MILWAUKEE — The third of four former Milwaukee hotel workers accused of killing a man by pinning him to the ground in a dogpile last summer reached a plea deal with prosecutors Thursday.
The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office initially charged former Hyatt front desk worker Devin Johnson-Carson with being a party to felony murder in connection with D'Vontaye Mitchell's death in June 2024. Online court records indicate Johnson-Carson pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor battery on Thursday.
The records didn't list any additional terms of the deal, if any. Johnson-Carson's attorney, Craig Robert Johnson, didn't immediately return an email from The Associated Press seeking further details. The district attorney's office also didn't immediately respond to an email left in the office's general inbox.
Johnson-Carson now faces up to nine months behind bars when he's sentenced Sept. 3. If he had been convicted of the felony murder count he would have faced a maximum sentence of 15 years and nine months.
According to investigators, Mitchell ran into the Hyatt's lobby and entered the women's bathroom. Two women later told them that Mitchell tried to lock them in the bathroom.
Security guard Brandon Turner and a guest scuffled with Mitchell and dragged him out of the lobby onto a hotel driveway. Turner, another security guard named Todd Erickson, bellhop Herbert Williamson and Johnson-Carson all piled on Mitchell, pinning him to the ground for eight to nine minutes.
By the time emergency responders arrived Mitchell had stopped breathing. The Milwaukee County medical examiner determined that Mitchell was morbidly obese, suffered from heart disease and had cocaine and methamphetamine in his system. The medical examiner concluded that he suffocated and ruled the manner of death as homicide.
Attorneys for Mitchell's family have tried to draw parallels between Mitchell's death and the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died in 2020 after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for about nine minutes. 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 hotel, fired all four workers in July.
Erickson is set to stand trial in August on one count of being party to felony murder.
Turner pleaded guilty earlier this month to being a party to felony murder in a deal with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony against the other three men. Williamson was initially charged with being a party to felony murder but pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery last week in exchange for his testimony. They're both set to be sentenced on Sept. 3.
CORRECTION: The Associated Press previously reported the incorrect amount of prison time Devin Johnson-Carson would have faced if he had been convicted of the felony murder count. This has been corrected. (March 20, 2025)
