Eddie Ashley was looking for a hookup. So like countless others on a Saturday night in New York City, he went to The Ritz, a gay bar in Manhattan\u2019s Hell\u2019s Kitchen neighborhood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He drank too much, he said. And he did end up going home with someone \u2014 one of his victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eighteen months later, Ashley, 30, was sentenced to nine years in state prison for robbing the man he left the bar with in May 2022, along with various other crimes he pleaded guilty to committing in recent years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authorities said Ashley and the victim went to the victim\u2019s apartment several blocks north of the bar, and Ashley stole the man\u2019s phone and wallet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this was not, prosecutors said, a one-off robbery among so many others across the city on any given night. The encounter was part of a broader crime ring in which authorities said at least 16 victims, many of them gay men, were targeted from September 2021 to August 2022 at bars and nightclubs, then often drugged and robbed of thousands of dollars while they were incapacitated. In several cases, surviving victims and their family members believe the assailants used facial recognition technology to unlock their mark\u2019s phones. Two of the men were killed. Ashley denies knowledge of the wider crime ring and was not charged with murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attacks happened quietly throughout the city\u2019s busy nightlife, striking run-of-the-mill bars, multistory nightclubs, and underground gay leather bars across two Manhattan neighborhoods, with intoxicated gay men often the targets. The danger lurking in the venues didn\u2019t come into broad public view until May 2022 \u2014 eight months after it started \u2014 when NBC News reported that a 25-year-old gay man had been killed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After months of pressure from the victims\u2019 families, the news media and politicians, the New York City Police Department said it had finally cracked the case: Officers arrested six suspects earlier this year who they said were part of the drugging-and-robbery ring. The arrests were announced at a news conference that included the mayor, police commissioner and the Manhattan district attorney \u2014 and was met with long-awaited relief within the city\u2019s gay community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Five of the suspects pleaded not guilty charges that included murder, conspiracy and grand larceny. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Eddie Ashley, though, admitted he was guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the four crimes to which he pleaded guilty, the May 2022 robbery, was linked by prosecutors to the broader crime ring. Awaiting his sentencing three weeks ago, he asked if the <\/strong>expected punishment fit the crime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI lost a lot being in here, financially, I lost my grandma \u2014 so I\u2019m kind of messed up. This is basically a bad situation right now for something that was just one night,\u201d Ashley told NBC News at Rikers Island jail complex in his first interview about the crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ashley\u2019s sentencing is the most significant development in the year-old case, and it provides the best insights yet into how the investigation unfolded. But it also highlights how much is still not known. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A separate crime ring was committing similar crimes at bars in Manhattan\u2019s Lower East Side within the same time period, according to prosecutors. Some victims still don\u2019t know if their specific cases are linked to one or the other alleged crime ring \u2014 or neither. And there\u2019s even bigger gaps: One man remembers being victimized in March of this year by a woman \u2014 yet all the people who have been charged are men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And almost all of the victims who spoke with NBC News say they wonder whether the reign of terror afflicting New York City\u2019s nightlife still continues, unnoticed once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Julio Ramirez was a 25-year-old social worker. John Umberger was a 33-year-old political consultant. Both went out to gay bars in Hell\u2019s Kitchen 38 days apart last spring. Both ended up drugged, robbed and dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Police initially told relatives that their deaths appeared to be self-inflicted: accidental overdoses, the families said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But that didn\u2019t add up to the families. They suspected foul play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both Ramirez and Umberger each left a bar with at least one man. Both had their bank accounts drained. Both appeared to be reading text messages on their phone <\/strong>after their bodies were found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRight away I knew something was wrong,\u201d Ramirez\u2019s brother, Carlos, said. \u201cHe would never intentionally take any drugs or anything that could harm him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Umberger\u2019s family was similarly not convinced by the police explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To them, \u201cit looked like John had gone out to a club, been robbed, emptied his credit cards out of his wallet \u2014 but he still had his wallet, no phone \u2014 and he came home and did a bunch of drugs because he was so depressed over what happened,\u201d Umberger\u2019s mother, Linda Clary, previously told NBC News<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s where it was like, \u2018I\u2019m sorry, that\u2019s not my child.