Manhattan prosecutors detailed the ghoulish crimes allegedly dedicated by a fentanyl-wielding theft crew authorities say fatally drugged two males a number of years in the past — and skewered the protection’s competition that the entire thing was only a massive coincidence.
In her closing argument Friday, Assistant District Lawyer Meghan Hast walked the jury via an avalanche of proof authorities say proves defendants Jayqwan Hamilton, Robert DeMaio and Jacob Barroso drugged and robbed 5 totally different males in 2022.
Two of their alleged victims died in the course of the ordeals, which frequently began with the alleged predators approaching inebriated younger males leaving homosexual nightclubs in Hell’s Kitchen.
On Thursday, protection attorneys conceded their shoppers could certainly be criminals — however claimed they aren’t killers, including that the prosecution hasn’t proved the boys had been those who gave the boys the medicine.
However Hast batted that down Friday, saying fentanyl is the “excellent weapon to commit a theft.”
“Did these males simply occur upon individuals who took fentanyl on 5 totally different events?” she requested the jury.
“The concept that all this was unintended and that they merely profited from it — making them responsible of petit larceny — is the definition of an outlandish concept.”
Throughout the trial, prosecutors stated the suspects — allegedly half of a bigger theft gang — killed 33-year-old political advisor John Umberger and 25-year-old Brooklyn social employee Julio Ramirez by giving them fentanyl-laced medicine meant to knock them out.
However each victims died of “acute intoxication” from a mixture of fentanyl, cocaine, ethanol and different medicine, town health worker stated final March.
All three at the moment are going through homicide prices for allegedly killing Ramirez — whereas Hamilton, 37, and DeMaio, 36, have moreover been charged in Umberger’s loss of life.
The alleged druggings began March 18, 2022, when the boys robbed and burglarized a person named Alex at Hyatt Union Sq., the prosecutor stated.
Hast confirmed the jury surveillance photographs of Hamilton and one other conspirator, Andre Butts, pushing their comatose sufferer on a resort baggage trolley earlier than robbing him in his resort room as DeMaio waited within the getaway automotive.
“They wheeled him into his room, peeled his eyes open so as to unlock his cellphone, then left him for lifeless whereas calmly strolling out of the resort earlier than escaping in a getaway automotive,” Hast stated.
“Hamilton and Butts purposely gave him fentanyl to incapacitate and rob him,” she added. “This was no petty theft — this was a violent theft and housebreaking.”
They allegedly robbed one other man, named Max, the next month exterior The Q nightclub in Midtown and later in his Brooklyn condominium, the prosecutor stated.
“The cocaine was laced with a fast-acting highly effective opioid, which had the specified impact,” she stated, including that they jacked the sufferer’s cellphone, bag and pockets.
“Maxwell doesn’t keep in mind something as soon as he obtained again to the condominium with the boys he met on the Q.”
A number of weeks later, on April 21, Hamilton and Barroso, 32, approached Julio Ramirez exterior The Ritz Bar in Manhattan, talked him up and loaded him in a cab.
By that time, Ramirez had fentanyl, heroin and the highly effective artificial opioid P-fluorofentanyl in his system — though Hast stated he’d solely been ingesting earlier than the defendants handed him the deadly chemical cocktail.
“Julio was given cocaine laced with fentanyl, inflicting him to enter respiratory failure in beneath quarter-hour,” she instructed the court docket, noting that in any other case Ramirez was a “wholesome 25-year-old man.”
The defendants allegedly took his cellphone, drained his financial institution accounts and took off when Ramirez handed out. Then they went on a wild procuring spree at Prada, Capsule and Sneaker Palace with their sufferer’s cash.
“Even in the event you assume [Ramirez] made a foul resolution staying up till 3 a.m. ingesting on a piece night time, he didn’t should be drugged with fentanyl, stripped of his belongings and left for lifeless at the back of a New York taxi cab.”
They allegedly robbed one other man named Gerardo simply three weeks later, incapacitating him with some laced cocaine he snorted exterior The Ritz earlier than taking his cellphone and transferring his cash to Hamilton’s account.
Two weeks later, on Might 28, Hamilton and DeMaio approached Umberger exterior The Q NYC, then went again to his townhouse with him at about 6 a.m.
Minutes later, Umberger was handed out on his mattress — and Hamilton and DeMaio stayed for one more half-hour as they ripped him off, she added.
“[They] hit the jackpot, they usually weren’t going to screw it up,” Hast instructed the court docket. “They’d hooked a barely older, very profitable homosexual man. John clearly had cash, they usually wanted time to switch these funds.”
Apart from the homicide prices, the trio has been hit with an assortment of theft, housebreaking, conspiracy and larceny prices for his or her alleged crimes.
The jury began their deliberations after Hast wound up her prolonged summation.
It’s unclear after they’ll have a verdict.
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