A Manhattan judge sentenced three men to decades in prison Wednesday for facilitating a yearslong drug-induced robbery scheme at New York City gay bars that ultimately killed two men.
Jayqwan Hamilton, 37, Jacob Barroso, 32, and Robert DeMaio, 36, were found guilty in February of murder, robbery and conspiracy in connection with the scheme, which ran from March 2021 to June 2022. Julio Ramirez, 25, a social worker, and John Umberger, 33, a political consultant, were murdered in the scheme in spring 2022 .
All three defendants were convicted of murdering Ramirez. Two of them, Hamilton and DeMaio, were convicted of murdering Umberger. Hamilton and Barroso spoke at the sentencing Wednesday and maintained their innocence.
Hamilton and DeMaio were sentenced to 40 years to life in prison, and Barroso was sentenced to 20 years to life.
"This was a cold and calculated pattern," Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Felicia Mennin said at the sentencing hearing Wednesday. "I pity your lack of empathy. But pity will not translate into leniency in this case."
During the three-week trial, prosecutors said the trio worked together to drug and rob five men after having met them outside popular city gay bars and nightclubs.
The defendants drugged the victims to the point of unconsciousness — using a concoction that included fentanyl — before they used their lifeless faces to gain access to their cellphones through facial recognition technology. Once they were in the victims’ cellphones, the men stole thousands of dollars out of their banking apps and used payment apps to buy food, shoes, alcohol and other items, prosecutors said.
"I’m sympathetic towards the victims and their families. However, I disagree with the verdict. I maintain my innocence," Hamilton said at Wednesday’s hearing. "My actions weren’t deadly at all, but I made some mistakes, and I regret them."
Friends and relatives of the defendants and the two victims, including Umberger's father, who traveled from the United Kingdom, attended the hearing, sitting on opposite aisles of the courtroom, which was packed with about 100 people. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sat in the front row as victim statements were underway.
Carlos Ramirez told the court that his brother, Julio, was his best friend and that he had "just begun building his life" and his career as a mental health counselor.
"What happened to my brother wasn’t just tragic. It was intentional. ... It was evil," he said. "What’s worse, he was left alone while the people responsible continued their lives [and] my family was shattered."
He then asked Mennin to sentence the men to life in prison without the possibility of parole, arguing that they are a “threat to society.” Ramirez's parents also spoke, reiterating the request for "real justice."
Umberger's mother, Linda Clary, told the court that losing her son is "truly the greatest pain and worst pain in the world" and that "this was preventable and this should not have happened."
"I also know that one of the greatest things John taught is that every problem is an opportunity. And through this tragedy, there has been so much love," Clary said in her emotional impact statement.
Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hast said that after Umberger was murdered, he was left on the bed of his townhouse while Hamilton and DeMaio went on a shopping spree. At trial, prosecutors also showed a video DeMaio and Hamilton recorded at the townhouse where Umberger was staying, celebrating near his body, on the night of the murder.
"I would like to pause for 13 seconds to acknowledge the video that was made while my son died and you did nothing to help," Clary said in her victim impact statement.
Prosecutors asked the court to sentence Hamilton and DeMaio to 40 years to life in prison and Barroso to 25 years to life in prison. Lawyers for the three defendants asked the court for more lenient sentences and noted that they all plan to appeal the convictions.
"In this case, no one was supposed to die. That’s the tragedy. No one intended to murder these young men," said DeMaio's attorney, Dean J. Vigliano.
The crimes didn’t come into broad public view until May 2022 — more than a year after the scheme began — when NBC News reported on the mysterious death of Ramirez.
Ramirez was found dead in the back of a taxicab after he encountered the men at the Ritz Bar and Lounge, a gay bar in the heart of Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.
Umberger was found dead in a Manhattan townhouse where he was staying, days after he met two of the convicted men outside nearby, and now closed, The Q. During the trial, prosecutors showed video of the men partying in the townhouse alongside Umberger's unconscious body.
Both men had a concoction of drugs in their systems, including fentanyl, lidocaine and cocaine, according to the city medical examiner’s office.
At trial, the defense argued that it was impossible to know which drugs killed the two men, pointing to the fact that some of the victims used illicit drugs recreationally.
Once NBC News reported Ramirez’s death, more gay New Yorkers stepped forward and shared stories of having survived similar encounters. Prosecutors said the victims were targeted solely for financial gain — not their sexual orientation.
New York police and the mayor’s office launched a program in 2023 to re-examine unsolved drug, robbery and homicide cases involving LGBTQ victims following criticism of officials’ response from surviving victims. However, authorities maintained that the cases were correctly handled.
Three other men, Eddie Ashley, Shane Hoskins and Andre Butts, were also arrested and convicted in connection with the scheme. According to the district attorney’s office, they pleaded guilty.
Throughout the same period, a similar crime ring was wreaking havoc at bars in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, prosecutors said. The second crime scheme also led to several deaths and at least one arrest.
After the trial, Bragg called on third-party payment apps to implement more stringent measures to protect consumers.
"We want to stop this type of deadly conduct from occurring at all. Part of the solution lies in addressing the profit motive that was the basis for the conspiracy,” he told reporters.
