Two men attempt theft in a gays house

Eddie Ashley was looking for a hookup. He drank too much, he said. And he did end up going home with someone — one of his victims. Eighteen months later, Ashley, 30, was sentenced to nine years in state prison for robbing the man he left the bar with in Mayalong with various other crimes he pleaded guilty to committing in recent years.

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 to August at bars and nightclubs, then often drugged and robbed of thousands of dollars while they were incapacitated.

Two of the men were killed. Ashley denies knowledge of the wider crime ring and was not charged with murder. Five of the suspects pleaded not guilty charges that included murder, conspiracy and grand larceny. One of the four crimes to which he pleaded guilty, the May robbery, was linked by prosecutors to the broader crime ring.

Awaiting his sentencing three weeks ago, he asked if the expected punishment fit the crime. But it also highlights how much is still not known. Julio Ramirez was a year-old social worker. John Umberger was a year-old political consultant. Both ended up drugged, robbed and dead.

Police initially told relatives that their deaths appeared to be self-inflicted: accidental overdoses, the families said. 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 after their bodies were found.

But still frustrated with the pace of the investigations, both families brought their stories to the media, hoping it would put pressure on authorities. NBC News spoke with six people who say they or their family members had been the victims of crimes from December 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 Some of them asked that their names not be published out of fear of retaliation by the people who harmed them.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. The last thing he remembered was saying goodbye to his friends. In two men attempt theft in a gays house following weeks, six men — Ashley, Jayqwan Hamilton, 36; Robert Demaio, 35; Jacob Barroso, 30; Andre Butts, 29; and Shane Hoskins, 32 — were charged in connection with the crime scheme that led to the deaths of Ramirez and Umberger.

Three — Hamilton, Demaio and Barroso — were charged with murder.

Victims of the deadly druggings that terrorized NYC's gay bars are haunted by unknowns

While many of the victims were gay men, all were targeted for financial gain and not because of their sexual orientation, prosecutors said. The initial court appearance in April for three of the suspects — two of whom were charged with murder — was tense. 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.

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.

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.