\u2019 I can assure you if that were to happen, that\u2019s not what John would have done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both families were determined to take matters into their own hands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the days following her son\u2019s death last spring, Clary flew to New York from her home in Georgia, seeking answers. With the help of six family members and her son\u2019s friends, she retraced his last steps from what she gathered from his bank transactions, phone records and those who saw him last. Similarly, after several failed login attempts to Ramirez\u2019s computer, Carlos Ramirez gained access and uncovered suspicious banking records from his brother\u2019s accounts. Clary and Ramirez both said thousands of dollars had been drained from their loved one\u2019s accounts following their deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both families took their findings to the NYPD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey looked at us like we were from outer space,\u201d Clary previously<\/a> said. \u201cNo one was interested in finding out the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two days after speaking with authorities, Clary said a homicide detective was assigned to her son\u2019s case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But still frustrated with the pace of the investigations, both families brought their stories to the media, hoping it would put pressure on authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Had she not gone to reporters, Clary speculated, \u201cit would have continued to be pushed under the carpet, and things would still be going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the news of Umberger\u2019s death became known, gay men who said<\/a> they had survived similarly harrowing experiences stepped forward to share their stories publicly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NBC News spoke with six people who say they or their family members had been the victims of crimes from December 2021 to this March that broadly fit the pattern of the Ramirez and Umberger cases. Many of the victims say the suspects used their faces while incapacitated to unlock their phones, via facial recognition technology, and access their bank accounts. Some of them asked that their names not be published out of fear of retaliation by the people who harmed them. All of the men say they filed police reports shortly after their encounters occurred and most said their cases are ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In December 2021, Tyler Burt, 28, was walking home after a night out with friends when he stopped in at the Boiler Room, a gay bar in Manhattan\u2019s East Village for one last drink. Sitting alone at the bar was the last thing he remembered before waking up the next day in his apartment fully clothed, with his shoes still on and roughly $15,000 and personal belongings stolen, Burt said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI feel lucky in a way that I didn\u2019t get murdered,\u201d Burt said. \u201cSomething horrible happened to me, but I\u2019m still alive to tell the tale. I\u2019m very grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In July 2022, a 51-year-old Manhattan resident said he woke up on his living room floor in a pile of his own vomit after having a single drink at the 9th Avenue Saloon, a gay bar in Hell\u2019s Kitchen. The last thing he remembered was saying goodbye to his friends. He said that he had a single drink the entire evening and that roughly $8,000 had been taken from his account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe only reason I didn\u2019t die was because they left me on my stomach,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd thank God I wasn\u2019t raped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhy can\u2019t I go out and have fun and not worry that I\u2019m not going to make it home?\u201d the man added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And this March, Michael, a 30-year-old gay man, said he was approached by an unknown woman after visiting The Eagle NYC, a gay bar in Manhattan\u2019s Chelsea neighborhood. When he came to, he said, the same woman \u2014 who he said knew his name \u2014 was shaking him on an empty street in East Harlem, about 80 blocks north of the bar, \u201ctrying to get rid of me.\u201d The next day, he realized that $5,000 was missing from his bank account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe way that they systematically went through all of my banking and credit card apps on my phone, it was like practice,\u201d he said. \u201cYou could tell that they\u2019d done this before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The medical examiner\u2019s office ruled<\/a> in March that Ramirez and Umberger\u2019s deaths were homicides caused by a \u201cdrug-facilitated theft.\u201d Multiple drugs were found in their systems, including fentanyl, lidocaine and cocaine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the following weeks, six men \u2014 Ashley, Jayqwan Hamilton, 36; Robert Demaio, 35; Jacob Barroso, 30; Andre Butts, 29; and Shane Hoskins, 32 \u2014 were charged<\/a> in connection with the crime scheme that led to the deaths of Ramirez and Umberger. Three \u2014 Hamilton, Demaio and Barroso \u2014 were charged with murder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While many of the victims were gay men, all were targeted for financial gain and not because of their sexual orientation, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The initial court appearance in April for three of the suspects \u2014 two of whom were charged with murder \u2014 was tense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The small Manhattan courtroom was packed with family members and friends of the deceased sitting across a tight aisle from the family and friends of the men accused of killing their loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the three defendants appeared, they were surrounded by a swarm of roughly a dozen court officers. Carlos Ramirez and his parents were visibly distressed, realizing they were seated directly behind where the defendants would be sitting, prompting others in the gallery to make room for them to move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was such a bad, dark feeling just thinking that these were the last people my brother was with when he died,\u201d Ramirez said. \u201cThat just really messed me up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the judge spoke, a relative of one of the defendants got into a verbal altercation with a police officer after the officer asked them to quiet down. When the man asked why, the officer got in the man\u2019s face and screamed: \u201cBecause I said so! You\u2019re in our house.\u201d When the man yelled expletives back, he was escorted out of the courtroom by several officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the courtroom became quiet again, all that could be heard through the whispers were the sniffles of tearful grieving family members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside, supporters of one of the suspects, Barroso, went in front of the news cameras and yelled that he is \u201cnot a murderer. You guys got this backwards. We will prove his innocence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few weeks later, Clary flew from Georgia to New York to attend the first court appearance for Hamilton, one of the two men charged in her son\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was the first time she had been to New York since recovering her son\u2019s body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the courthouse she was swarmed by a gaggle of reporters and news cameras, which she described as \u201coverwhelming.