Julio Ramírez: Last News

drug-induced robbery scheme that is alleged to have led to the deaths of two gay men in New York City last year has pleaded guilty to robbery, grand larceny, and identity theft charges, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.Eddie Ashley, 30, is alleged to have been part of a scheme that targeted at least 16 nightclub patrons from September 2021 to August 2022, resulting in the overdose-related deaths of 25-year-old social worker Julio Ramirez and 34-year-old John Umberger, a political consultant from Washington, D.C. Both Ramirez and Umberger were seen leaving gay bars with a group of other men, only to be found dead hours later.Part of the scheme involved the suspects drugging their victims with a substance that made them compliant and then using their incapacitated bodies and facial recognition technology to unlock their cell phones and access bank accounts to rob them.Ashley, who faced charges related to four separate incidents, including the drugging scheme, had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.On Monday, he changed his plea to guilty.Terrence Grifferty, Ashley’s attorney, confirmed his client’s guilty plea, telling NBC News that Ashley is expected to be sentenced to nine years in state prison on November 20.He is currently being held at Rikers Island jail, but declined to comment further on the case or answer whether his client had accepted a plea deal.Umberger’s mother, Linda Clary — who has been critical of how the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has handled the case — said she was grateful that Ashley was willing to admit his guilt in the robbery scheme, adding that he should face consequences for his actions.

died from “acute intoxication” stemming from a mix of fentanyl, cocaine, ethanol, and other drugs, according to the city medical examiner’s office.Ramirez’s body was left in the back of a taxi in April 2022, while Umberger died in a townhouse a month later, while his attackers took photos and videos of them partying next to his lifeless body.At trial, prosecutors presented text messages showing that DeMaio was responsible for obtaining the fentanyl used to incapacitate the victims. Prosecutors also presented the jury with cell phone tower data, text exchanges, security video footage, and other evidence to track the defendants’ movements as they carried out their robberies and went on shopping binges with victims’ money.The jury also heard accounts from other men who had survived similar drugging encounters.One man described waking up bruised and alone in a hotel room with his credit card and phones missing.

NBC News, the previously unreported incident occurred days before six suspects allegedly involved in the scheme were arrested and indicted on charges of grand larceny, first-degree robbery, and conspiracy to drug and rob at least a dozen victims at various clubs and bars.Three of the men also face murder charges related to the deaths of D.C. political consultant John Umberger and Brooklyn social worker Julio Ramirez, who both died from overdoses of a mix of fentanyl, cocaine, ethanol, and other drugs.The suspects in the criminal ring allegedly drugged their victims to incapacitate and rob them, often using facial recognition technology to access their phones, between September 2021 and August 2022. The most recent victim, a 30-year-old gay man known as “Michael” — whose full name is being kept confidential — said he went out on March 25 to The Eagle NYC, a gay bar in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, where at least three other drugging victims claimed to have gone prior to being robbed. According to Michael, he was intoxicated when three men approached him and his friends after leaving the bar around 3:45 a.m.From what he could recall, he entered a taxi with the men, while his friends went home in a separate taxi.Michael remembers being in an unknown apartment before regaining consciousness several hours later without his cell phone.

arrested last June for using Ramirez’s credit card to buy two pairs of Nike sneakers for $544.38 at an upscale store in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood — just hours after Ramirez’s dead body was discovered inside a cab on the city’s Lower East Side. Prosecutors claim the group was also seen entering and leaving the townhouse where Umberger was staying on the night he was killed, and driving off in a red Dodge Durango, which had been rented to Demaio. After police arrested Demaio, they found two videos on his phone showing him, Hamilton, and Umberger, who appeared to be unconscious, inside the townhouse, reports The New York Post.Appearing in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon, Hamilton pleaded not guilty to the indictment.

The New York Post.Umberger, 33, and Ramirez, 25, died from “acute intoxication” from a mix of fentanyl, cocaine, ethanol, and other drugs, according to the New York City Medical Examiner’s office, which ruled both deaths homicides earlier this month. Ramirez was found dead inside a taxi on the Lower East Side in April of last year after being seen leaving the Ritz Bar and Lounge, a gay club in Hell’s Kitchen, with three unidentified men.His wallet and phone were missing, delaying notification, and his family later reported that his bank account had been emptied of about $20,000 through apps such as Venmo and Zelle. His credit cards were maxed out after being used to purchase items like expensive dinners and spa services. In January, an NYPD spokesman told ABC New York that a man, Andre Butts, had been arrested last June for using Ramirez’s credit card to buy two pairs of Nike sneakers for $544.38 at an upscale store in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, just hours after Ramirez’s body was discovered. Umberger was last seen on Saturday, May 28, 2022 after a night out at the gay nightclub Q NYC, while in town for a work trip.

A 25-year-old social worker and mental health counselor was found unresponsive in the backseat of a New York City taxi following a night out in the city’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.The victim was later identified as 25-year-old Julio Ramirez, a resident of Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood, who had recently moved to the city a year ago after graduating with a double masters from the University of Buffalo. His friends described him as “sweet” and a “smart young man,” and his brother, Carlos, said Julio “believed in serving underprivileged communities.”On April 20, Ramirez, who was an out gay man, went out with friends in Hell’s Kitchen and made several stops before ensign the night at the Ritz Bar and Lounge, a popular gay bar.