4 former Milwaukee hotel workers get probation and time served in dogpile death

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A judge sentenced four former Milwaukee hotel workers accused of killing a man in a suffocating dogpile to a mix of probation and time served Wednesday, sparing them any more time behind bars.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Swanson handed down the sentences in D’Vontaye Mitchell’s June 2024 death during a series of hearings that lasted all day. The orders bring an end to a case that drew comparisons to the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.

The judge ordered former Hyatt security guard Todd Erickson to serve two years in prison but stayed the sentence and placed him probation for two years. Another former security guard, Brandon Turner, got a year in prison but Swanson stayed that sentence, too, and placed him on probation for a year.

Former bellhop Herbert Williamson was sentenced to 10 days in jail with credit for 10 days already served. Former front desk worker Devin Johnson-Carson was ordered to serve four days in jail with credit for four days already served.

Attorneys for Erickson, Turner and Williamson didn’t immediately return messages. Johnson-Carson’s attorney, Craig Robert Johnson, said in an email to The Associated Press that the sentence was appropriate given that Johnson-Carson was trying to protect hotel guests and staff and never intended to seriously injure Mitchell.

According to investigators, Mitchell ran into the Hyatt’s lobby and went into the women’s bathroom. Two women later told detectives that Mitchell tried to lock them in the bathroom.

Turner pulled Mitchell out of the bathroom and together with a guest dragged him out of the lobby onto a hotel driveway. Turner, Erickson, Williamson and Johnson-Carson struggled with Mitchell before taking him to the ground and piling on top of him.

Hotel surveillance video shows Johnson-Carson holding Mitchell’s legs while Erickson, Turner and Williamson held down his upper body. They kept him pinned for eight to nine minutes. By the time emergency responders arrived, Mitchell had stopped breathing.

A medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, finding that Mitchell’s immediate cause of death was suffocation and toxic effects of cocaine and methamphetamine.

Prosecutors initially charged all four employees with being a party to felony murder. Turner and Erickson both pleaded guilty to that count. Williamson and Johnson-Carson pleaded guilty to a reduced count of misdemeanor battery.

Attorneys for Mitchell’s family likened his death to the murder of Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death sparked a national reckoning on racial relations.

Mitchell was Black. Court records identify Erickson as white and Turner, Williamson and Johnson-Carson as Black.

The workers told investigators that Mitchell was strong and tried to bite Erickson, but they didn’t mean to hurt him. Ambridge Hospitality, the company that manages the Hyatt, fired all four of them.

Mitchell’s family reached a confidential settlement with Hyatt.