All 4 Milwaukee hotel workers charged with murder in Black man’s death now in custody

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The last of four hotel workers charged in connection with D’Vontaye Mitchell’s death was taken into custody Friday, more than five weeks after he and the others allegedly piled onto the Black man while trying to remove him from a Milwaukee hotel.

Herbert Williamson was taken into custody three days after he and his three co-defendants were charged with being a party to felony murder in Mitchell’s June 30 death at a Hyatt Regency hotel, according to Milwaukee County jail records.

Williamson, a bellhop at the hotel, and the three others were charged after prosecutors scoured video showing them piling on top Mitchell as they tried to remove him from the hotel’s lobby before he died.

Williamson, 52, was charged along with hotel security guard Todd Erickson, 60; front desk worker Devin Johnson-Carson, 23; and security guard Brandon Turner, 35. If convicted, each would face up to 15 years and nine months in prison.

Aimbridge Hospitality, the company that manages the hotel, said previously that it fired several employees who were involved in Mitchell’s death.

Williamson, Turner and Johnson-Carson are Black, while Erickson is white, according to online court records.

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Mitchell’s family’s attorneys have likened his death to the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died in 2020 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck for about nine minutes.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is part of a team of lawyers representing Mitchell’s family, has said video recorded by a bystander and circulating on social media shows security guards with their knees on Mitchell’s back and neck.

According to a criminal complaint, Mitchell ran into the hotel on June 30 and entered a women’s bathroom. An employee dragged him outside and, with the three others, held him down on his stomach for eight or nine minutes while Mitchell gasped for breath.

The county medical examiner determined that Mitchell died of “restraint asphyxia” and noted that he might have lived had the employees allowed him to turn onto his side, according to the criminal complaint.

An autopsy showed that Mitchell had obesity, and had ingested cocaine and methamphetamine, the complaint states.

Erickson was ordered held on a $50,000 cash bond and Turner on a $30,000 cash bond after both made initial court appearances this week, records show. They have preliminary hearings scheduled for Aug. 19. Johnson-Carson had an initial court hearing scheduled for Friday. Records didn’t list the date of Williamson’s initial hearing.

All four remained in custody as of Friday morning, according to jail records.

Attorneys for Erickson and Turner didn’t immediately respond to Friday messages seeking comment. Court records didn’t list attorneys for Williamson or Johnson-Carson.