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 shoppers might certainly be criminals — however they didn’t kill anybody.
Prosecutors, nevertheless, mentioned in Manhattan Supreme Court docket Thursday that the males’s lethal hustle — which allegedly focused inebriated males leaving homosexual golf equipment in Hell’s Kitchen — was “executed with an entire disregard to human life.”
And it left two corpses in its wake.
“They preyed on unsuspecting younger homosexual males,” Manhattan prosecutor Meghan Hast mentioned in court docket about defendants Jayqwan Hamilton, Robert DeMaio and Jacob Barroso.
“Don’t allow them to get away with it.”
Authorities slapped all three with homicide costs 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 marketing consultant 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, town medical expert mentioned final March.
All three defendants have been charged with homicide in Ramirez’s loss of life, whereas Hamilton, 37, and DeMaio, 36, had been charged equally for Umberger’s deadly overdose of the deadly chemical cocktail.
The three would use “medication that contained fentanyl, a potent fast-acting opioid so as to incapacitate them shortly, 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 cash.”
Then the gang callously left their “fully unresponsive and never respiratory” victims to die — whereas they went on wild spending sprees with the stolen cash, prosecutors mentioned.
However protection attorneys disputed this, saying their shoppers aren’t murderers — though they is likely to be responsible of different crimes.
“My shopper, Jayqwan Hamilton, is responsible,” his protection legal professional, William James Alford III, informed the jury.
“He’s responsible of transferring cash from different folks’s accounts to his personal account with out permission,” he continued. “He’s responsible of shopping for objects like sneakers and garments with cash that wasn’t his. He’s completely not responsible of homicide, theft, housebreaking or conspiracy within the fourth diploma.”
DeMaio’s legal professional, Glenn Abolafia, took an analogous tack when he informed 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, though textual content messages prompt in any other case.
“He might have been a small-time drug seller, however he’s not charged with something to do with narcotics,” Abolafia mentioned.
“There’s no proof of Mr. DeMaio giving medication to anybody … It’s simply speak, there’s no corroboration. For the needs of a courtroom, speak is affordable.”
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 an amazing quantity of alcohol in his system, he had a cocktail of medication and we don’t know which drug triggered [his death],” the lawyer mentioned.
Barroso’s legal professional, David Krauss, additionally argued Ramirez was doing medication and consuming closely on the evening of his loss of life, which may have led to a self-inflicted overdose.
“Julio Ramirez took heroin, which may make you cease respiratory,” Krauss mentioned.
“If fentanyl was faraway from the equation, he may have died from a mix of different medication within the physique. He may have died from an overdose from medication he voluntarily took on his personal.”
“The prosecutor’s principle is that as a result of there was fentanyl in Julio Ramirez’s blood when he died, it should have been Jacob Barroso who gave it to him,” he continued. “There’s not one shred of proof Jacob Barroso had any data about fentanyl.”
However Hast pushed the jury to convict in her personal closing, which she is going to proceed when court docket resumes Friday.
“Julio Ramirez and John Umberger — two social beings energetic and enjoyable — tragically misplaced their lives due to these three males’s lethal hustle,” Hast mentioned.
“They particularly focused younger males leaving LGBTQ nightclubs at closing time — trusting males, out to get pleasure from our metropolis’s vibrant queer areas and perhaps meet some new folks.”
“They knew their inhibitions could also be down and as soon as separated from their pals, would provide them cocaine — cocaine they became a poison by mixing it with fentanyl,” she mentioned.
“If their victims occurred to die from the fentanyl, that was an added bonus, giving them extra time to buy earlier than the households discovered what occurred.”
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