A judge questioned Donald Crayton’s remorse before imposing 20 years in prison for the crash that killed a 4-year-old girl.
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Donald Crayton’s 20-year prison sentence for a fatal Milwaukee hit-and-run was shaped not only by the death of 4-year-old Zekani Hymes-Wilson, but also by a driving record that showed a previous fatal crash and repeated operation of vehicles without a valid license.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Laura Crivello sentenced the 33-year-old to prison and 15 years of extended supervision after he pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide and two hit-and-run charges. Crivello’s comments at sentencing focused attention on repetition. Law&Crime reported that when Crayton expressed remorse, the judge referred to statements he had made when he was sentenced in an earlier fatal-driving case. She questioned whether his latest expression of regret could be separated from the fact that he returned to the road afterward. “I don’t know if I buy the remorse,” Crivello said. The court also ordered Crayton never to drive again, an unusually direct condition in a case where the criminal complaint said he had never been issued a driver’s license in the first place.
The record cited in the 2024 complaint stretches back years before the crash that killed Zekani. Wisconsin court and transportation records showed that Crayton was convicted in 2017 of operating while suspended for conduct dating to 2015. In April 2019, he was convicted of operating while suspended causing death for a separate crash that happened in October 2018. FOX6 reported that he served 10 months in jail and later received three years of probation in that case. He was convicted again in 2023 of operating while suspended for an offense from the previous year. The complaint said his driving status was still suspended on April 30, 2024.
That morning, Gloria Hymes, then 27, left the apartment she shared with Crayton and walked across North Teutonia Avenue with her 4-year-old daughter to get pizza. Prosecutors said a black Chevrolet Impala driven by Crayton struck them in the 6900 block of North Teutonia at about 11:25 a.m. Surveillance video described in the complaint showed the mother and daughter crossing the roadway before the car hit them. Zekani died at the scene after a police officer tried to resuscitate her. Hymes was taken to Froedtert Hospital with a broken right tibia, fibula and femur, as well as other injuries.
What happened immediately afterward became the basis for the hit-and-run charges. The complaint said the Impala traveled a short distance and stopped in a parking lot. Crayton and a woman later identified as his sister got out and ran back toward the victims. After roughly a minute, the man identified as the driver ran back to the car and drove away. His sister stayed at the scene and later went in the ambulance with Hymes. Prosecutors said Crayton did not remain at the scene to provide identifying information and reasonable assistance as required under Wisconsin law. Hymes became one of the key identifying witnesses from her hospital bed. Investigators showed her still images from surveillance video, and she identified the driver as Donald Crayton, the man she was dating and living with. She also identified the Impala as his vehicle. His sister, Destiny Crayton, later told investigators that Donald Crayton had been driving fast, that she saw Hymes and Zekani crossing the street and that he swerved in an effort to avoid them before the collision, according to the complaint. That statement is important because police separately investigated whether the crash could have been intentional, but the final conviction was for second-degree reckless homicide rather than an intentional-homicide offense.
Investigators built the vehicle evidence from debris, camera images and the recovered Impala. A crash reconstruction officer found pieces at the scene with part numbers consistent with a Chevrolet Impala. Another camera had captured a black Impala with a plate registered to Crayton before the crash. Later that day, police found a damaged 2019 Impala abandoned on railroad tracks near West Calumet Road. The complaint said a piece recovered from the collision scene appeared to match the damaged front area of the car. Investigators also found paperwork bearing Crayton’s name inside, and latent fingerprints lifted from the outside of the driver-side window frame were identified as his.
The case did not end with the discovery of the car. Police later saw Crayton in a Hyundai Tucson driven by Adriana Merkel. When officers attempted a traffic stop, prosecutors said Merkel fled. The resulting pursuit covered 5.1 miles and reached speeds of up to 90 mph on city streets before the Tucson crashed in Wauwatosa. Merkel was arrested, while Crayton ran from the vehicle and was captured after a foot chase. Merkel told investigators that Crayton had been upset, had said he could not live with what was on his conscience and had asked her to drive him around so he could get clothes because he needed to leave.
Merkel, who also described herself as Crayton’s girlfriend, later pleaded guilty to fleeing an officer. A reckless-endangerment charge against her was dismissed in a plea deal, and Crivello sentenced her to three years of probation in July 2026. Crayton’s case followed a different path. He was initially charged with a broader set of offenses that included knowingly operating while suspended causing death, knowingly operating while suspended causing great bodily harm, obstructing an officer and soliciting someone to flee police. By the time of sentencing, he had pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide, hit-and-run involving death and hit-and-run involving great bodily harm. Law&Crime reported that the other charges were dismissed but read in at sentencing. The plea narrowed the legal questions before the court, but the sentencing hearing widened the focus back to Crayton’s history. Crivello had before her not only the circumstances of the April 2024 collision but also the prior fatal-driving conviction and the record showing that Crayton continued to operate vehicles despite never having obtained a valid license. Her skepticism about remorse linked those earlier events to the punishment imposed in the new case. The judge ordered 20 years in prison, followed by 15 years of extended supervision, meaning Crayton will remain under correctional control long after the prison portion of the sentence ends.
The human cost of that history was visible outside the courtroom. In May 2024, relatives and community members gathered for a vigil for Zekani while Hymes was still recovering in the hospital. Family members remembered the girl as affectionate and energetic. Her published obituary said she enjoyed dolls, drawing, painting and spending time with relatives and friends. Those descriptions are far removed from the driving abstracts and court entries that came to dominate the sentencing record, but they explain why the case carried stakes beyond the question of how many years Crayton would serve. The sentence also separates proven conduct from questions raised during the investigation. Authorities examined the collision from several angles, including the relationship between Crayton and Hymes, the surveillance footage and the possibility that the strike was deliberate. The materials reviewed here do not establish an intentional collision. Crayton’s guilty plea was to reckless homicide and hit-and-run offenses, and his sister’s account to investigators said he tried to swerve away from Hymes and Zekani. The court’s final judgment therefore rests on the offenses to which he pleaded guilty, not on an unproven theory of intent.
Crayton’s sentence is now the principal legal resolution of the fatal crash. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and is set to face 15 years of extended supervision afterward. The court’s no-driving order remains part of the sentence reported by FOX6 and Law&Crime. No additional sentencing hearing for Crayton was identified in the sources reviewed for this report. The case leaves a documented record of repeated suspended driving, two fatal incidents years apart and a judge who concluded that the earlier punishment had not produced the change she expected.
Author note: Last updated Sept. 8, 2026.