Hells Kitchen Killers: 40-Year Sentences in Gay Bar Drug Deaths

At a Glance

• Julio Ramirez, 25, and John Umberger, 33, died months apart after nights out at Manhattan gay bars in 2022.
• Tens of thousands were drained from their accounts; both were found with phones and wallets missing.
• Three men-Jayqwan Hamilton, Robert DeMaio, Jacob Barroso-were sentenced in May 2025 for the druggings and robberies.
• Why it matters: The case exposed a pattern of targeted attacks on LGBTQ nightlife patrons and prompted homicide investigations after initial overdose rulings.

Two men died months apart after separate nights out at New York City gay bars in 2022, their deaths later linked to a string of druggings and robberies targeting the city’s LGBTQ nightlife scene. Julio Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker, and John Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant visiting from Washington, D.C., were each found dead with phones missing and bank accounts emptied. Authorities first examined both cases as possible overdoses.

Final Nights and Missing Money

Ramirez went out with a friend in Hell’s Kitchen on April 20, 2022. Surveillance footage showed him entering a taxi with three men around 3 a.m. An hour later, the trio exited; Ramirez was found unresponsive in the back seat and pronounced dead at a hospital. Within days, more than $20,000 had been withdrawn from his accounts.

Umberger’s path followed an eerily similar arc. On May 28, 2022, he visited a Hell’s Kitchen bar while in town from D.C. Surveillance captured him in a cab with three men. Four days later, he was found dead in the Manhattan townhouse where he was staying. Again, phone and wallet were gone, and over $20,000 had been drained.

Alarm Spreads Through the Community

Shiva Campbell, Ramirez’s longtime friend, realized something was wrong when his shared location disappeared. “We always shared our location with each other, just making sure that we were safe,” she says in the upcoming People Magazine Investigates episode. “I texted him. And he didn’t say anything to me.” By nightfall, Campbell had called Ramirez’s mother; neither had heard from him. His workplace then reported he had failed to show up.

Weeks later, other men came forward saying they had survived similar ordeals-waking up disoriented after nights at gay bars, thousands missing from their accounts. Flyers warning patrons to stay vigilant appeared throughout Hell’s Kitchen.

From Overdose to Homicide

As reports mounted, the NYPD reclassified both deaths as homicides. Prosecutors charged three men:

• Jayqwan Hamilton and Robert DeMaio – charged in both Ramirez and Umberger deaths
• Jacob Barroso – charged in Ramirez’s death

According to News Of Los Angeles‘s earlier coverage, the trio targeted victims outside gay bars, drugged them with fentanyl, then stole money and property while they were incapacitated.

Justice in 2025

In May 2025, sentences were handed down:

The case is revisited in People Magazine Investigates: Death in Hell’s Kitchen, airing Monday, Jan. 19 at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery and streaming platforms. The episode closes the series’ Monday-night run before its April 13 finale, Where Is Judith?, examining a serial predator on Florida’s Gulf Coast.