Hayden Craig

Hayden Brent Craig, a 22-year-old White man from Shreveport, Louisiana, was remembered by those who knew him as a friend to all. His life was cut tragically short in the fall of 2016, a loss that prompted a swift investigation and eventually led to a conviction.

On the morning of Monday, October 10, 2016, a person passing by a vacant lot in the Cedar Grove neighborhood of Shreveport made a devastating discovery. Just after 11 a.m., Shreveport Police patrol officers were called to the 300 block of West 77th Street, where they found a man lying on the ground unresponsive. The man was soon identified as Hayden Craig, a resident of the 200 block of Larkin Street. He was pronounced deceased at the scene, having suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his body, including his midsection. His death was the 35th homicide recorded in Shreveport that year.

The Shreveport Police Department’s Violent Crimes detectives immediately began an intensive investigation. Within just two days, their work yielded a primary suspect. Investigators gathered enough information to identify 26-year-old Sirmetric Santana Davidson, also of Shreveport, as the person responsible for Hayden's death. Authorities secured a warrant for Davidson's arrest, charging him with one count of second-degree murder.

At the time the warrant was issued, police released a description of Davidson to the public, hoping for assistance in locating him. He was described as being approximately five feet three inches tall, weighing around 150 pounds, and having a tattoo on his forehead and short dreadlocks. Crime Stoppers offered a $1,000 reward for any information that would lead to his capture, urging the community to come forward.

The manhunt for Davidson concluded, and in December 2016, a grand jury formally indicted him for the second-degree murder of Hayden Craig. Under Louisiana law, a conviction on this charge carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case moved through the Caddo Parish court system over the next year and a half.

In August 2018, nearly two years after Hayden's death, the case came to a legal conclusion. Sirmetric Santana Davidson, then 28, reached a plea agreement with the Caddo Parish District Attorney's Office. In exchange for avoiding a trial and the mandatory life sentence he faced if convicted of second-degree murder, Davidson pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. Following his guilty plea, a judge sentenced him to 30 years at hard labor in state prison. With the sentencing of Davidson, the criminal justice proceedings in the killing of Hayden Craig were officially closed.