Fourteen months ago, Brenda Giles was marching the streets of Milwaukee, shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of strangers, demanding justice for her son, D’Vontaye Mitchell.
He had lost his life a few days earlier, after a violent confrontation with hotel employees at the Hyatt Regency.
At the time, Giles envisioned justice looking something like prison time for the four men who prosecutors say were responsible for his death.
That didn’t happen.
Todd Erickson, Devin W. Johnson-Carson, Brandon LaDaniel Turner and Herbert T. Williamson all appeared before a circuit court judge in separate hearings on Sept. 3 to be sentenced in Mitchell’s June 30, 2024, death.
The outcome? No time behind bars for any of them.
“There was no justice here. No justice,” a visibly angry Giles told reporters moments after a judge ordered all four men to serve probation in the case. “They got a slap on the wrist.”
Mitchell, 43, died during a clash with security personnel, who pinned him face down on the ground for about nine minutes outside the Hyatt.
A medical examiner determined Mitchell died from “restraint asphyxia,” a condition that develops when a person’s body position prevents them from breathing.
Initially, Erickson, Johnson-Carson, Turner and Williamson were each charged with felony murder, which carries a maximum punishment of 15 years in prison.
In the months that followed, however, the men all made deals with prosecutors.
Circuit Court Judge David Swanson said it was clear to him Johnson-Carson and Williamson’s roles in the incident were “very limited,” and that none of the defendants intended for Mitchell to die.
Although the men were negligent in carrying out their jobs, Swanson said he believed what occurred that day was “an accident.”
Here’s how the sentences were handed down
Johnson-Carson, 24, and Williamson, 53, both hotel bellhops, each agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor battery in exchange for their testimony against any defendants who decided to go to trial. They were sentenced to four days and 10 days time served, respectively.
Turner, 34, a security guard, pleaded guilty in March to felony murder. He was given a one-year probation sentence.
Erickson, also a guard, was sentenced to a suspended two years of prison time and two more years of probation.
“There’s always going to be a void in my heart, in my life, in my family,” Giles told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “This has messed me up for the rest of my life.”
D’Vontaye Mitchell’s final moments were shown in court
Video footage from inside the hotel was played during one of the sentencing hearings. It showed Mitchell run into the lobby, then into a gift shop. From there, he made his way to a women’s restroom.
Turner then was seen going into the same restroom and, moments later, escorting Mitchell out. Turner tried to grab Mitchell, but Mitchell resisted.
Once in the lobby, the men are seen in the footage pushing each other. That quickly evolved into punching. At some point, Mitchell hit the floor, drawing the attention of a hotel guest, who intervened.
Mitchell was then dragged outside to the valet area, and a female Hyatt employee grabbed a broomstick and struck Mitchell with it.
Mitchell is then rolled onto his stomach, and he is restrained in that position by the men for about nine minutes. At that point, he’s no longer seen moving.
Assistant District Attorney Daniel T. Flaherty said Erickson, 61, was more culpable than the other defendants, arguing he directed the other men to hold Mitchell down, instead of de-escalating the situation. He pushed for Erickson to be incarcerated.
That didn’t happen.
“I’m displeased with the justice system. To sit here and know there’s no consequences … is disgusting,” Mitchell’s widow, DeAsia Harmon, said outside the courtroom after the hearings. “I want (them) to suffer just like we are. They need to suffer.”
Many saw similarities between Mitchell’s death and those of other cases
The incident drew immediate comparisons to George Floyd, a Minneapolis Black man who was held down by Minneapolis police until he died in 2020.
The case attracted the attention of attorney Benjamin Crump, who has represented families across the country for personal injury and civil rights violations, including those of Floyd, Tyre Nichols and Breonna Taylor.
Crump joined Milwaukee attorneys Will Sulton and B’Ivory LaMarr in negotiating a settlement between Mitchell’s family and Texas-based Aimbridge Hospitality, the third-party operator that manages the Hyatt. Terms were not made public.
Aimbridge fired all four men after the criminal charges were handed down.
Grief continues to run deep in Mitchell’s family
Giles recounted how hours later, two officers came to her home to inform her that her son was dead.
Moving on without him isn’t just hard. It’s almost unthinkable.
“My son was supposed to be burying me, not me burying him,” she said. “They had no mercy on my baby. They needed to be held accountable.”
Chris Ramirez covers courts for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at caramirez@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: No prison time for the men charged in D’Vontaye Mitchell’s death at Milwaukee’s Hyatt Regency
Reporting by Chris Ramirez, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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