIET —During the second day of trial for former Joliet Amazon plant paramedic Anthony Maggio in the double murder of his infant daughter Hazel Bryant and ex-girlfriend Ashtin Eaton, a medical emergency happened a few feet away from Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak.

On Wednesday afternoon, one of the jurors seated closest to the giant television screen in Courtroom 405 passed out, falling to the floor. The loud thud caused an unexpected, tense situation during the prosecution's testimony presented by Christopher Koch.

Koch displayed for the jury several graphic photos showing the slain body of 32-year-old Lockport murder victim Ashtin Eaton. Four years ago today, Oct. 2, 2020, Eaton was found on her back sprawled across her kitchen floor, a box cutter knife nearby.

Eaton's 14-month-old infant daughter, Hazel Bryant, was found dead on Eaton's bed.

Maggio, now 30, was the father of Hazel, and he previously had a romantic relationship with Hazel's mother, who also worked with him at the Joliet Amazon facility.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Valerie Arangelovich testified for the prosecution about her role performing the autopsy of the young Lockport mother and infant daughter.

Even though there was a nearly 3-inch-long slash along Eaton's arm, the pathologist determined that the wound was not responsible for the young woman's death.

Then, moments after a series of bloody photos from Eaton's autopsy were shown on the television monitor, an older man sitting on the jury in front of the video monitor collapsed.

The judge immediately called for a several minute recess and excused the rest of the jury from Courtroom 405. Joliet's Fire Department sent an ambulance to the Will County Courthouse.

A team of paramedics wheeled a stretcher into the courthouse; Bertani's courtroom is on the fourth floor. But after evaluating the juror for several minutes, the Joliet Fire Department paramedics returned to their ambulance with an empty stretcher and left.

'I Held Her And Said Wake Up, Baby, Wake Up': Murder Victim's Grandma

Not only did the juror refuse to be taken to the hospital, he also insisted to the judge he was fine.

Rather than excuse the man from the jury, Bertani kept him on the panel. The jury consists of 14 people, including two alternates.

Later, Judge Bertani announced that one of the jurors had a medical episode, the paramedics checked him out, he's feeling good and wants to continue "and here we are."

Forensic Pathologist Explains Her Conclusions

Later in the afternoon, Arangelovich told the courtroom that she found no health problems contributing to little Hazel's death. She concluded that the 14-month-old toddler died from smothering due to asphyxiation.

Although Hazel normally slept on a makeshift bed on the floor near her mother's bed, Hazel's body was discovered by her grandmother on the morning of Oct. 2, 2020, wrapped in a cocoon of blankets in the middle of her mother Ashtin Eaton's bed.

Arangelovich testified the Lockport mother died from strangulation.

However, during cross-examination, Maggio's lawyer, Michael Clancy out of Chicago, brought to light the fact that Ashtin Eaton's body had at least 28 different bruises — in addition to the injuries to her neck, jaw and wrist that the prosecution highlighted to the jury.

Clancy pointed out how the Lockport woman's body also had bruises to her:

• Right shoulder
• Right arm
• Right elbow
• Left shoulder
• Right side of her back
• Right knee
• Left knee
• Left lower leg
• Right lower leg
• Left elbow
• Left hip
• Left forearm
• Right hip
• Right wrist
• Left thigh
• Right thigh
• There was also a brown wound to her right thumb

Maggio's lawyer asked if the autopsy determined whether Eaton died from an object being placed around her neck or whether the killer used their hands.

"I could not determine if it were manual or ligature strangulation," Dr. Arangelovich testified.

Given that Eaton was extremely healthy, the strangulation may have taken up to six minutes to end her life, according to the forensic pathologist.

Clancy wondered whether Eaton's wrist was slit while she was still alive or dead, but Dr. Arangelovich testified that she did not know. Clancy also questioned which of the two Lockport victims died first.

"You have no idea who died first?" he asked.

"I do not," she responded.

Later, prosecutor Koch suggested the killer may have brought a murder weapon to Lockport and took it with them; that way, the police would never find it at the crime scene.

As far as smothering baby Hazel, the killer might've used his arm "and pushed the baby down into the bed," Koch asked his witness. "She was found face down on that bed."

Although Maggio's defense lawyer emphasized to the jury how Eaton suffered at least 28 different bruises throughout her body, Koch asked Arangelovich whether "any of those bruises had anything to do with how she actually died?"

"No," the expert witness replied.

Day three of Maggio's double murder trial will resume at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. The trial is expected to last at least two full weeks, possibly three. Clancy maintains that his client is innocent of the Lockport double murders.

Prosecutors told the jury that Maggio, who was in the process of being hired as a paramedic for Cicero, killed Hazel and her mother because he did not want to be burdened with child support payments and that he was already mired in heavy debt.