Womanwho lived with mother’s corpse gets 30 years in prison
A woman who let her mother die in their Seguin home and stored her corpse in a roomwhile she and her teen daughter lived there for three more years was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Delissa Navonne Crayton, 49, entered a guilty plea as part of an agreement on Sept. 22 to two counts of injury to elderly with intent causing serious bodily injury, and one count of injury to a child with intent causing serious bodily injury or mental impairment.
Last week, Judge Jessica Crawford ordered 30-year sentences for each count to be served concurrently, according to court records. Crayton was given a credit of 441 days for time served while in jail.
On July 7, 2019, Seguin police discovered the remains of Crayton’s mother, Jacqueline Crayton, after they received a tip during a Child Protective Services investigation.
Investigators said Jacqueline Crayton died in 2016 after a nonlife-threatening fall in a bedroom at the home where she lived with her daughter and granddaughter.
Delissa Crayton didn’t call for assistance, leading investigators to believe that Jacqueline died a few days after she fell, police said.
Jacqueline Crayton was a former employee at Seguin High School who retired a few years before the incident occurred. She was 71 years old when she died.
Delissa Crayton’s daughter, who was younger than 15 when Jacqueline Crayton died, is in the care of relatives, police said. She is now 17 years old.
Investigators still do not know why Delissa Crayton let her mother die at their home.
Guadalupe County Attorney David Willborn said both he and his office were in disbelief when they were first informed about the discovery.
“Everything was as horrific as law enforcement suspected. It is one of the more, if not the most disturbing, cases I’ve ever seen,” Willborn said. “For someone to completely ignore their mother as she lay on the ground dying and let the body decompose for a number of years in a back bedroom, it’s the stuff of horror movies.”
What made the case that much more out of the ordinary, Willborn said, was that Delissa Crayton had a virtually nonexistent criminal history.
The only item on her record was a misdemeanor for writing a hot check in 2009.
“It’s not something you expect to see out of someone who hasn’t
spent time in the criminal justice system,” Willborn said. “None of it added up or made any sense.”
Willborn said Crayton’s conviction for endangering a child was for forcing her daughter to live in the home as her mother’s body decomposed and the mental impairment it caused to her daughter. She also did not allow her daughter to assist her mother.
No evidence was presented to suggest that Crayton had a motive for leaving her mother’s corpse in the home, such as collecting Social Security benefits, or any sign of insanity.
“For this type of thing to happen there has to be a disconnect somewhere,” Willborn said. “I can’t imagine any person of sound mind engaging in an act so heinous.”
Donna Coltharp, an assistant professor of law at St. Mary’s University, said the three years Jacqueline Crayton was left at the home created several unknowns.
At best, the facts are that a woman was mad at her mother, closed the door and said “you’re not going to die, just sit there,” Coltharp said.
At worst, Delissa Crayton did not want to care for her mother and shut the door forever, which Coltharp said are considered “99 year” facts.
“A 30-year sentence frankly does not reflect that terrible narrative that she just closed the door forever,” Coltharp said.
Given Delissa Crayton’s age, it’s close to a life sentence, Coltharp said.
Crayton was sentenced via remote hearings while in custody at the Guadalupe County Jail. Willborn said she expressed no emotion during the Zoom video conference calls.
“There was no remorse or sadness, nor any shock,” he recalled.