Former Milwaukee hotel employees plead not guilty to murder charges

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Four former Milwaukee hotel employees accused of restraining a man from killing him pleaded not guilty to murder charges Thursday.

Former Hyatt hotel employees – security guards Todd Erickson and Brandon Turner, bellhop Herbert Williamson and front desk clerk Devin Johnson-Carson – were each charged with aiding and abetting murder earlier this month in connection with the death of D'Vontaye Mitchell.

Online court records show that all four pleaded not guilty during arraignments Thursday morning in Milwaukee.

When asked for comment on his client's confession, Johnson-Carson's attorney Craig Johnson referred a reporter to a statement he made after the former employees' preliminary hearings on Monday. Johnson said at the time that Johnson-Carson had tried to protect hotel guests from Mitchell and that he planned to deny any connection between Mitchell's death and Johnson-Carson's actions.

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

Mitchell died on June 30. According to court documents, surveillance cameras and bystander videos show Mitchell running into the Hyatt lobby and entering the women's restroom. Two women later told investigators that Mitchell tried to lock them in the restroom.

Turner and a hotel guest wrestled with Mitchell and eventually dragged him out of the lobby and into the hotel driveway. According to court documents, Erickson, Williamson and Johnson-Carson, along with Turner, held Mitchell down for eight to nine minutes. By the time emergency responders arrived, Mitchell had stopped moving.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office found that Mitchell was morbidly obese and suffered from heart disease, and had cocaine and methamphetamine in his system. The office concluded that he died by asphyxiation and ruled the death a homicide.

Attorneys for Mitchell's family compared 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 was also black. Court records identify Erickson as white and Turner, Williamson and Johnson-Carson as black.

The four workers told investigators that Mitchell was strong and tried to bite Erickson, but they did not intentionally mean to harm him.

Aimbridge Hospitality, the company that operates the hotel, laid off the four employees in July.

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