Three convicted in murders of gay men in New York City

Three men were convicted of murder Monday in connection with the 2022 deaths of gay men in New York City.

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A jury found Jayqwan Hamilton, 37, Jacob Barroso, 32, and Robert DeMaio, 36, guilty of the murder of Julio Ramirez, in addition to convicting them on robbery and conspiracy charges, The New York Timesreports. DeMaio and Hamilton were convicted of burglary and the murder of John Umberger. Both men were killed by drinking cocktails laced with fentanyl and other drugs, medical examiners told the jury. Indictments came down in the cases in 2023.

Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker, had been barhopping with a friend, Carlos Camacho, one night in April 2022. The Ritz Bar and Lounge was their last stop, and they became separated there. It emerged that Ramirez had gotten into a cab with three men, including Hamilton and Barroso. They eventually got out and left him in the taxi, where he was found dead. Authorities determined his bank account had been drained of $20,000.

Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant visiting New York from Washington, D.C., was killed about a month later after he and a couple of men left the Q, a gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen. He “died in a townhouse where his attackers partied next to his lifeless body,” the Times reports. About $20,000 was taken from his bank accounts as well.

“The police initially treated the two deaths as isolated overdoses, but relatives of Mr. Ramirez and Mr. Umberger pushed for further investigation after discovering that large sums of money had been withdrawn from the men’s accounts around the time that they died,” the paper notes.

Several men testified about surviving similar experiences. The attackers “would lurk outside Midtown bars near closing time, knowing they would encounter young men who were pliable after a night of drinking, “according to the Times. “After chatting up the victims, prosecutors said, the men would give them drugs to subdue them and then steal their phones and credit cards.”

“If they happen to die from fentanyl, it’s an added bonus, giving you more time to shop,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hast told the jury last week in her closing argument.

Those convicted Monday have not been sentenced yet, but they can be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison. Two other men have already pleaded guilty to robbery in connection with the scheme, and they are to be sentenced next month, likely to eight years in prison each.