The widow of D’Vontaye Mitchell said she is frustrated it took so long for felony murder charges to be brought against the hotel staff who restrained her husband outside a Milwaukee hotel in June until he died. DeAsia Harmon and her attorney said they also want the charges against the four men upgraded.
Harmon said it “shouldn’t have taken that long at all,” for charges in Mitchell’s death.
“I’m pissed about it,” she said.
Felony murder charges were filed Tuesday against Todd Alan Erickson, Devin W. Johnson-Carson, Brandon LaDaniel Turner and Herbert T. Williamson, according to court documents. If convicted, they face up to 15 years and nine months in prison, according to charging documents.
The four hotel employees pinned Mitchell face down on the ground outside the Hyatt Regency hotel on June 30, according to officials and court documents.
Mitchell, 43, died that day from suffocation and the effects of multiple drugs, and the death was ruled a homicide, the Milwaukee County medical examiner said in a report last week.
Harmon said that while she is “relieved” the men were charged, she doesn’t think it’s enough. Harmon and her attorney, William Sulton, say they believe the charges against the four should be upgraded from felony murder to reckless homicide, which can carry a prison sentence of up to 60 years, and that others who were there that day should also face charges.
“The simple fact of the matter is that Mr. Mitchell is not dead today because he had high blood pressure or he was overweight, or because he suffered from substance abuse disorder,” Sulton said. “He’s dead today because he was beaten to death and jumped on.”
Police have said a person entered the hotel, “caused a disturbance” and “fought with security guards as they were escorting” him out.
Police said in the complaint that during the struggle, Mitchell was tackled, punched and kicked. Turner is accused of striking Mitchell three times with a closed fist, Johnson-Carson is accused of striking him once with a fist, and Erickson is accused of kicking him in the torso.
A bystander recorded the encounter on video. It shows Mitchell being held on the ground for eight to nine minutes, police wrote in the complaint, and at various times he struggles to break free.
“Towards the end of that time period, DM has stopped showing movement or resistance or other signs of life,” police wrote, referring to Mitchell by his initials.
In a criminal complaint, police said that when officers arrived to the downtown Milwaukee hotel around 4:30 p.m., Mitchell was on the ground in a driveway and not breathing.
Two of the charged hotel employees, Erickson and Johnson-Carson, were in custody as of Thursday afternoon. According to court documents, Erickson worked as a security guard at the downtown Milwaukee hotel. Johnson-Carson was a front-desk clerk.
An attorney for Erickson did not respond to multiple requests for comment, including on Thursday. Johnson-Carson could not immediately be reached for comment, and an attorney for him was not listed. He told police and Sulton, according to the criminal complaint, that it was the decision of Erickson, the security supervisor, to turn Mitchell on his stomach and that Erickson did not respond to indications that Mitchell was in distress.
Turner and Williamson did not appear to be in custody as of Thursday afternoon, according to the Milwaukee County sheriff’s website.
Matt Last, an attorney for Turner, told NBC News that “we strongly believe in the legal system and intend on proving his innocence.”
Williamson, who was a bellhop at the hotel at the time, told NBC affiliate WTMJ earlier in the week that he was told by hotel management to hold Mitchell down.
He said he “became numb” when he was charged.
“I didn’t do anything. All I did was what I was told to do by my management.”
Williamson also said he did not strike Mitchell and “showed no act of violence whatsoever” toward him.
“I deeply, truly apologize to D’Vontaye Mitchell’s family. I didn’t know that this was going to happen this way,” he said.
Sulton disputed Williamson’s account, saying, “The video evidence shows that he was the first person to shove Mr. Mitchell’s head into the concrete. He absolutely is responsible for battering Mr. Mitchell completely unnecessarily and killing him.”
Aimsbridge Hospitality, which operates the hotel, said in a statement Wednesday that it has cooperated with the law enforcement investigation and will work with the district attorney. The men have all been fired.
“Our hearts are with Mr. Mitchell’s family and loved ones as this case moves forward,” the company said.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump has compared the death of Mitchell, who was Black, to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. Floyd was restrained by police officers, including one who was convicted and sentenced to 22 ½ years in prison.
Harmon said she wants people to know “how good of a person” her husband was.
“He was great. He wasn’t violent. He wasn’t combative. He wasn’t argumentative. He wasn’t any of these things,” she said. “He was a big teddy bear. He was sweet and he was gentle and he was kind. He was loving. Everybody loved him.”
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