A 34-year-old suspect was arrested on Monday for the drugging deaths of two men who were partying at separate New York City nightclubs last year after cops found gruesome video of one of the victim’s body on his cellphone.
Police recently conducted a search warrant on Robert Demaio’s cellphone and found videos of him and another suspect at political consultant John Umberger’s apartment before he was found dead last May.
One of the videos showed Umberger lying in bed face up and was apparently unconscious, an unnamed source told The New York Post.
Umberger, 33, was lying in the same position when he was discovered dead by first responders.
A medical examiner has now ruled his death — along with that of 25-year-old Julio Ramirez — a homicide, saying both victims died in a ‘drug-facilitated theft.’
Robert Demaio, 34, turned himself into authorities on Monday after cops discovered a video of John Umberger’s lifeless body on his cellphone
Umberger, 33, a Washington, DC, political consultant was the victim of a homicide after leaving a gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen May of 2022. Umberger had been in New York on business
Julio Ramirez, 25, was a social worker from New York was another victim killed in April 2022 after a night out in Hell’s Kitchen. He was found dead in the back of a taxi
Both Umberger and Ramirez were last seen leaving gay bars in Hell’s Kitchen with strangers before they were found dead of a suspected drug overdose with fraudulent charges on their cards.
They are believed to have been targeted by thieves who drugged them to empty their bank accounts, before leaving the victims to die.
Authorities now say that Demaio, as well as his accomplices Jacob Barroso, 30, and Jayqwan Hamilton, 35, fed lethal drug cocktails to Umberger and Ramirez when they were partying at gay clubs in Hell’s Kitchen in separate instances last year.
The crew is alleged to have stolen thousands of dollars from their victims in at least 17 drug-induced robberies last year, in which they would befriend an unwitting victims at major Manhattan club and knock them out with a cocktail of drugs that they would pass off as just being cocaine.
They would then grab the victims’ cellphones to electronically transfer money from their bank accounts.
‘The defendant and others approached intoxicated individuals exiting bars and nightclubs,’ prosecutor Emily Chang said of Demaio.
‘Those targeted victims would be offered a substance that was promoted as cocaine, and the intoxication of these drugs resulted in the victims being incapacitated,’ she continued. ‘The incapacitation led to the death of two individuals.’
Jacob Barroso, 30, was charged with murder in connection to Ramirez’s death. He was ordered held without bail on Monday
A third member of the gang, Andre Butts, was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail or a $150,000 bond
Umberger’s body was found on June 1 in the Midtown Manhattan townhouse (pictured) where he was staying
Umberger, a political consultant from Washington DC, was found on May 28, 2022 on the fifth floor of an Upper East Sid townhouse, days after he disappeared from The Q NYC gay club.
Police later traced subsequent purchases made with his credit cards and linked his death to the string of robberies at nightclubs last year.
Ramirez, meanwhile, was found dead in the back of a taxi on the Lower East Side after he was seen partying at The Ritz Bar and Lounge on April 21, 2022.
Both men died from ‘acute intoxication’ from the same lethal cocktail ‘fentanyl, p-fluorofentanyl, cocaine, lidocaine and ethanol.’ Ramirez also had ‘heroin’ in his system, the medical examiner revealed.
‘Our entire city continues to mourn the tragic losses of Mr. Ramirez and Mr. Umberger,’ Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
‘In addition to the unimaginable pain their family and loves ones are enduring, I know that many other New Yorkers have feared for their own safety when out experiencing New York’s vibrant nightlife.’
Authorities are now investigating a separate gang for allegedly killing fashion designer Katie Gallagher (pictured here in 2014)
Demaio was indicted on murder and robbery charges last month, and surrendered himself to police at the department’s 5th Precinct station on Monday — two days after Barroso turned himself in.
Demaio and Barroso, as well as third alleged member of the gang, Andre Butts, were arraigned in the Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday.
Police are still searching for another suspect in the gang, Jayqwan Hamilton, 34, who was indicted on murder charges by a Manhattan grand jury in the two victims deaths
Demaio and Barroso were ordered held without bail by Judge Angela Badamo, while Butts — who is also charged with a robbery in June — was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail or a $150,000 bond.
Police are still searching for another suspect in the gang, Jayqwan Hamilton, 34, who was indicted on murder charges by a Manhattan grand jury in the two victims deaths. Barroso was also charged in Ramirez’s death, but not Umberger’s.
Another member of their crew, Shane Haskins, was arrested on Thursday and is being held at Rikers Island on a $50,000 cash bail or a $100,000 bond.
This investigation has led to a second pattern of at least 26 drug-and-rob attacks with different suspects and possibly involving five more overdose deaths.
In these cases the suspects befriend their victims inside bars where they offer them drugs or slip in their drinks before stealing money, phones and jewelry by force.
The gang is blamed for the drugging death of fashion designer Kate Gallagher, wo was found dead in her Lower East Side apartment in July after being fed a lethal concoction.
Police have already identified Kenwood Allen, a 33-year-old career criminal, as a person of interest in the designer’s death.
Allen — who has 17 prior arrests — is already charge in the March 18, 2022 death of Nurbo Shera at a club on Seventh Street and the death of Ardijan Berisha on July 30, 2022.
