All 4 Milwaukee hotel workers charged with murder in Black man's death now in custody

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The last of four hotel workers charged in connection with D’Vontaye Mitchell’s death was taken into custody Friday, more than five weeks after he and the others allegedly piled onto the Black man while trying to remove him from a Milwaukee hotel.

Herbert Williamson was taken into custody three days after he and his three co-defendants were charged with being a party to felony murder in Mitchell’s June 30 death at a Hyatt Regency hotel, according to Milwaukee County jail records.

Williamson, a bellhop at the hotel, and the three others were charged after prosecutors scoured video showing them piling on top Mitchell as they tried to remove him from the hotel’s lobby before he died.

Williamson, 52, was charged along with hotel security guard Todd Erickson, 60; front desk worker Devin Johnson-Carson, 23; and security guard Brandon Turner, 35. If convicted, each would face up to 15 years and nine months in prison.

Aimbridge Hospitality, the company that manages the hotel, said previously that it fired several employees who were involved in Mitchell’s death.

Williamson, Turner and Johnson-Carson are Black, while Erickson is white, according to online court records.

Mitchell’s family’s attorneys have likened his death to the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died in 2020 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck for about nine minutes.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is part of a team of lawyers representing Mitchell’s family, has said video recorded by a bystander and circulating on social media shows security guards with their knees on Mitchell’s back and neck.

According to a criminal complaint, Mitchell ran into the hotel on June 30 and entered a women’s bathroom. An employee dragged him outside and, with the three others, held him down on his stomach for eight or nine minutes while Mitchell gasped for breath.

The county medical examiner determined that Mitchell died of “restraint asphyxia” and noted that he might have lived had the employees allowed him to turn onto his side, according to the criminal complaint.

An autopsy showed that Mitchell had obesity, and had ingested cocaine and methamphetamine, the complaint states.

Erickson was ordered held on a $50,000 cash bond and Turner on a $30,000 cash bond after both made initial court appearances this week, records show. They have preliminary hearings scheduled for Aug. 19. Johnson-Carson made his initial court appearance on Friday. He was ordered held on a $5,000 cash bond, online court records show.

Records didn't list the date of Williamson's initial hearing.

All four remained in custody as of Friday morning, according to jail records.

Attorneys for Erickson, Turner and Johnson-Carson didn't immediately respond to Friday messages seeking comment. Court records didn't list an attorney for Williamson.

This undated booking photo provided by Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office shows Devin Johnson-Carson, one of the four hotel workers charged with killing D’Vontaye Mitchell after allegedly piling on top him while trying to remove him from a Milwaukee hotel.

This booking image provided by the Milwaukee County, Wis., Sheriff's Office on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, shows Todd Erickson, one of four former hotel employees charged with being a party to D'Vontaye Mitchell's murder on June 30. (Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

This booking photo provided by the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office shows Brandon Turner. (Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office via AP)

FILE - Rev. Al Sharpton speaks at the funeral for D'Vontaye Mitchell Thursday, July 11, 2024, in Milwaukee. Mitchell died June 30. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

FILE - Rev. Al Sharpton pauses at the funeral for D'Vontaye Mitchell, July 11, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

All 4 Milwaukee hotel workers charged with murder in Black man's death now in custody

All 4 Milwaukee hotel workers charged with murder in Black man's death now in custody

FILE - This undated photo provided by Samantha Mitchell shows D'Vontaye Mitchell, left, who died on June 30, 2024, after being pinned to the ground by hotel security guards in Milwaukee with his sister Nayish Mitchell and cousin Samantha Mitchell. (Samantha Mitchell via AP, File)

Olympic sponsor Panasonic is terminating its contract with the IOC at the end of the year, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

Panasonic is one of 15 companies that are so-called TOP sponsors for the International Olympic Committee. It's not known the value of the Panasonic sponsorship, but sponsors contribute more than $2 billion in a four-year cycle to the IOC.

Two other Japanese companies are also among the IOC's 15 leading sponsors. Toyota, which for several months has been reportedly ready to end its contract, was contacted Tuesday by The Associated Press but offered no new information.

“Toyota has been supporting the Olympic and Paralympic movements since 2015 and continues to do so,” Toyota said in a statement. “No announcement to suggest otherwise has been made by Toyota."

Japanese sponsors seem to have turned away from the Olympics, likely related to the one-year delay in holding the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The COVID-19 delay reduced sponsors' visibility with no fans allowed to attend competition venues, ran up the costs, and unearthed myriad corruption scandals around the Games.

Tiremaker Bridgestone told AP “nothing has been decided.”

Toyota had a contact valued at $835 million — reported to be the IOC's largest when it was announced in 2015. It included four Olympics beginning with the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Games in South Korea and ran through the just-completed Paris Olympics and Paralympics.

Reports in Japan suggest Toyota may keep its Paralympic Olympic sponsorship.

The IOC TOP sponsors are: ABInBev, Airbnb, Alibaba, Allianz, Atos, Bridgestone, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Intel, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung, Toyoto, and Visa.

In a report several months ago by the Japanese news agency Kyodo, unnamed sources said Toyota was unhappy with how the IOC uses sponsorship money. It said the money was “not used effectively to support athletes and promote sports.”

Japan was once a major font to revenue, but increasingly the IOC has sought out sponsors from China, with increasing interest from the Middle East and India.

Japan officially spent $13 billion on the Tokyo Olympics, at least half of which was public money. A government audit suggested the real cost was twice that. The IOC contribution was about $1.8 billion.

The Tokyo Games were mired in corruption scandals linked to local sponsorships and the awarding of contracts. Dentsu Inc, the huge Japanese marketing and public relations company, was the marketing arm of the Tokyo Olympics and raised a record-$3.3 billion in local sponsorship money. This is separate from TOP sponsors.

French prosecutors also looked into alleged vote-buying in the IOC’s decision in 2013 to pick Tokyo as the host for the 2020 Summer Games.

The IOC had income of $7.6 billion in the last four-year cycle ending with the Tokyo Games. Figures have not been released yet for the cycle ending with the Paris Olympics.

The IOC’s TOP sponsors paid over $2 billion in that period. The figure is expected to reach $3 billion in the next cycle.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

This photo shows the headquarters of Panasonic in Kadoma, Osaka prefecture, western Japan, on Nov. 7, 2017. (Kyodo News via AP)