4 former Milwaukee hotel workers get probation and time served in dogpile death

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A judge sentenced four former Milwaukee hotel workers accused of killing a man in a suffocating dogpile to a mix of probation and time served Wednesday, sparing them any more time behind bars.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Swanson handed down the sentences in D'Vontaye Mitchell's June 2024 death during a series of hearings that lasted all day. The orders bring an end to a case that drew comparisons to the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.

The judge ordered former Hyatt security guard Todd Erickson to serve two years in prison but stayed the sentence and placed him probation for two years. Another former security guard, Brandon Turner, got a year in prison but Swanson stayed that sentence, too, and placed him on probation for a year.

Former bellhop Herbert Williamson was sentenced to 10 days in jail with credit for 10 days already served. Former front desk worker Devin Johnson-Carson was ordered to serve four days in jail with credit for four days already served.

Attorneys for Erickson, Turner and Williamson didn't immediately return messages. Johnson-Carson's attorney, Craig Robert Johnson, said in an email to The Associated Press that the sentence was appropriate given that Johnson-Carson was trying to protect hotel guests and staff and never intended to seriously injure Mitchell.

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

Turner pulled Mitchell out of the bathroom and together with a guest dragged him out of the lobby onto a hotel driveway. Turner, Erickson, Williamson and Johnson-Carson struggled with Mitchell before taking him to the ground and piling on top of him.

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 ruled his death a homicide, finding that Mitchell’s immediate cause of death was suffocation and toxic effects of cocaine and methamphetamine.

Prosecutors initially charged all four employees with being a party to felony murder. Turner and Erickson both pleaded guilty to that count. Williamson and Johnson-Carson pleaded guilty to a reduced count of misdemeanor battery.

Attorneys for Mitchell’s family likened his death to the murder of Floyd, a Black man who died 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 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.

Mitchell’s family reached a confidential settlement with Hyatt.

This combination of images provided by the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office shows, from top left, Devin Johnson-Carson, Herbert Williamson, Todd Erickson and Brandon Turner. (Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office via AP)

FILE - DeAsia Harmon speaks at the funeral for her husband D'Vontaye Mitchell, July 11, 2024, in Milwaukee. Mitchell died June 30 after an incident at a hotel. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, file)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Brazilian Supreme Court Justice on Thursday ordered the transfer of former President Jair Bolsonaro from the federal police headquarters in Brasilia to a much bigger cell with an outside area in the Papuda Penitentiary Complex, also in the capital.

The transfer was described as a move to a facility with “more favorable conditions” for high-profile detainees.

Since November, Bolsonaro has been carrying out a 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup despite his 2022 electoral defeat. His lawyers have been pushing for a transfer to house arrest on medical grounds.

Michelle Bolsonaro, his wife, and his sons have regularly said that Bolsonaro is being mistreated and not getting adequate medical attention.

In the court decision, Justice Alexandre de Moraes denied the accusations. “Regrettably and falsely, there has been a systematic attempt to delegitimize the regular and lawful execution of the custodial sentence of Jair Messias Bolsonaro, which has been carried out with full respect for human dignity."

Bolsonaro had been in a 12-square-meter room with a bed, a private bathroom, air conditioning, a TV set and a desk, and Moraes ordered Bolsonaro's transfer to an even more comfortable situation. He determined that Bolsonaro be transferred to a 54-square-meter room with a 10-square-meter outside area that he can access at will.

Following the transfer, Bolsonaro will also have increased time for family visits and physiotherapy equipment such as a treadmill and bicycle will be installed. The new area resembles an apartment, with a double bed, a kitchen, a laundry, a living room and an outdoor area.

The Supreme Court’s press office said the transfer had already happened.

Since starting his sentence, Bolsonaro has made several trips to a nearby hospital, most recently after falling out of bed and hitting his head.

Moraes decided that Bolsonaro can have “full assistance, 24 (twenty-four) hours a day, from previously registered private doctors, without the need for prior notification.”

Moraes also ordered a medical examination to assess Bolsonaro's health and determine whether he needs to be transferred to a penitentiary hospital.

Bolsonaro has been hospitalized multiple times since being stabbed at a campaign event before the 2018 presidential election.

The former president and several of his allies were convicted by a panel of Supreme Court justices for attempting to overthrow Brazil’s democracy following his 2022 election defeat.

The plot included plans to kill President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Justice de Moraes. The plan also involved encouraging an insurrection in early 2023.

The former president was also found guilty of charges including leading an armed criminal organization and attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.

Bolsonaro has always denied wrongdoing.

In Thursday’s court order, Moraes said that Bolsonaro was convicted of extremely serious crimes and that his custodial sentence was not a “hotel stay or a vacation colony” as statements from Bolsonaro’s sons’ cited in the decision “mistakenly seem to demand.”

FILE - Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro stands at the entrance of his home while he is under house arrest in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Nova, File)