Trio standing trial in NYC gay nightclub drug deaths ‘callously’ abandoned OD victims, went on high-end shopping sprees with stolen money: DA
A cold-blooded trio allegedly behind a string of fatal overdoses that terrorized Big Apple gay nightclubs went on high-end shopping sprees with cash stolen from the drugged-up victims, prosecutors revealed Wednesday.
The three men — Jayqwan Hamilton, 37, Robert DeMaio, 36, and Jacob Barroso, 32 — shuffled into a Manhattan courtroom for the first day of a murder trial that laid bare darkness underlying the city’s glitzy nightlife scene.
Assistant District Attorney Emily Ching said the suspects were part of a five-member gang that preyed upon young, seemingly intoxicated men leaving gay clubs in Hell’s Kitchen alone in the hours up to last call.
“Drugs that contained fentanyl, a potent fast-acting opioid in order to incapacitate them quickly, to rob them,” she said during opening statements, adding they stole phones and credit cards to “drain their accounts and spend their money.”
The gang “callously” left their victims behind, “completely unresponsive and not breathing,” Ching said.
Two men — political consultant John Umberger, 33, and Julio Ramirez, 25, a Brooklyn social worker — died, authorities said. Three other men survived.
Afterward, the poison-purveying culprits went on shopping sprees with the victims’ money, including buying sneakers, dozens of bottles of booze and making trips to swanky Soho stores, prosecutors said.
The trial stems from a probe into what police called “drug-facilitated thefts” in the spring of 2022 — part of a spate of disturbing crimes that sent fear rippling through the popular Q NYC and Ritz Bar and Lounge patronized by the victims.
All three defendants face murder charges in Ramirez’s death. Only Hamilton and DeMaio are standing trial for murder in Umberger’s fatal overdose.
DeMaio’s defense attorney Dean Vigliano argued to jurors that there were “gaps” in the case.
“There were numerous drugs found in these people’s system any one of these drugs could have caused their death,” he said, adding there’s no evidence his client gave it to them.
Umberger’s mother Linda Clary pointedly stared down the defendants after taking the stand to testify.
Outside the courthouse, she told The Post that she was looking for signs of remorse.
“I keep looking for that and don’t see it,” she said.
“I didn’t want to be afraid and not look at them.”
