Three Men Convicted for Robberies of Local Gay Bar Patrons That Left 2 Dead

Three men—Jayqwan Hamilton, Robert Demaio, and Jacob Barroso—have been convicted by a jury for drugging and robbing gay bar patrons in Hell’s Kitchen, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced on Feb. 10. The string of 2022 attacks left two of their victims, 33-year-old John Umberger and 25-year-old Julio Ramirez, dead of fentanyl overdoses.

The three men were guilty of 24 counts of murder, robbery, burglary, and conspiracy charges. Multiple other victims of the trio survived additional assaults, which uniformly involved luring their victims to bars that serve the LBTQIA+ community, before providing them with fentanyl-laced drugs. Once they were incapacitated, the three men would steal their victims’ phones and drain their digitally accessible bank accounts.

Two additional defendants, Shane Hoskins and Andre Butts, previously pleaded guilty to participating in some of the incidents. They were not specifically involved in the events that led to the deaths of Umberger and Ramirez, and were promised prison sentences of eight years.

“Jayqwan Hamilton, Robert Demaio, and Jacob Barroso took advantage of people who were just trying to enjoy Manhattan’s vibrant nightlife,” Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “These defendants were motivated by greed, and their callous behavior left two young men dead. I know the families who lost their loved ones are still suffering from so much pain, and I hope this verdict can provide at least some measure of comfort.”

The first incident occurred on March 22, 2022. Hamilton, Damaio, and Butts targeted their victim outside of The Q NYC, a now-shuttered gay bar that was located on Eighth Avenue. They took him back to the Union Square hotel where he was staying, before giving him fentanyl-laced drugs and putting his limp body on a luggage cart. Prosecutors say that when the man eventually woke up, he determined that his phone had been taken to Brooklyn by the three perpetrators, and that there were “unauthorized transfers” made by them on Cash App and Apple Pay.

The second incident occurred on April 8; it involved Hamilton, Barroso, Butts, and Hoskins. They again targeted somebody outside The Q NYC, this time accompanying him to his Lower East Side apartment. After providing him with fentanyl-laced drugs, the man awoke to find his phone and credit cards gone, prosecutors say. The four perpetrators had reportedly used the pilfered goods to rack up charges at Bloomingdale’s and Prada.

The events that led to Julio Ramirez’s death occurred on April 22, 2022. Hamilton, Demaio, and Barroso met Ramirez at The Ritz Bar, a gay bar on West 46th Street, before giving him fentanyl-laced drugs. They left him unresponsive in the back of a cab, and he was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital. Meanwhile, prosecutors say that the three men purchased thousands of dollars’ worth of clothing and sneakers using Ramirez’s Cash App and Apple Pay accounts.

The assaults didn’t stop there. On May 14, DeMaio and Hamilton targeted another man at The Ritz Bar, once again drugging him with fentanyl-laced substances. He survived, but realized that his phone and wallet were missing the next day, and that DeMaio had received an unauthorized $2,000 Zelle transfer from him. There were also unauthorized charges on his Apple Pay account.

Finally, on May 28, DeMaio and Hamilton approached John Umberger outside The Q NYC. They “eventually” managed to make their way back to Umberger’s apartment, where they gave him drugs containing an ultimately fatal amount of fentanyl. They reportedly partied as Umberger remained incapacitated on his own bed, and spent $2,000 from his stolen accounts at sneaker and clothing stores. Umberger was found dead in his apartment four days later, after his mother asked police to conduct a wellness check.

State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who represents the area, issued a statement on the guilty verdicts: “Thankfully, the jury found what we already knew to be true, that the assailants purposely drugged these men as they were leaving Manhattan gay bars in order to gain access to their financial payment apps and easily drain their bank accounts.”

Hoylman-Sigal added that he had crafted legislation, the Financial Payment Security Act, in response to the crime. It would force peer-to-peer payment apps, such as the ones that the perpetrators targeted, to implement added security measures. Holyman-Sigal clarified that the bill has already been vetoed by Gov. Kathy Hochul once, but that he hopes it will be enacted into law this year.

State Assembly Member Grace Lee, who represents the Lower East Side and co-sponsored Hoylman-Sigal’s legislation, chimed in with a statement of her own. “Justice has been served for the families of Julio Ramirez and John Umberger, but our hearts remain heavy with the loss they have endured,” she said. “No family should have to experience such unimaginable pain and grief. We must take decisive action to prevent these kinds of crimes from happening again.”