Trio accused of robbing, fatally drugging men leaving NYC gay clubs ‘had complete disregard to human life,’ prosecutors say

Defense attorneys for the cold-blooded trio accused of robbing and fatally drugging two young men after they left Manhattan gay bars three years ago said in their closing arguments this week that their clients may indeed be criminals — but they didn’t kill anyone.

Prosecutors, however, said in Manhattan Supreme Court Thursday that the men’s deadly hustle — which allegedly targeted inebriated men leaving gay clubs in Hell’s Kitchen — was “executed with a complete disregard to human life.”

And it left two corpses in its wake.  

“They preyed on unsuspecting young gay men,” Manhattan prosecutor Meghan Hast said in court about defendants Jayqwan Hamilton, Robert DeMaio and Jacob Barroso.

“Don’t let them get away with it.”

Authorities slapped all three with murder charges after a police investigation into a series of “drug-facilitated thefts” on Manhattan’s West Side in the spring of 2022.

Prosecutors now say the suspects — who are allegedly part of a larger gang of drug-reliant robbers — killed 33-year-old political consultant John Umberger and 25-year-old Brooklyn social worker Julio Ramirez by giving them fentanyl-laced cocaine.

Both Umberger and Ramirez died of “acute intoxication” from a mix of fentanyl, cocaine, ethanol and other drugs, the city medical examiner said last March.

All three defendants have been charged with murder in Ramirez’s death, while Hamilton, 37, and DeMaio, 36, were charged similarly for Umberger’s fatal overdose of the lethal chemical cocktail.

The three would use “drugs that contained fentanyl, a potent fast-acting opioid in order to incapacitate them quickly, to rob them,” Assistant District Attorney Emily Ching said during her opening statements, adding the suspects stole phones and credit cards to “drain their accounts and spend their money.”

Then the gang callously left their “completely unresponsive and not breathing” victims to die — while they went on wild spending sprees with the stolen money, prosecutors said.

But defense attorneys disputed this, saying their clients aren’t murderers — even though they might be guilty of other crimes.

“My client, Jayqwan Hamilton, is guilty,” his defense attorney, William James Alford III, told the jury.

“He’s guilty of transferring money from other people’s accounts to his own account without permission,” he continued. “He’s guilty of buying items like sneakers and clothes with money that wasn’t his. He’s absolutely not guilty of murder, robbery, burglary or conspiracy in the fourth degree.”

DeMaio’s attorney, Glenn Abolafia, took a similar tack when he told the court that his client was guilty of theft — but that isn’t why he’s on trial.

There’s no proof DeMaio gave drugs to the victims, he said, even though text messages suggested otherwise.

“He may have been a small-time drug dealer, but he’s not charged with anything to do with narcotics,” Abolafia said.

“There’s no evidence of Mr. DeMaio giving drugs to anyone … It’s just talk, there’s no corroboration. For the purposes of a courtroom, talk is cheap.”

He also said prosecutors hadn’t proved how or when the victims obtained or ingested the drugs that killed them, and claimed his client thought Umberger had just passed out drunk.

“Umberger had a tremendous amount of alcohol in his system, he had a cocktail of drugs and we don’t know which drug caused [his death],” the lawyer said.

Barroso’s attorney, David Krauss, also argued Ramirez was doing drugs and drinking heavily on the night of his death, which could have led to a self-inflicted overdose.

“Julio Ramirez took heroin, which can make you stop breathing,” Krauss said.

“If fentanyl was removed from the equation, he could have died from a combination of other drugs in the body. He could have died from an overdose from drugs he voluntarily took on his own.”

“The prosecutor’s theory is that because there was fentanyl in Julio Ramirez’s blood when he died, it must have been Jacob Barroso who gave it to him,” he continued. “There is not one shred of evidence Jacob Barroso had any knowledge about fentanyl.”

But Hast pushed the jury to convict in her own closing, which she will continue when court resumes Friday.

“Julio Ramirez and John Umberger — two social beings full of life and fun — tragically lost their lives because of these three men’s deadly hustle,” Hast said. 

“They specifically targeted young men leaving LGBTQ nightclubs at closing time — trusting men, out to enjoy our city’s vibrant queer spaces and maybe meet some new people.”

“They knew their inhibitions may be down and once separated from their friends, would offer them cocaine — cocaine they turned into a poison by mixing it with fentanyl,” she said.

“If their victims happened to die from the fentanyl, that was an added bonus, giving them more time to shop before the families figured out what happened.”