D’Vontaye Mitchell death: 4 former Milwaukee hotel workers are charged with felony murder

By CNN

Published August 6, 2024 8:10 PM

WDJT, WTMJ, CNN

By Sara Smart and Steve Almasy, CNN

(CNN) — Four former hotel workers were charged Tuesday with felony murder in connection with the June death of a Black man who authorities say was pinned to the ground outside a downtown Milwaukee hotel in an encounter partially captured on video, court documents show.

The charges relate to the June 30 death of 43-year-old D’Vontaye Mitchell, who was held down for about eight to nine minutes outside the Hyatt Regency, according to the charging documents. Arrest warrants have been issued for the four charged in the case, the office of Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said Tuesday.

Security manager Todd Alan Erickson, front desk agent Devin W. Johnson-Carson, security guard Brandon LaDaniel Turner and bellman Herbert T. Williamson are the defendants, court documents show.

Erickson turned himself in Wednesday, according to court records. CNN has reached out to his attorney for comment.

CNN has also sought comment from the other workers and reached out to prosecutors to see whether they have attorneys.

After Hyatt called for the employees involved in the incident with Mitchell to be terminated and criminally charged, Aimbridge Hospitality, which operates the hotel, announced it had fired several associates. Aimbridge terminated the four people charged in Mitchell’s death, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Williamson was fired July 10 due to “violation of standards of conduct and code of conduct,” a copy of the letter of termination he shared with CNN shows.

The hotel workers’ encounter with Mitchell unfolded as the use of force –particularly against people of color – by police and others in authority roles remains under scrutiny nearly four years after protests flared nationwide following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

The Milwaukee hotel employees escorted Mitchell out of the hotel June 30 and held him on concrete facedown after he entered the building in a frantic state, hid behind objects in the lobby, tried to lock himself inside a women’s restroom and became combative with security, a medical examiner’s investigation report released Friday said. Mitchell died from “restraint asphyxia and toxic effects of cocaine and methamphetamine,” and the manner of death is homicide, according to an autopsy report released Friday by the Milwaukee County medical examiner’s office.

While the four defendants tackled Mitchell to the ground outside the hotel, one of them struck Mitchell multiple times; another hit him once; and another kicked him in the torso, the charging documents say.

The four defendants then used “various means of force” to hold Mitchell in place while he was on the ground, “including pushing down on (Mitchell’s) back, shoulders and arms,” and including one defendant appearing to strike Mitchell with a collapsable baton, court documents say.

“These charges are based on an extensive review of the evidence collected by the Milwaukee Police Department, the autopsy conducted and the report produced by the Milwaukee County medical examiner’s office, and information received from members of the community,” the DA’s office said in a statement accompanying the release of criminal complaints.

Williamson, the bellman who was charged, was asked by his superior to help hold down Mitchell and was “terrified I was going to lose my job if I didn’t get involved,” he told CNN on Wednesday. He plans to turn himself in to police as soon as he hires a lawyer, he said.

“All I know is that I’m being wrongfully charged,” Williamson said. “The only thing I want to express to the family (of D’Vontaye Mitchell) is I deeply apologize. I didn’t know he was going to lose his life. I really hate that I got involved in the situation.”

“You have to remember that I was told to be involved. And if you clearly watch the video, I tried to get off D’Vontaye Mitchell three times: The first two I was told by security to get back on him, and the third time I get off him, he was still responsive. He was still alive when I got up off of him,” he said, adding he wants to be “acquitted of all charges.”

Mitchell’s death had nothing to do with substance use, weight or high blood pressure, an attorney for his family, William Sulton, said Tuesday. “What caused his death was the fact that four people beat him to death on the sidewalk and jumped on top of him,” he said. “That is why he’s dead.”

Mitchell’s widow, DeAsia Harmon, was grateful for the charges – but not satisfied – she said: “I just want everyone to be held accountable for what they did to him.”

Mitchell’s mother has said she believes he was suffering from a mental health episode, and a family statement blamed excessive force for his death.

If convicted, the defendants could be sentenced to up to 15 years and nine months in prison.

