Protection attorneys for the cold-blooded trio accused of robbing and fatally drugging two younger males after they left Manhattan homosexual bars three years in the past mentioned of their closing arguments this week that their purchasers might certainly be criminals — however they didn’t kill anybody.
Prosecutors, nevertheless, mentioned in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom Thursday that the lads’s lethal hustle — which allegedly focused inebriated males leaving homosexual golf equipment in Hell’s Kitchen — was “executed with a complete disregard to human life.”
And it left two corpses in its wake.
“They preyed on unsuspecting young gay men,” Manhattan prosecutor Meghan Hast mentioned in court docket about defendants Jayqwan Hamilton, Robert DeMaio and Jacob Barroso.
“Don’t let them get away with it.”
Authorities slapped all three with homicide expenses after a police investigation right into a collection of “drug-facilitated thefts” on Manhattan’s West Aspect within the spring of 2022.
Prosecutors now say the suspects — who’re allegedly half of a bigger gang of drug-reliant robbers — killed 33-year-old political advisor John Umberger and 25-year-old Brooklyn social employee Julio Ramirez by giving them fentanyl-laced cocaine.
Each Umberger and Ramirez died of “acute intoxication” from a mixture of fentanyl, cocaine, ethanol and different medication, the town medical expert mentioned final March.
All three defendants have been charged with homicide in Ramirez’s demise, whereas Hamilton, 37, and DeMaio, 36, have been charged equally for Umberger’s deadly overdose of the deadly chemical cocktail.
The three would use “drugs that contained fentanyl, a potent fast-acting opioid in order to incapacitate them quickly, to rob them,” Assistant District Legal professional Emily Ching mentioned throughout her opening statements, including the suspects stole telephones and bank cards to “drain their accounts and spend their money.”
Then the gang callously left their “completely unresponsive and not breathing” victims to die — whereas they went on wild spending sprees with the stolen cash, prosecutors mentioned.
However protection attorneys disputed this, saying their purchasers aren’t murderers — regardless that they is likely to be responsible of different crimes.
“My client, Jayqwan Hamilton, is guilty,” his protection legal professional, William James Alford III, advised the jury.
“He’s guilty of transferring money from other people’s accounts to his own account without permission,” he continued. “He’s guilty of buying items like sneakers and clothes with money that wasn’t his. He’s absolutely not guilty of murder, robbery, burglary or conspiracy in the fourth degree.”
DeMaio’s legal professional, Glenn Abolafia, took the same tack when he advised the court docket that his shopper was responsible of theft — however that isn’t why he’s on trial.
There’s no proof DeMaio gave medication to the victims, he mentioned, regardless that textual content messages instructed in any other case.
“He may have been a small-time drug dealer, but he’s not charged with anything to do with narcotics,” Abolafia mentioned.
“There’s no evidence of Mr. DeMaio giving drugs to anyone … It’s just talk, there’s no corroboration. For the purposes of a courtroom, talk is cheap.”
He additionally mentioned prosecutors hadn’t proved how or when the victims obtained or ingested the medication that killed them, and claimed his shopper thought Umberger had simply handed out drunk.
“Umberger had a tremendous amount of alcohol in his system, he had a cocktail of drugs and we don’t know which drug caused [his death],” the lawyer mentioned.
Barroso’s legal professional, David Krauss, additionally argued Ramirez was doing medication and consuming closely on the night time of his demise, which may have led to a self-inflicted overdose.
“Julio Ramirez took heroin, which can make you stop breathing,” Krauss mentioned.
“If fentanyl was removed from the equation, he could have died from a combination of other drugs in the body. He could have died from an overdose from drugs he voluntarily took on his own.”
“The prosecutor’s theory is that because there was fentanyl in Julio Ramirez’s blood when he died, it must have been Jacob Barroso who gave it to him,” he continued. “There is not one shred of evidence Jacob Barroso had any knowledge about fentanyl.”
However Hast pushed the jury to convict in her personal closing, which she’s going to proceed when court docket resumes Friday.
“Julio Ramirez and John Umberger — two social beings full of life and fun — tragically lost their lives because of these three men’s deadly hustle,” Hast mentioned.
“They specifically targeted young men leaving LGBTQ nightclubs at closing time — trusting men, out to enjoy our city’s vibrant queer spaces and maybe meet some new people.”
“They knew their inhibitions may be down and once separated from their friends, would offer them cocaine — cocaine they turned into a poison by mixing it with fentanyl,” she mentioned.
“If their victims happened to die from the fentanyl, that was an added bonus, giving them more time to shop before the families figured out what happened.”
