BURLINGTON — The man suspected in a conspiracy to commit murder in the fatal shooting of a Danville man four years ago appeared in a Vermont court Tuesday on a felony charge that could carry the death penalty.
Serhat Gumrukcu, 39, of Los Angeles. California, has pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Burlington to federal charges of aggravated assault and murder in the January 2018 slaying of 49-year-old Gregory Davis of Danville.
Customs arrested him in May and was arraigned last week after refusing to come to Vermont to face charges. He is the fourth out-of-state person to be charged in connection with the alleged plot to kill Davis.
Charges against the customs are punishable by life imprisonment or the death penalty. Prosecutors have not yet said if they plan to seek the death penalty in the case.
Biomedical researcher Gumrukuku entered the hearing on Tuesday in handcuffs and wearing a green prison jumpsuit.
He didn’t say much during the hearing, mostly giving one- or two-word answers to questions asked by Judge Geoffrey Crawford about his background and understanding of the charges against him.
He told the judge that he was a citizen of Turkey, that he was fluent in English and that he had read and understood the criminal charges against him.
David Kirby, a lawyer for Customs, did not object to prosecutors’ request to keep his client in custody while the case is heard. Customs has been behind bars since he was arrested by federal authorities in California in May.
Jerry Banks, 34, of Colorado, who was indicted in April, is accused of abducting Davis from his home in Danville on Jan. 6, 2018. A day later, 15-year-old Davis’ body was found in a snowbank, according to court filings. After being shot multiple times, he was killed miles from his home.
Banks, posing as a U.S. marshal, told Davis he was coming to arrest him on an embezzlement charge, according to charging documents.
Banks was the first indicted in the alleged conspiracy. Although the jury charged Banks with firing the fatal shot that killed Davis, he has so far only been charged with kidnapping. Banks has denied the crime and remains in prison.
Prosecutors announced in a news release Tuesday afternoon that they had added charges against Banks, alleging that he participated in a murder-for-hire conspiracy that led to Davis’ death.
Another suspect, Aaron Lee Ethridge, 42, of Henderson, Nevada, has already reached a plea deal with prosecutors. He faces up to 27 years in prison pending sentencing.
He pleaded guilty this summer to conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and kidnapping resulting in death. Prosecutors say Ethridge helped train Banks when he found and committed the murder.
Prosecutors allege Ethridge received more than $100,000 from Berks Eratai and Customs to “cover the cost of the murder.” Eratai, of Las Vegas, Nevada, was friends with Customs and had also worked with him in the past.
Eratai is also a resident of Turkey, just like the customs. Both men previously worked as magicians, according to court documents filed in the case.
Eratai, filling out documents, claims that he is acting on behalf of Customs, that Customs is keeping the money, and that Customs is angry about Davis’s trade deal.
According to court filings, Customs allegedly threatened Davis by going to the FBI in early 2015 with evidence that he was cheating on a multi-million dollar oil transaction he entered into with Davis.
Eratai had pleaded not guilty in July to a similar charge pending trial, pending trial.
Kirby, a customs attorney, was previously the top federal prosecutor in Vermont before entering private practice.
Kirby, during his hearing Tuesday, told the judge that a bank had frozen assets held in a joint account by the client and the client’s husband following a federal civil wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Melissa Davis earlier this year. She was the wife of Gregory Davis at the time of his death.
According to court filings, Customs owned a multimillion-dollar ownership stake in Enochian Biosciences Inc., a California biotechnology company.
Kirby asked a judge Tuesday about the process of freezing his clients’ accounts to allow him to get money to pay for his legal representation in the criminal case against him.
Crawford told Kirby that it would be better to bring the case as part of a civil wrongful death lawsuit before looking into it as part of a criminal charge.
Kirby said he would, and if necessary he would bring it up again as part of the criminal process.
Melissa Davis attended the hearing Tuesday, but declined to comment following the customs filing.
Customs’ husband, William Anderson Wittekind, attended the hearing Tuesday and did not comment outside the courtroom after the proceedings.
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