It was the almost perfect crime. Hell’s Kitchen gay bars wanted to keep it quiet so customers weren’t scared away.
New York Democrats wanted to keep it quiet to downplay law-and-order issues before a crucial gubernatorial election in November 2022.
The cops were already overwhelmed with crime and struggling with the aftermath of COVID and “Defund the Police” madness.
But the mother of one of the victims, Linda Clary, refused to be quiet.
She knew that there was a gang preying on young gay men in Hell’s Kitchen. She didn’t want anyone else to die like her son John Umberger, 33, had died in the early hours of May 29, 2022, drugged with fentanyl, his final moments captured by his snickering killers on a 14-second video that sealed their fate.
Clary refused to remain silent and came to The Post to warn the gay community of predators on the prowl.
She was blessed with one detective who joined the dots between her son’s murder and the similar unsolved death of Julio Ramirez, 25, who had been found dead in a cab a month earlier after being drugged and robbed.
In the end, Detective Randy Rose and his partner, Detective Alex Argiro, cracked the case of the gay-bar “roofie” killers, interviewed dozens of living victims, and put five of the predators behind bars.
Jayqwan Hamilton, 37, Robert Demaio, 36, and Jacob Barroso, 32, were convicted of murder, robbery, burglary, and conspiracy to rob and drug people outside Manhattan nightclubs, which led to the deaths of Umberger and Ramirez.
40-to-life for killers
On Wednesday, Hamilton and Demaio were sentenced to 40 years to life while Barroso was sentenced to 20 years to life.
In March, two other men in the case, Shane Hoskins and Andre Butts, were sentenced to eight years in jail for their roles in the scheme.
During the investigation, police realized there was a second criminal gang preying on revelers at bars on the Lower East Side around the same time using similar methods. Prosecutors say Kenwood Allen, who has pleaded not guilty, killed four people in 15 days. He allegedly drugged his victims with fentanyl before stealing their credit cards and leaving them for dead on the street. One of those victims was Lady Gaga’s fashion designer Kathryn Gallagher, 35.
“This was a cold and calculated pattern,” said New York Criminal Court Judge Felicia Mennin before handing down the sentences to a courtroom packed with the victims’ family and friends Wednesday.
“I pity your lack of humanity and empathy for your fellow human beings.”
As Clary sat in court surrounded by friends, she felt gratitude. The trial had been an ordeal, with the video of her son dying shown to the jury along with a longer video of the killers toasting each other as they celebrated in the Upper East Side townhouse Umberger had just moved into to begin his new life in New York. The gregarious Washington, DC, political consultant had last used his credit card that night at the Q NYC, a multistory gay nightclub on Eighth Avenue. His body was not found for four days.
As excruciating as it was to watch her son die on screen, she says the video “100% made an impact on the jury . . . Just the depraved indifference to human life . . . To snicker, toast and laugh and not skip a beat before they went out to buy tennis shoes . . . They kept it on their phones, fortunately, and it was used as evidence. They had no shame.”
She wanted to get into the witness box Wednesday and explain what John meant to her, the four days of silence after he went missing, and the silence she lives with now.
But she choked up and instead read aloud excerpts of some of the myriad victim impact statements his friends and family had lodged with the court. “It was truly a beautiful thing but so tragic,” she said.
These were some of the tributes to John and reproaches to his killers given to the court:
“John was the kind of person who actually lit up a room,” said family friend Tracy Coll West. “He dripped with optimism, goodness and the kind of love that comes straight from God. I don’t mean that figuratively, he had a light around him that you could actually see . . . At his funeral, his mother mentioned that she had found thank you letters that John had written to God.”
John’s biological father, Alick Campbell, who flew in from the UK: “I will say this, only because his mother may not feel able to mention it. In all my 60 years — I have never met a son who was more dutiful or loving of his mother than John was. He would call her most days — he was always there for her — in moments of joy and especially when life threw it difficulties in her way. He was her rock and gave her as solid a love as any human is capable of — which leaves such an unfathomable hole.”
‘Uncaring. Unmoved’
Eolene Boyd, John’s godmother, said: “No mother should have to think about their child, their larger-than-life first-born, being left to die. Alone. Without those who loved him to be with him as he breathed his last. Instead, surrounded by people robbing him of his life and belongings and dignity. Uncaring. Unmoved by another person’s plight and struggle to continue to live. This callousness is unfathomable to me.”
Joanna Dematatis, a friend from childhood: “These callous men took from the world a bright, innocent life, someone who devoted himself to encouraging others, lifting them up, and leading with heart. For what? A Gucci bag? A pair of Nikes? Their senseless greed and lack of humanity is sickening.”
John’s best friend, Lauren Doyle: “The men with him could have called 911 — but instead they used their phones to film John dying. I don’t have the words to describe how difficult it was to watch my friend turn blue, unable to breathe, unable to move — completely helpless . . . The extreme disregard for life and utter lack of empathy shown to John in his last moments were shocking.
“And yet, had John not suffered as he did, I strongly believe we wouldn’t be sitting here today contemplating justice for this case. Gay men were being hunted for sport, and it wasn’t until John’s death that detectives and prosecutors began to connect the dots. His murder exposed a pattern of violence that had gone unnoticed for far too long.”
It’s true that without the perseverance of his mother and Detective Rose, the predators would have continued their evil game, and other people likely would have died. The system worked this time.
