Dad of 6 found dead in snow had hit put on him by CA business partner, feds say
A California businessman was about to close on a multi-million dollar deal in the biotech industry when he put a hit on a father of six, a business partner “who he needed silenced,” federal prosecutors said.
Nearly eight years later, Serhat Gumrukcu, 42, of Los Angeles, is facing a mandatory life sentence in the killing of Gregory Davis, who was abducted from his Vermont home and found shot to death at the base of a nearby snowbank in January 2018, according to prosecutors. Davis’ wife was pregnant with their seventh child at the time.
Three other men have been convicted of charges related to Davis’ death and were sentenced at the end of September.
To protect his upcoming biotech payout, Gumrukcu wanted to stop Davis from taking legal action against him in connection with their dealings in a “failed oil commodities transaction,” prosecutors said. Gumrukcu is accused of defrauding Davis for years.
In court filings, prosecutors argued Gumrukcu arranged for Davis’ killing out of “greed” and enlisted a close friend, Berk Eratay. in a murder-for-hire plot.
Eratay hired his neighbor, Aaron Ethridge, as a middleman to find a hitman to kill Davis, prosecutors said. Ethridge then found another man, Jerry Banks, to carry out what prosecutors described as a “monstrous,” “execution style” killing that was bankrolled by Gumrukcu.
Gumrukcu, who is set to be sentenced Nov. 24, was found guilty in April after a five-week trial of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
His defense attorney, Susan Marcus, did not immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment Oct. 3.
During his jury trial, Marcus argued Gumrukcu had been set up by others, according to VT Digger. She accused Eratay of leading the plot.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Stendig, however, portrayed Gumrukcu as the manipulative leader of the plan, the outlet reported. Stendig said this was “a case about money, a case about manipulation, and a case about murder.”
Now, Eratay, 38, of Las Vegas, Aron Ethridge, 45, of Henderson, Nevada, and Jerry Banks, 37, of Gardener, Montana, have been sentenced to prison over Davis’ death, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont said in a Sept. 30 news release.
Eratay was sentenced to nine years and two months, Ethridge was sentenced to 11 years and eight months and Banks was sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison, prosecutors said.
Attorneys separately representing Eratay and Banks did not immediately return McClatchy News’ requests for comment Oct. 3.
Ethridge’s attorney, Mark Kaplan, told McClatchy News via email that he “is sincerely remorseful for his involvement in this matter as he expressed at his sentencing.”
The killing
Davis’ body was found partially covered by snow about a 15-mile drive from his home in Danville, Vermont, on Jan. 7, 2018, according to court documents, McClatchy News previously reported.
His hands were in handcuffs and he had been repeatedly shot in the head and torso, court documents say.
He was found dead one day after a fake U.S. Marshal visited his home to “arrest” him, according to prosecutors.
The man posing as a U.S. Marshal was Jerry Banks, prosecutors said.
On Jan. 6, 2018, Banks drove to Davis’ house and showed a fake arrest warrant for purported federal crimes, according to prosecutors.
Banks handcuffed him and put him in his car, which seemed like an unmarked police car, and drove him to Barnet, Vermont, prosecutors wrote in Gumrukcu’s sentencing memorandum.
There, “he shot Davis in the back more than ten times from close range,” the filing says. “Banks buried Davis’s body in snow and left him by the side of the road.”
His wife was home when Banks knocked on their door, according to an affidavit previously reviewed by McClatchy News.
After Davis’ body was discovered, investigators found emails and messages that suggested there was tension between Gumrukcu and Davis over their business dealings, prosecutors said.
Additional emails and messages, cellphone location data, and banking records revealed Gumrukcu, Ethridge, Eratay, and Banks were all involved, according to prosecutors.
At trial, Marcus told the jury Gumrukcu was a “healer” and “scientist” who had been trying to create treatments for diseases, VT Digger reported.
The biotech deal he had been working on involved his claims that he found a cure for HIV, according to prosecutors.
Attorneys representing Eratay wrote in a sentencing memo on his behalf that Gumrukcu was a “scoundrel and a cheat” who used “charm and charisma” to scam “investors and patients out of their money.”
They accused Gumrukcu of defrauding Eratay and taking advantage of him.
In the government’s sentencing memo for Gumrukcu, prosecutors wrote “Gumrukcu accomplished his objective. He silenced Davis.”
“In the weeks that followed Davis’s death, Gumrukcu biotech deal closed,” the filing says. Gumrukcu was paid millions of dollars. And he almost got away with it.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2025 at 10:43 AM with the headline "Dad of 6 found dead in snow had hit put on him by CA business partner, feds say."
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