A 4th man accused in a fatal dogpile outside a Milwaukee hotel pleads guilty to felony murder

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The last of four Milwaukee hotel workers accused of killing a man by pinning him to the ground has pleaded guilty to being a party to felony murder.

Former Hyatt Hotel security guard Todd Erickson entered the plea in connection with D’Vontaye Mitchell’s death in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on Thursday morning, online court records indicate.

Erickson was set to go on trial on Aug. 11. He faces up to 15 years in prison when he’s sentenced Sept. 3. His attorney, Kerri Cleghorn, didn’t immediately return a voicemail left at her office.

Erickson’s plea moves a massive criminal case reminiscent of George Floyd’s death a step closer to resolution.

According to investigators, Mitchell ran into the Hyatt’s lobby in June 2024 and went into the women’s bathroom. Two women later told detectives that Mitchell tried to lock them in the bathroom.

Security guard Brandon Turner pulled Mitchell out of the bathroom and together with a guest dragged him out of the lobby onto a hotel driveway. Turner, Erickson, bellhop Herbert Williamson and front desk worker Devin Johnson-Carson continued to struggle with Mitchell before taking him to the ground and piling on top of him, according to a criminal complaint.

Hotel surveillance video shows Johnson-Carson holding Mitchell’s legs while Erickson, Turner and Williamson held down his upper body. They kept him pinned for eight to nine minutes. By the time emergency responders arrived, Mitchell had stopped breathing.

A medical examiner later determined that Mitchell was morbidly obese, suffered from heart disease, and had cocaine and methamphetamine in his system. The medical examiner concluded that he had suffocated and ruled his death a homicide.

Attorneys for Mitchell’s family have likened his death to the murder of Floyd, a Black man who died in 2020 after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death sparked a national reckoning on racial relations.

Mitchell was Black. Court records identify Erickson as white and Turner, Williamson and Johnson-Carson as Black.

The four workers told investigators that Mitchell was strong and tried to bite Erickson, but they didn’t mean to hurt him. Ambridge Hospitality, the company that manages the Hyatt, fired all four of them in July 2024.

Turner, Williamson and Johnson-Carson were all charged with being a party to felony murder along with Erickson. Turner pleaded guilty to that count this past March. Williamson and Johnson-Carson both pleaded guilty to a reduced count of misdemeanor battery that same month. All three are set to be sentenced Sept. 3, the same day as Erickson.