EVERETT — David Craft is the last known person to have seen Daniel Lytton alive. Text messages show Craft asked the 71-year-old landlord to come fix a toilet at his Grand Avenue rental unit on the morning of Nov. 5, 2025.

Lytton’s body was found about 24 hours later, wrapped in layers of linens, tape and wires in a downtown Everett alley off Rucker Avenue. A motive for why anyone would kill the well-regarded retiree has never been made clear.

Everett police investigators identified Craft as the suspect and arrested him less than a week after the murder.

On Tuesday afternoon, following more than two weeks of testimony in Snohomish County Superior Court, a jury convicted the 41-year-old of three felony charges, including premeditated first-degree murder with a deadly weapon.

“The law doesn’t require the state to prove motive beyond a reasonable doubt,” deputy prosecuting attorney Tyler Scott told the jury during closing arguments on Friday. “Why did David Craft kill Daniel Lytton? We may never know, but we certainly know why David Craft would take the actions he did after brutally murdering Daniel Lytton.”

Jurors were warned the details of Lytton’s death would be graphic. The man was strangled, stabbed, bound and beaten, detectives said.

Investigators allege after killing Lytton, Craft concealed the man’s body using a collection of household items including bedsheets, blankets, towels and curtains before using a handcart to move the man’s body in the middle of the night to where it was found the following day.

Evidence included late-night security video of an indistinct man with similar features and clothing to Craft pushing something that resembles the wrapped body through alleyways between Craft’s home and where Lytton’s body was later discovered, according to testimony from the prosecution.

From the outset of the trial, the defense worked to sow doubt, saying Craft made an easy target for detectives looking to close a case.

“David had nothing to gain and everything to lose by Daniel’s murder,” Rachel Forde, a public defender with the Snohomish County Public Defender’s Association, said during opening arguments on Aug. 7.

Craft borrowed petty cash from Lytton and had no issues with his landlord, the defense said. His attorneys pointed to a flawed investigation that became focused on one man while avoiding other leads.

“Every piece of evidence that has been presented against Mr. Craft has an innocent explanation, and that is because David is innocent,” public defender Ali Burton said during closing arguments. “He did not commit this horrible crime, but someone else did.”

The attorneys alleged police didn’t investigate a man seen using Lytton’s credit cards or test DNA from the victim’s fingernails. The public defenders said the man seen in surveillance camera footage moving the suspected body could be any tall, slender man, and detectives failed to investigate several vacant buildings nearby as possible crime scenes.

Prosecutors said Craft told a series of mounting lies in the days after the crime while also making multiple alleged confessions.

When questioned about Lytton’s disappearance, Craft allegedly told police he saw the man get in a distinct van on Grand Avenue and drive away. Everett police Detective Todd Israel testified no van matching Craft’s description was seen during hours of surveillance video.

Craft also told conflicting stories about where he went in the days after Lytton’s murder. Prosecutors said he went to a family property in Lake Stevens where multiple apparent suicide notes were later found. He allegedly wrote his mistakes had added up, saying he was screwed, according to letters shown in court.

“This wasn’t a white lie, this was a lie,” Scott said. “And why do people lie? To protect their own interests. That’s exactly what David Craft was doing.”

In text messages shown during the trial, Craft allegedly told his mother police would be looking for him a day after their landlord’s body was found.

“What’s interesting about this text message is that Mr. Craft has identified himself as a suspect before anyone else has,” Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kristina Beske-Keplinger said during closing arguments. “He’s identified himself as a suspect before law enforcement or any other individuals have.”

Prosecutors said a search of the Craft’s home produced additional evidence, including receipts from Lytton’s wallet in a trash can, as well as towels and sheets that matched linens found with the man’s body.

The Washington State Patrol crime lab linked traces of blood found inside Craft’s apartment to Lytton and found Craft’s DNA on items discovered with the man’s body, prosecutors alleged.

“When you look at all this evidence, the constellation of evidence together, you find that it corroborates each other, that it creates a timeline of movement, of action, of David Craft that supports he is the killer, he is the murderer,” Scott said during closing arguments. “When you look at the forensic evidence, the medical evidence about what happened to Daniel Lytton’s body, it is clear that this was a premeditated murder.”

The defense rested without presenting a case and Craft did not take the stand to testify during the trial.

Instead, during two weeks of cross-examination, they refuted each piece of evidence, arguing the laundry could’ve been stolen from the unit’s open laundry room and both the receipts as well as the DNA can be easily explained by Lytton being in the apartment to fix the toilet.

Other evidence, including a murder weapon, Lytton’s wallet or the man seen using his credit cards were never found, the defense said.

“The police have left us with so many unanswered questions, because the investigation was not a genuine effort to find the killer,” Burton said. “It was a team of five men collecting evidence to support what they already believed.”

The jury deliberated for nearly two full days before delivering its verdict on Tuesday afternoon. Craft was found guilty on all charges, including premediated first-degree murder with a deadly weapon, second-degree murder in the course of a felony with a deadly weapon and second-degree murder intent to cause death.

Craft is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 29.

Ian Davis-Leonard: 425-339-3097; ian.davis-leonard@heraldnet.com