Boy Sentenced for Stabbing His Adoptive Mother

A Lexington County teenager has been sentenced to ten years in prison after admitting to stabbing his adoptive mother to death.

Sixteen-year-old Hugo Clayton pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on Monday. Debra Clayton was stabbed in her home in Red Bank in 2003. Investigators say the knife was found under the boy’s bed.

Hugo Clayton will be kept in a juvenile facility until he turns 17 in May and then will be transferred to an adult prison.

The boy was adopted from Guatemala.

Prosecutor Dayton Riddle says the boy killed his mother after being required to speak only English on the day of her death. Riddle says the boy had also been punished for — not — getting up to go to work with his father.

AP, Nov. 18, 2003

The youngest daughter of Keith and Debi Clayton celebrated her fifth birthday Monday, without her mother, or older brother. He’s at the Department of Juvenile Justice charged with stabbing their mother to death last week.

Keith Clayton says his faith has helped him forgive the fourteen year old, who they adopted from Guatemala last year.

While police are pushing for the boy to be tried as an adult, Clayton says he wants his son treated as a child. He says his son deserves to be punished, but doesn’t need to spend his life in prison.