Linda Clary had just about enough. The poor mother stormed out of a Manhattan courtroom one day in February during the closing arguments in the three-week murder trial of the men accused of killing her son and another young man. She was not having it.
In the restroom down the hall, she fell to her knees, praying for her son, the jurors, and the three men on trial in the killings. As she prayed, another mother entered — the mother of one of the defendants, Jacob Barroso. Can you even imagine the drama?
“I immediately stood up and she said, ‘Are you all right?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m not,’” Clary said. The two mothers embraced. “It was two moms who are in agony and pain, coming together and somehow appreciating each other’s agony and pain,” she said through tears. “And I feel like it was truly a divine, other-kingdomly moment that words cannot describe.” But prayers could not save either son.
This sad tale unfolds on Wednesday when Barroso, 32, Jayqwan Hamilton, 37, and Robert DeMaio, 36, were sentenced to decades in prison for murdering Clary’s son, 33-year-old John Umberger, and 25-year-old Julio Ramirez in the spring of 2022. The trio were quite the team — they worked together to drug and rob Umberger, Ramirez, and three others after meeting them outside popular city gay bars and nightclubs. Prosecutors spilled the tea that the defendants drugged the victims to the point of unconsciousness using a concoction that included fentanyl before they used their lifeless faces to unlock their cellphones through facial recognition technology. With access to the victims’ devices, the men drained thousands of dollars from their banking apps and used payment apps to buy food, shoes, alcohol, and other items. All three defendants were convicted of Ramirez’s murder, while Hamilton and DeMaio were convicted of Umberger’s. All three had maintained their innocence. Looks like they were not good at keeping secrets, huh?
Barroso’s mother and family members of the other men convicted of murder were nowhere to be found for comment. “There’s no doubt in my mind that Jacob Barroso’s mother loves him, his uncle loves him, his family loves him. And they showed up as much as I did during the trial,” Clary said. “And yet something happened, and he lost his way.” “They still get to see each other,” she added. “I don’t get to see John.” Well, that’s just heartbreaking.
The last time Clary saw her son was three years ago when she went to collect his body. Can you even imagine the pain she must have felt? It’s that moment, she said, that fuels her endurance. She spent the next three years relentlessly pressing the New York Police Department, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the mayor’s office, the media, and anyone who would listen, determined to ensure that her son’s case was not forgotten. Clary traveled from her home in North Carolina to New York City time and time again, meeting with investigators and officials, attending arraignments for her son’s then-accused killers, virtually every pretrial hearing, the three-week trial, and, finally, Wednesday’s sentencing. That’s some serious dedication, folks.
“I really wanted to hate New York and see it as a city that took John away from me, from us,” she said. “And it’s been part of the healing process that has been this beautiful thing.” Wow, that’s some deep stuff right there. Linda Clary is a force to be reckoned with.
