Surveillance video, vehicle debris, fingerprints and a later police chase helped build the case against Donald Crayton.
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — A damaged black Chevrolet Impala, surveillance footage, vehicle debris and fingerprints helped investigators build the case that ended with Donald Crayton receiving a 20-year prison sentence for the 2024 Milwaukee crash that killed 4-year-old Zekani Hymes-Wilson and seriously injured her mother. Crayton, 33, pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide, hit-and-run involving death and hit-and-run involving great bodily harm.
The case began on North Teutonia Avenue late in the morning of April 30, 2024. According to the criminal complaint, Gloria Hymes and her daughter had left their apartment and were crossing the street to get pizza. Security video described by prosecutors showed them moving from the frontage road to the median and then across the traffic lanes. A black four-door vehicle traveling north struck both of them. A responding Milwaukee police officer attempted to revive Zekani, but she died at the scene. Hymes was taken to Froedtert Hospital with multiple fractures in her right leg and other injuries.
For investigators, the first major task was reconstructing the vehicle’s path. A crash reconstruction officer reported a debris field stretching north from the collision site. Among the pieces were parts carrying numbers that investigators linked to Chevrolet Impalas made during the relevant model years. The complaint said video from nearby cameras also showed a black sedan with dark-tinted windows. One camera had captured a black Chevrolet Impala before the crash with a license plate that records showed was registered to Crayton. The cameras recorded more than the collision. Prosecutors said the Impala continued a short distance and stopped in a parking lot. A man got out from the driver’s side and a woman from the passenger side. Both ran back toward Hymes and Zekani. After about a minute, the man returned to the car and drove away, while the woman stayed. Investigators later identified the passenger as Crayton’s sister, Destiny Crayton. She remained with Hymes and traveled in the ambulance to the hospital, according to the complaint.
At the hospital, Hymes supplied another critical link. Police showed her still images from the security recordings, and she identified the driver as “Don,” the man she was dating and living with. She later identified him as Donald Crayton and said the car in the images was his. Destiny Crayton later told investigators that her brother had been driving and was moving fast before the collision. She said she saw Hymes and Zekani crossing and that Donald Crayton swerved in an effort to avoid them before she heard the impact. By then, officers were looking for the Impala.
Later on April 30, a motorist alerted police to a vehicle obstructing railroad tracks near West Calumet Road. Officers found a black 2019 Chevrolet Impala bearing the same plate investigators had associated with Crayton. It had heavy front-passenger-side damage. A piece recovered from the crash scene appeared to match the damaged bumper area, the complaint said. Police had the vehicle towed and processed for evidence.
The search of the Impala strengthened the identification. Investigators reported finding paperwork carrying Crayton’s name, including vehicle registration and other documents. A forensic investigator also lifted two latent fingerprints from the exterior driver-side front door window frame. An examiner identified them as Crayton’s prints. The evidence placed his registered car, carrying damage consistent with the collision, in police custody while officers continued trying to find him. That search led to a second vehicle and another high-speed episode hours after the fatal collision.
Undercover officers spotted Crayton riding in the front passenger seat of a Hyundai Tucson driven by Adriana Merkel. When marked squads attempted to stop the Tucson, prosecutors said Merkel accelerated away. The complaint describes a 5.1-mile pursuit through Milwaukee and Wauwatosa that reached speeds of up to 90 mph on city streets. The chase ended when Merkel crashed in a parking lot near North Avenue. She stayed in the driver’s seat and was arrested. Crayton ran from the vehicle and was caught after officers chased him on foot.
Merkel’s statements gave investigators a picture of Crayton’s conduct between the crash and his arrest. She described herself as his girlfriend and said he had called her upset. According to the complaint, she said Crayton told her he could not live with what was on his conscience and wanted her to drive him around so he could collect clothes because he needed to leave. She also said he told her police had found his car. Merkel initially said Crayton did not tell her to flee officers, but later said he urged her to keep going once the pursuit began. Crayton was not able to complete a normal interview with detectives the next day, according to the complaint. An investigator said Crayton was crying uncontrollably, said he felt terrible and asked to go to a psychiatric ward. The complaint described him repeatedly expressing distress and apologizing to “Kani,” which investigators understood as a reference to Zekani. Those statements were included in the probable-cause narrative, but the prosecution’s case did not rest on them alone; it also included the surveillance footage, physical vehicle evidence, identifications and the recovered Impala.
The charging decision reflected both the death and the decision to leave the scene. Crayton initially faced counts of hit-and-run resulting in death, hit-and-run causing great bodily harm, operating while suspended causing death, operating while suspended causing great bodily harm, obstructing an officer and soliciting someone to flee police. A second-degree reckless homicide count was later part of the case. He ultimately pleaded guilty to that homicide count and the two hit-and-run offenses. The remaining charges were dismissed, and Law&Crime reported they were read in for sentencing. The case also carried a significant piece of prior history. Court and transportation records cited in the complaint said Crayton had never been issued a driver’s license and was suspended at the time of the 2024 crash. The complaint listed suspended-driving convictions tied to earlier incidents and a 2019 felony conviction for operating while suspended causing death in a separate 2018 crash. FOX6 reported he served 10 months in jail and later received three years of probation for that earlier fatal case. That record became central when Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Laura Crivello considered punishment in 2026.
At sentencing, Crivello imposed 20 years in prison and 15 years of extended supervision. Law&Crime reported that when Crayton expressed remorse, the judge pointed to similar remarks from the earlier fatal-driving case and questioned whether his behavior had changed afterward. She also ordered him never to drive again. The sentence resolved the main prosecution more than two years after investigators began with a roadway debris field, video from neighborhood cameras and a driver who had left before police arrived. Merkel’s connected case was resolved separately. She pleaded guilty to fleeing an officer, while a reckless-endangerment charge was dismissed in a plea agreement. Crivello sentenced her to three years of probation in July 2026. With both cases through sentencing, the public record now documents the full path from the Teutonia Avenue collision to the abandoned Impala, the Wauwatosa pursuit, the guilty pleas and the court’s final punishment for Crayton.
One investigative question remained separate from the offenses of conviction. FOX6 reported that police used a search warrant to examine whether the collision might have been intentional because Crayton and Hymes were in a relationship. The verified materials reviewed for this report do not establish that theory. Crayton was not convicted of an intentional-homicide charge, and Destiny Crayton’s statement in the complaint said her brother swerved in an effort to avoid the pedestrians. The final court outcome therefore centers on reckless homicide, leaving the scene and the broader driving history rather than a finding that the collision was deliberately caused.
Author note: Last updated Sept. 8, 2026.