The three members of a fiendish, fentanyl-wielding robbery crew that targeted inebriated gay men in Hell’s Kitchen were found guilty Monday of fatally drugging two victims years ago.
Jayqwan Hamilton, Robert DeMaio, and Jacob Barroso were convicted by a Manhattan jury on all counts — including murder, robbery, burglary, conspiracy, and larceny — for drugging and robbing five different men in early 2022.
Two of their victims — political consultant John Umberger, 33, and Brooklyn social worker Julio Ramirez, 25 — died during their ordeal, which began when crew members chatted them up at local hot spots, then knocked them out with fentanyl-laced drugs.
The city medical examiner later said both victims died from “acute intoxication” stemming from a mix of fentanyl, cocaine, ethanol, and other drugs.
During their closing statements, defense attorneys conceded their clients may indeed be criminals — but claimed they aren’t killers, adding that the prosecution hadn’t proved the men were the ones who supplied the drugs.
“Did these men just happen upon people who took fentanyl on five different occasions?” she asked the jury.
“The idea that all this was accidental and that they simply profited from it — making them guilty of petit larceny — is the definition of an outlandish theory.”
