Three men accused of drugging and robbing several gay men in New York and leaving two of them for dead were convicted on all counts by a jury in Manhattan on Tuesday.

After four hours of deliberation, the jury found Jayqwan Hamilton, 37, Jacob Barroso, 32, and Robert DeMaio, 36, guilty of murder and conspiracy in the deaths of two of their victims in 2022. The defendants each face a sentence of 25 years to life.

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3 men drugged & robbed of thousands after leaving gay bar
Robbers used facial recognition on the victims’ phones to access their accounts.

All three were convicted of the murder of Julio Ramirez, 25, in addition to conspiracy and robbery counts.

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DeMaio and Hamilton were both convicted of burglary and the murder of Umberger, who was found dead in a Manhattan townhouse several days after his killers accompanied him there.

The victims’ deaths were the consequence of a long-running robbery scheme in 2021 and 2022 by the defendants who sought out gay men at bars in Manhattan. After meeting their victims outside, they drugged and robbed them.

Ramirez, a social worker, was found dead in the back of a taxi in the early hours of April 21. Surveillance video showed him leaving The Ritz Bar and Lounge in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood with three unidentified men an hour earlier and getting into the cab with them. His wallet and phone were missing and $20,000 had been drained from his bank accounts.

Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant in New York for a work trip, was found dead on June 1 in the East 61st Street townhouse where he was staying. Surveillance footage showed him leaving the Hell’s Kitchen bar Q NYC with two unidentified people four days earlier.

A toxicology report found fentanyl and the numbing agent lidocaine in Umberger’s system. Over $20,000 was withdrawn from his accounts, his credit cards were maxed out, and his phone was stolen.

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner in New York ruled both deaths the result of “drug-facilitated theft.”

The defendants showed a “complete disregard for human life” in executing their “deadly hustle,” Meghan Hast, an assistant district attorney, told the State Supreme Court jury during closing arguments last week.  

The jury heard from several other gay men who survived similar encounters. Three men who visited the Eagle NYC in the Chelsea neighborhood were lured from the leather bar with promises of drugs and after-parties. The defendants then used facial recognition software on the victims’ phones to access and rob their bank accounts while they were incapacitated.

One witness recounted how he woke up bruised and alone in a hotel room with his credit card and phones missing. Prosecutors shared surveillance images of two men wheeling his limp body into the hotel’s lobby on a luggage cart earlier the same morning. 

The defendants’ own images and video footage captured the scene at Umberger’s East Side townhouse, where the victim is seen incapacitated on a bed while his killers drink cocktails and enjoy the view from a balcony.  

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