How the complaint details the encounter

Mitchell, who is referred to in the criminal complaint as “DM,” is first seen on surveillance video running through the hotel’s lobby and into the gift shop in what appears to be a frantic manner, the court documents say. He then runs into a women’s bathroom, and Turner pulls him out, the complaint says.

After Turner escorts Mitchell into the lobby, “a struggle occurs between the two,” with Mitchell holding onto Turner’s waistband and Turner punching Mitchell, the complaint says.

Two people who were not charged Tuesday are mentioned in the complaint – a guest of the hotel who the detective says assists one of the defendants in trying to get Mitchell outside, and another hotel worker who the detective writes strikes Mitchell twice in the legs with a broom handle as he is taken outside.

Once Mitchell is outside, Turner punches Mitchell six times, including several blows while he is on his knees, the court document says, citing the video. Mitchell gets up and tries to reenter the hotel, and he is pushed back out, where Turner, Johnson-Carson and Williamson surround him. Erickson arrives, and the four men tackle Mitchell in the driveway, the complaint says. Turner punches Mitchell three times, Johnson-Carson does once, and Erickson kicks him in the torso, according to the complaint.

The men then turn Mitchell, who had been lying on his side, onto his stomach. While Johnson-Carson holds Mitchell’s legs, the other three men “put varying amounts of force on DM’s back, shoulders and arms during the period of time that they hold him down,” the complaint says. “At some points they do not appear to be applying much force and appear to simply be restraining DM, while at others they are using force to keep DM face first on the ground.”

Mitchell’s behavior throughout the video is erratic and he physically resists hotel employees, the detective who signed the complaint notes.

“But DM does not instigate any violence or display any obviously aggressive or threatening behavior while on the hotel premises,” the detective wrote.

During the eight to nine minutes he was being held down, Mitchell tried to get free and the defendants used “various means of force” – such as pushing down on his back – to keep him down. At one point Erickson appears to hit Mitchell with a collapsible baton, the complaint says.

“Towards the end of” the period he was restrained, “DM has stopped showing movement or resistance or other signs of life,” the complaint says.

A video posted to social media includes audio in which Mitchell can be heard breathing and moaning loudly, according to the complaint.

“DM’s tone and sounds are consistent with an individual out of breath,” the complaint says.

According to the complaint, the assistant medical examiner who performed the autopsy said that when a person cannot breathe in a face-first position, the person “would roll over onto their side.” But Mitchell had been on his side and was forcibly moved onto his stomach, the complaint says.

“Thus, because the victim was unwillingly placed in that position by the defendants and held in that position by the defendants, and suffered ‘restraint asphyxia’ or ‘positional asphyxia’ as a result, (the assistant medical examiner) has ruled that the cause of death was ‘restraint asphyxia’ and that the manner of death was homicide,” the court document says.

‘I’m sorry,’ Mitchell says, according to video

Part of that video posted to social media shows security guards and others pinning Mitchell to the ground. Mitchell grunts and pleads, repeatedly saying, “Please,” and “I’m sorry,” shows the video, which has been public for weeks.

One of the people, who appears to be White, can be heard saying, “Stay down,” and “Stop fighting,” as the others, who appear to be people of color, hold Mitchell down, the video shows. The same guard is heard calling out to witnesses, “This is what happens when you go into the ladies room.”

Mitchell family attorney Sulton at a Friday news conference played several videos from the encounter, including security camera footage that revealed a view from inside the Hyatt as employees were removing Mitchell from the building.

The footage shows Mitchell being dragged across the floor inside the lobby and, from another angle outside, employees holding him down on the ground. The video shows one security guard punching Mitchell, who had been slammed to the ground, in the head, Sulton said last week.

It’s unclear how long it took police officers to arrive on the scene and what Mitchell was doing at the hotel. When officers arrived, Mitchell was unresponsive and pronounced dead despite lifesaving measures, Milwaukee police have said without mentioning Mitchell by name.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Rebekah Riess, Emma Tucker, Ray Sanchez and Alisha Ebrahimji contributed to this report.

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