An Everett man accused of murdering his landlord appeared before a Snohomish County District Court judge on Wednesday and is being held in jail on $2 million bail.
Residents living on Grand Avenue in Everett have expressed shock that a neighbour, David Craft, was identified as a suspect in the murder of their landlord, Daniel Lytton.
“It’s a terrible situation regardless of what the truth of the matter is,” neighbour James Burr stated.
Burr and others observed the first court appearance for suspect David Craft, one of Lytton’s tenants living several blocks from where Lytton’s body was discovered.
Russ Harris worked for Lytton for nearly a decade, most recently remodelling a rental property, and believes he was amongst the last people to see Lytton alive.
“He was a good person to the community and it’s a real shock to all his tenants,” Harris explained. “He came over early Wednesday morning around 10 to make sure all the workers asked if we needed anything, any supplies for a remodel we’re doing here. And, he said he had to go over and work on a tenant’s toilet for maintenance and that was the last we heard of him.”
The police report indicates Craft contacted Lytton about fixing a toilet issue before the 71-year-old landlord disappeared on 5 November. Police reported the body was found on 6 November by passersby in an alley, wrapped in plastic, cloth, rugs, curtains and other material.
In court on Wednesday, the prosecuting attorney described a brutal attack.
“It appears this was a murder with no apparent motive or provocation. It’s alleged the defendant stabbed his landlord multiple times in the neck, broke his ribs, broke his nose and badly beat him, and left the alleged victim in a snowboard bag in an alley on video,” the attorney stated.
An officer claims he had reason to believe the items wrapping Lytton’s body originated from Craft’s home after the 40-year-old’s mother reported curtains and a rug were now missing, according to the police report.
Police report they arrested Craft following multiple interviews, crime scene analysis, and other evidence.
“He was a tenant here. He kept to himself mainly. He didn’t have a job. His mum works,” Harris added.
Craft maintains his innocence.
“Whilst certainly the allegations are violent, they are nothing more than allegations,” Craft’s defence attorney told the judge.
Because of the severity of the allegations and Craft’s criminal history, including burglary and money laundering charges, the judge agreed to the state’s request to hold him behind bars on $2 million bail.
“I am going to find that if you were released on your own recognizance, you would commit a future violent act and seek to intimidate other witnesses,” the judge explained. “I do find the facts are sufficient to support probable cause to the charge.”
The police report indicates Craft told police he saw Lytton enter a van, but police determined this was not true, adding they do not believe there are other suspects in this case.
The case reveals the vulnerability landlords face when entering tenants’ homes for maintenance work, a routine aspect of property management that typically occurs without incident but occasionally exposes property owners to violence. Lytton’s decision to respond to Craft’s maintenance request about a toilet issue, a mundane landlord responsibility, led him into a situation that cost him his life.
The maintenance call pretext raises questions about whether Craft planned the attack or whether the violence erupted spontaneously during the visit. The prosecutor’s statement that the murder appeared to have “no apparent motive or provocation” suggests investigators have not identified clear reasons why Craft would kill his landlord, though landlord-tenant disputes over rent, property conditions, or eviction proceedings sometimes underlie such violence.
The extensive wrapping of Lytton’s body in plastic, cloth, rugs, curtains and other materials, then placing it in a snowboard bag, demonstrates efforts to conceal the corpse and prevent identification. These actions indicate planning and consciousness of guilt rather than panic following an impulsive act.
The discovery by passersby in an alley rather than in a more remote location suggests either Craft lacked transportation to move the body farther or hoped the urban setting would delay discovery long enough for him to establish distance from the crime. Placing a body in an alley where pedestrians regularly travel represents a high-risk disposal method compared to more isolated locations.
