Milwaukee Hotel Workers Charged With Felony Murder In Man’s Death

US Prosecutors have on Tuesday, 6th of August, 2024 charged four employees of Hyatt Regency hotel with being a party to felony murder in connection with D’Vontaye Mitchell’s death.

According to a criminal complaint, the four employees dragged Mitchell out of the Hyatt Hotel on June 30 after Mitchell entered a woman’s bathroom and held him on his stomach for eight or nine minutes. Four people are seen on cellphone video footage holding Mitchell down on the hotel’s driveway. They are heard in the video telling Mitchell to “stay down” and “stop fighting.”

The county medical examiner ultimately determined that Mitchell died of “restraint asphyxia and toxic effects of cocaine and methamphetamine.” He may have lived if the employees allowed him to turn onto his side, the medical examiner said, according to the complaint. An autopsy also showed that Mitchell suffered from morbid obesity, the complaint said.

Relatives of Mitchell and their lawyers had previously reviewed hotel surveillance video provided by the district attorney’s office. They described seeing Mitchell being chased inside the hotel by security guards and then dragged outside where he was beaten. 

One of the employees told investigators that Mitchell was having trouble breathing and repeatedly pleaded for help, according to the complaint. A witness reported that he heard screaming from the hotel while walking to a nearby Walgreens to pick up some things for his son, reported CBS news.