\u201d The attention on Clary was unsurprising. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After months of raising awareness about the gay bar killings, Clary \u2014 a devout Christian from the South \u2014 had become somewhat of a leading voice for the safety and well-being of New York City\u2019s gay men. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt does strike me as being odd the more that I think about it though,\u201d Clary said. \u201cHere you are in New York, the bastion of progressivism, and yet I\u2019m the one having to raise the flag.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLife is full of ironies,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ashley grew up downtown. As a high school dropout, he said he had been working toward earning some sort of employment certificate before he was sent to Rikers. He was living with his elderly grandmother in Manhattan\u2019s Lower East Side and taking care of her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI had a lot of s— going on before,\u201d Ashley said. \u201cI was trying to get my life together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 14, 2022, Ashley went to The Ritz \u2014 the same bar where Ramirez was last seen a month before \u2014 looking for a hookup, he said. He said he had been to the bar two or three times before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Prosecutors said Ashley left the bar and went to the apartment of the man whose phone and wallet Ashley would later steal. Ashley said he does not remember going back to the man\u2019s apartment but does remember that he had not met the man before. He described the man as being in his 20s and Latino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Police obtained security footage of Ashley using the victim\u2019s phone to pay for Taco Bell that same morning via Apple Pay, according to prosecutors. Ashley said he does remember getting Taco Bell but suggested the victim could have bought him food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In April, Ashley was arrested and charged with robbery, grand larceny, petit larceny and identity theft for four incidents from October 2021 to August 2022, including the May 2022 encounter, which was linked to the broader crime scheme, according to prosecutors. Unable to make bail, he was sent to the notorious Rikers Island jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After nearly seven months there, Ashley said he changed his plea to guilty so he can serve time in prison elsewhere. For years, the massive jail complex has been under scrutiny by criminal justice activists and lawmakers from around the country for its allegedly \u201cinhumane conditions<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ashley had one word to describe his time at Rikers: \u201crough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said he\u2019s been in fights with inmates, adding, \u201cMaybe two or three altercations with officers\u2019 use of force, but that\u2019s about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Being in custody has also taken an immense emotional toll, he said. His grandmother died while he was behind bars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He explained that, regardless of the other crimes he committed, he believes the May 2022 encounter had an outsize impact on his sentencing because it was linked to the wider scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ashley was not charged with murder and was not present on the nights of either Ramirez\u2019s or Umberger\u2019s deaths, according to prosecutors. He said he only found out about the wider crime scheme when he obtained an attorney upon his arraignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI knew it had nothing to do with me,\u201d he said of victims who were drugged and died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prosecutors allege that another one of the six suspects, Hamilton, who was charged with murder in the deaths of both Ramirez and Umberger, was present on the night Ashley committed the robbery in May 2022. Hamilton was accused of giving Ashley\u2019s victim an unknown illicit substance outside the bar and using the victim\u2019s phone to steal $2,000 from his bank accounts. Hamilton\u2019s lawyer declined to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ashley said he remembers Hamilton being at the bar that night, but he maintains that he never saw Hamilton drugging anyone. Ashley declined to say how he knew Hamilton, citing Hamilton\u2019s ongoing case, but said they were not friends. He also denied knowing any of the other four defendants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After sitting with NBC News in the Rikers visitors\u2019 hall \u2014 a nearly empty room that could seat hundreds \u2014 for about 15 minutes, Ashley called a correction officer over to end the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t even care anymore,\u201d Ashley said when asked about being connected by authorities to a broader scheme that led to the death of two men, walking off. \u201cIt\u2019s behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the victims and families of the deceased, the yearslong crime scheme has been difficult to leave behind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of the victims who spoke with NBC News described re-entering New York City\u2019s nightlife scene with apprehension. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 51-year-old man said he\u2019s been out only once or twice since he was robbed. He said he\u2019s afraid that his assailants \u2014 who he said do not appear to be any of the suspects arrested in recent months \u2014 might recognize him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI go straight to work and straight to home,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m always looking around; I\u2019m always suspicious of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael said he is slowly trying to re-enter New York\u2019s nightlife scene after being abandoned in East Harlem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy therapist has told me to be more discerning around people, and that\u2019s a good defense mechanism, but I don\u2019t really like that, you know?