Serhat Gumrukcu Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Barnet, Vermont, Murder-for-Hire

Burlington, Vermont – The First Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that on November 24, 2025, Chief United States District Judge Christina Reiss sentenced Serhat Gumrukcu, 43, of Los Angeles, California, to life imprisonment for his role in the January 6, 2018, murder of Gregory Davis in Barnet, Vermont. Gumrukcu was convicted by a jury on April 18, 2025, of murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. Gumrukcu was also convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
  
Gumrukcu’s co-conspirators were sentenced in September 2025. Chief Judge Reiss imposed the following sentences:

•    Berk Eratay: 110 months of imprisonment to be followed by 3 years of supervised release.
•    Jerry Banks: 200 months of imprisonment to be followed by 5 years of supervised release.
•    Aron Ethridge: 140 months of imprisonment to be followed by 5 years of supervised release.

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Gumrukcu solicited the murder of Gregory Davis due to Davis’s threats of legal action related to Gumrukcu’s role in a failed oil commodities transaction. Gumrukcu’s conviction for wire fraud stemmed from his fraudulent activities in relation to this failed oil deal. Gumrukcu was particularly motivated to silence Davis due to his negotiations of a multi-million-dollar biotech merger involving Gumrukcu’s alleged discovery of a cure for HIV. Gumrukcu relied on his close friend, Berk Eratay, to arrange through a second intermediary, Aron Ethridge, the hiring of a hitman to kill Davis. Ethridge recruited Jerry Banks for the hitman role, who on January 6, 2018, posed as a Deputy U.S. Marshal, and abducted Davis from his Danville, Vermont home. On January 7, 2018, Davis’s deceased body was located in a snowbank in Barnet, Vermont, a short distance from Davis’s home. Investigators quickly discovered emails and messaging indicating the tension between Gumrukcu and Davis over the failed oil deal, resulting in Gumrukcu being interviewed twice by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Gumrukcu made false statements during each interview. Cellphone location information, purchase records, banking documentation, emails, and messaging discovered during the investigation led to the identification of Gumrukcu, Ethridge, Eratay, and Banks who caused the kidnapping and death of Davis.

During today’s sentencing hearing, Melissa Davis, Gregg Davis’s widow, addressed the Court. She expressed appreciation: to the Vermont State Police, “for every call, every update, every reassurance that you were working tirelessly to find who murdered Gregg”; to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for its “coordination across state lines,” “professionalism,” and its “relentless pursuit of truth [that] made all the difference”; and to the prosecution team, stating the prosecution’s “strength, commitment, and unwavering pursuit of justice over these many years will stay with me for the rest of my life. I watched the way you prosecuted this case during those five weeks with excellence, clarity, and conviction. There were moments I sat in that courtroom simply proud—knowing God had appointed each of you to pursue justice for Gregg.” Melissa Davis also expressed appreciation to her victim advocate, the United States Marshals Service, and to Chief Judge Reiss.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael P. Drescher commended the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Vermont State Police for their collaborative investigation of Gumrukcu, Eratay, Banks, and Ethridge, and the crimes associated with Davis’s murder. Drescher also thanked the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Homeland Security Investigations, as well as the numerous law enforcement entities across the country who worked to identify Banks as the hired hitman, Ethridge and Eratay as middlemen, and Gumrukcu as the financier and benefactor of the murder scheme.

At trial, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul J. Van de Graaf and Zachary Stendig represented the government, with support from Karen Arena-Leene and Erin Thompson-Moran. Serhat Gumrukcu was represented by Susan Marcus, Esq. and Ethan Balogh, Esq.