Left: Jacob Barroso. Right: Robert Demaio. (Photos via NYPD)
Police have arrested a man they say killed someone as part of a “citywide robbery pattern,” and reports have linked the arrest to a string of deaths and robberies that appear to target patrons of New York City gay bars.
Jacob Barroso, 30, was arrested Saturday and charged with murder in connection with the death of Julio Cesar Ramirez, 25, the New York Police Department announced. Ramirez was found unconscious shortly before 4:00 a.m. on April 21, 2022, on New York’s Lower East Side. According to reports, he had been seen at a bar called the Ritz, located in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.
The NYPD acknowledged that there were “no obvious signs of trauma observed” on Ramirez, a social worker from Brooklyn, when first responders found him.
According to an indictment obtained by Law&Crime, Barroso has been charged with second-degree murder in Ramirez’s death, as well as grand larceny, robbery, and conspiracy. Robert Demaio is also charged with Ramirez’s death. Co-defendants Andre Butts and Shane Hoskins are facing larceny, robbery, and conspiracy charges as well, according to the indictment.
The four men allegedly conspired to “approach intoxicated individuals upon exiting a bar or nightclub, engage them in conversation, and offer and administer dangerous and illicit substances to them for the purpose of causing their incapacitation,” the indictment says. The defendants would then allegedly steal the victims’ phones and credit cards, using both to go on spending sprees.
The name of an additional defendant has been redacted from the indictment.
Demaio also appears to be facing a second-degree murder charge in the death of someone not identified in the indictment, but who is believed to be John Umberger.
According to the New York Times, Umberger, 33, was visiting from Washington, D.C. He died after apparently being drugged at a gay nightclub in Hell’s Kitchen on May 28, 2022, robbed, and then left for dead. The indictment doesn’t identify either victim — Ramirez or Umberger — by name, but multiple reports state that Umberger was targeted that day and found dead in an apartment on New York’s Upper East Side days later.
According to the indictment, Demaio and the unidentified defendant drove in a Red Dodge Durango from the Q Bar, in Hell’s Kitchen, to the Upper East Side. They then allegedly followed their victim — presumably Umberger — into the building. Umberger’s body was reportedly discovered days later.
The indictment also details additional robberies the defendants allegedly carried out from April through June of 2022.
The medical examiner reportedly determined that both Ramirez and Umberger were murdered during a “drug-assisted theft.” Umberger’s mother said that $20,000 had been taken from his accounts, according to the Times.
A Crime Stoppers alert issued on March 31 said that the New York Police Department was seeking information about multiple suspects, including Barroso and Demaio, in connection with “two previously released homicide investigations.
Do you know the whereabouts of Jayqwan Hamilton, Robert Demaio, Jacob Barroso? The individuals are wanted in connection with two previously released homicide investigations. Any info call us at 800-577-TIPS or anonymously post a tip on our website https://t.co/TRPPY5zHV2 pic.twitter.com/12mqYMmHC4
— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) April 1, 2023
The New York Post reported Sunday that Barroso surrendered himself to police.
In a statement, police linked Ramirez’s death to an alarming crime wave.
“Pursuant to an ongoing investigation, it has been determined that this incident is connected with a citywide robbery pattern,” the NYPD said in a statement.
At least five people appear to have been killed after having been surreptitiously given a fatal mix of drugs — including fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and lidocaine — and robbed, sometimes of thousands of dollars, local NBC News affiliate WNBC reported.
The perpetrators are believed to have used facial recognition to unlock the victims’ phones and drain their bank accounts, the Times reported.
The incidents have largely taken place in a part of New York popular with the city’s LGBTQ community. A “crew” of attackers allegedly drug unsuspecting bar patrons and take them to a second location — sometimes their own homes, according to the Times — to rob them.
Read the indictment of Demaio, Barroso, Butts, and Hoskins here.
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