\u201d Michael said. \u201cI like the person I am. I like being friendly and trusting and open, and it would really suck if that\u2019s something that was permanently changed by this experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael went back to The Eagle NYC for the first time last month. Instead of opting for a late night out, he went for happy hour earlier in the evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All but one of the surviving victims who spoke with NBC News said they still have facial recognition software on their phones out of convenience. Some note that the larger issue is the danger of being drugged, regardless of whether a criminal can unlock a person\u2019s phone and steal their money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ramirez family did not celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas last year, Carlos said, and does not plan on doing so this year either. For Carlos personally, he said he misses his best friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen something happens and it\u2019s good news and he\u2019s not here, I can\u2019t share it with him. It kind of takes away from it,\u201d Carlos said. \u201cThat\u2019s really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clary said she hasn\u2019t built up the courage to go through her son\u2019s belongings in his apartment in Washington, D.C. More recently, she\u2019s made a handful of trips to New York City for the pretrial court appearances of the suspects charged in connection with her son\u2019s death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Clary has been enjoying her new role as a grandmother in recent months. But even that, she said, has been challenging at times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat whole experience is diminished because John is not here,\u201d she said. \u201cAt some point I have to let go of John not being here and trust God that He has a plan that this life, that we think is everything, is so small compared to eternity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she\u2019s in New York, she said she likes to frequent some of her son\u2019s favorite restaurants in Manhattan: The Waverly Inn in the West Village, Minetta Tavern in Greenwich Village and La Goulue on the Upper East Side, across the street from the apartment where her son died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is a kind of ridiculous, not logical thing,\u201d Clary said. \u201cBut you like to go to the places he enjoyed being at because you\u2019re thinking, \u2018Yeah, this is the closest thing you have to him being here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s been more than two years since authorities say this crime ring, which largely targeted gay bars, began. Yet victims of similar crimes to the ones that killed Ramirez and Umberger say they are still nearly as perplexed about the encounters as they were when they first regained consciousness immediately afterward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael said police and prosecutors told him his case was linked to the same group being charged in the two men\u2019s deaths. Police sources also confirmed the connection with NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Michael said authorities were never able to identify the sole person he remembers from the encounter: an unknown woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat tells me that there are still people on the streets who did this to me, to other people,\u201d Michael said. \u201cThere\u2019s no way they caught everyone who were doing these robberies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some survivors have even less clarity. They say police told them their cases have not been connected to the ring related to Ramirez and Umberger or the second known ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A 48-year-old man, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation from people involved in his encounter, said he was drugged and robbed after visiting The Eagle NYC in October 2022. He said his case is still ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know what happened legally with the Hell\u2019s Kitchen cases, but I feel like The Eagle cases just sort of fell off the radar,\u201d the man said. \u201cWere they connected to other cases? Have they all been caught? Are there suspects still at large? Is this still happening?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The NYPD and mayor\u2019s office launched a program<\/a> in June to re-examine unsolved drugging, robbery and homicide cases involving LGBTQ victims, which was largely seen as a response to criticisms surviving victims made<\/a> in the news media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A spokesperson for the mayor\u2019s office said that the NYPD has not received any requests to have cases re-examined as of last month and that the lack of applications could suggest that there is not a need to re-examine any cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Burt said he applied to have his case re-examined in June. He said he tried following up with the NYPD in July, but he did not receive a response to his last emails, which he shared with NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m just disappointed in how this whole thing has been handled,\u201d Burt said. \u201cEvery step of the way has made me feel like this is not a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The NYPD defended how the cases were handled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Detective Bureau is committed to conducting solid, high-quality investigations and ensuring that each investigation is handled efficiently with dedication and professionalism,\u201d an NYPD spokesperson said in an email. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael suggested that while it is important to find and punish those who were responsible for the past crimes, it is equally paramount that people understand that the technological tactics used to access their financial accounts are likely being replicated by others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs long as there is a convenient way for you to unlock your phone without having to enter a pin, people are going to use it and people are going to find ways to exploit it,\u201d he said. \u201cAwareness is the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMaybe they\u2019re laying low, maybe it\u2019s hard to find them,\u201d he added, \u201cbut they\u2019re definitely still out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n