Four charged with murder in the death of D’Vontaye Mitchell at Milwaukee hotel

Criminal murder charges have been filed against four people in connection with the death of D’Vontaye Mitchell, who died in June after being restrained by security guards outside a Milwaukee hotel, the prosecutor’s office said Tuesday.

Mitchell, 43, died from suffocation and the effects of multiple drugs in the June 30 incident, and his manner of death was ruled a homicide, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner said in a report released last week.

A charge of felony murder has been filed each against Todd Alan Erickson; Devin W. Johnson-Carson; Brandon LaDaniel Turner; and Herbert T. Williamson, according to court documents.

The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office said that arrest warrants have been issued for all four.

The death of Mitchell, who was Black, has been compared by civil rights attorney Ben Crump to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 after being restrained by a police officer who was later convicted and sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison.

The charge of felony murder carries up to 15 years and nine months in prison if convicted, the charging documents say.

Online court records did not show attorneys for Erickson, Johnson-Carson, Turner or Williamson. Phone numbers for them could not immediately be found Tuesday.

On June 30, four security guards pinned Mitchell face down on the ground outside the downtown Hyatt Regency hotel.

Police have said that a person had entered the business, “caused a disturbance” and “fought with security guards as they were escorting” him out. Security detained him until police arrived.