4 former Milwaukee hotel workers plead not guilty to felony murder in D’Vontaye Mitchell’s death

Four former hotel workers have pleaded not guilty to charges of felony murder in connection with the case of D’Vontaye Mitchell, a 43-year-old Black man who died June 30 after he was pinned to the ground outside a downtown Milwaukee hotel in an encounter partially captured on video.

Four former hotel workers pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of felony murder in connection with the case of D’Vontaye Mitchell, a 43-year-old Black man who died this summer after he was pinned to the ground outside a downtown Milwaukee hotel in an encounter partially captured on video. Former security manager Todd Alan Erickson, desk agent Devin W. Johnson-Carson, security guard Brandon LaDaniel Turner and bellman Herbert T. Williamson each entered not guilty pleas on Thursday in state court in Wisconsin. The then-hotel workers’ June 30 encounter with Mitchell unfolded as 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. Erickson was granted bail Thursday after requesting a reduction from $50,000 to $5,000. The judge granted the reduction over the protest of Mitchell’s mother, Brenda L Giles, who made a statement in court asking the judge to deny bond reduction. Bail was also granted for Turner after the judge reduced the amount from $30,000 to $5,000. Johnson-Carson and Williamson had previously been released from jail on cash bond. Craig R. Johnson, an attorney for Johnson-Carson, called Mitchell’s death a “tragedy,” but said his client did not commit a crime.