Milwaukee man sentenced to 20 years after killing 4-year-old girl in hit-and-run crash
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A 33-year-old Milwaukee man who was convicted in a 2024 hit-and-run crash that killed a 4-year-old girl learned his fate on Thursday, July 30.
Donald Crayton
A judge sentenced Donald Crayton to 20 years behind bars.
The crash happened April 30 of 2024, near North Teutonia and W. Vera Avenue. Investigators say Crayton ran down 4-year-old Zekani Hymes-Wilson and her mother, Gloria Hymes.
Authorities say Gloria Hymes and Crayton had been dating and lived together before the crash happened.
"It ruined my life," said Gloria at the sentencing hearing. "Nothing is ever the same. I'm just shook. Words can't describe what I feel. Honestly, I don't feel like he even deserves a plea deal. I want him to have life in prison. Because that's what I have to live with, a life without my child."
Zekani Hymes-Wilson
The victim's mother and dozens of her family and friends packed the courtroom as she grieved the loss of her child, which Crayton later apologized for.
“I’m living my worst nightmare and that nightmare was losing my child and now I have to live in it every day," Gloria said.
"I let them down when they needed me the most," Clayton said. "I let my family down. I let my daughters down. I let myself down."
Court records show Crayton has never been issued a driver's license and that he was convicted of operating while suspended causing death in 2019, for an incident that occurred in 2018.
Zekani Hymes-Wilson would have been seven years old this September and would have been going into second grade.