Former Milwaukee hotel workers accused of killing a man by pinning him down plead not guilty

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Four former Milwaukee hotel workers accused of killing a man by pinning him down pleaded not guilty Thursday to murder charges.

The former Hyatt Hotel employees — security guards Todd Erickson and Brandon Turner, bellhop Herbert Williamson and front desk worker Devin Johnson-Carson — were each charged with one count of being a party to felony murder earlier this month in connection with D’Vontaye Mitchell’s death.

Online court records indicate all four entered not guilty pleas during arraignment proceedings Thursday morning in Milwaukee.

Asked for comment on the his client’s plea, Johnson-Carson’s attorney, Craig Johnson, referred a reporter to a statement he gave following the former workers’ preliminary hearings Monday. Johnson said then that Johnson-Carson was trying to protect hotel guests from Mitchell and that he plans to contest any connection between Mitchell’s death and Johnson-Carson’s actions.

Attorneys for Erickson and Turner did not immediately respond to email and voicemail messages seeking comment on the pleas. No contact information could be found for Williamson’s attorney, Theodore O’Reilly.

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Mitchell died on June 30. According to court documents, surveillance and bystander video shows Mitchell running into the Hyatt’s lobby and entering the women’s bathroom. Two women later told investigators that Mitchell tried to lock them in the bathroom.

Turner and a hotel guest scuffed with Mitchell and eventually dragged him out of the lobby onto a hotel driveway. Erickson, Williamson and Johnson-Carson joined Turner in pinning Mitchell down for eight to nine minutes, according to court documents. By the time emergency responders arrived Mitchell had stopped moving.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Mitchell was morbidly obese and suffered from heart disease. He also had cocaine and methamphetamine in his system. The office determined he suffocated and ruled the manner of death as homicide.

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 knelt on his neck for about nine minutes. Mitchell also was Black. Court records identify Erickson as white and Turner, Williamson and Johnson-Carson as Black.

The four workers told investigators Mitchell was strong and tried to bite Erickson but they didn’t mean to intentionally harm him.

Aimbridge Hospitality, the company that manages the hotel, fired the four workers in July.