Inset (left): Donald Crayton (Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office). Inset (right): Gloria Hymes and Zekani Hymes-Wilson (Facebook). Background: News footage of the scene in Milwaukee, Wis., where Zekani Hymes-Wilson was killed (WITI).
A Wisconsin man who ran over his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter, killing the little girl, will spend the next two decades behind bars.
Donald Crayton, 33, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to hit-and-run involving death, hit-and-run involving great bodily harm, and reckless homicide in connection with the collision that injured 27-year-old Gloria Hymes and killed her daughter, 4-year-old Zekani Hymes-Wilson. According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime, Hymes and Zekani were crossing the street on the morning of April 30, 2024, to pick up food from a Domino's near their apartment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Surveillance video captured the moment a black Chevrolet Impala slammed into the mother and daughter at a high rate of speed, sending them into the air before they landed in the road.
The driver of the Impala was Crayton, and Hymes was his live-in girlfriend at the time. According to the complaint, Crayton and a woman later identified as his sister parked the Impala in a parking lot before running back toward Hymes and Zekani. After about a minute, Crayton ran back to the Impala and drove away, leaving the mortally wounded child and her mother in the street. A police officer attempted to revive the little girl but was unable, and she was declared dead at the scene.
Crayton's sister stayed at the scene and went with Hymes in the ambulance to the hospital. When police spoke to Hymes at the hospital, she identified Crayton as the driver of the car and as her current boyfriend. She also identified his car as the one that hit her. Hymes suffered serious injuries, including several fractures to her right leg.
The damaged Impala was later found abandoned by railroad tracks.
Officers tracked Crayton down later that day in a vehicle with 23-year-old Adriana Merkel, who led police on a high-speed chase before crashing. Crayton tried to flee on foot, but was stopped and taken into custody.
Merkel, who pleaded guilty to eluding a police officer, told police that Crayton told her "he couldn't live with this on his conscience," but did not tell her about the hit-and-run. Crayton told Merkel that he needed her to help him "leave" after police found his car. Merkel told police that Crayton was her boyfriend.
Once Crayton was in custody, police said he was "crying uncontrollably" and said he "wanted to go to the psych ward."
Crayton's history behind the wheel also appeared in the criminal complaint and came up during his sentencing hearing on Thursday. Police said Crayton "has never been issued a drivers license" and was convicted of killing another person while driving in 2019. He was convicted twice of operating a vehicle without a license in 2017 and 2023. For the 2019 conviction, he served 10 months in jail and three years of probation.
In addition to the charges to which he pleaded guilty, Crayton was charged with knowingly operating a vehicle while suspended causing death, knowingly operating a vehicle while suspended causing great bodily harm, resisting or obstructing an officer, and soliciting someone to flee an officer in a vehicle. Those charges were dismissed but read in during sentencing.
When Crayton expressed remorse for his actions during sentencing, Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Laura Crivello told him that he made similar comments during sentencing for his 2019 conviction. Crivello said, "[I]t doesn't ring so true when you say it on a previous date and don't change your behavior… I don't know if I buy the remorse."
In addition to 20 years in prison, Crayton was ordered to never drive again.