A biotech executive from California has been convicted of masterminding a murder-for-hire scheme aimed at eliminating his former business associate and father of six after their oil venture fell apart.
Serhat Gumrukcu, 42, residing in Los Angeles, is now facing a mandatory life imprisonment sentence for the 2018 kidnapping and murder of Gregory Davis, who was abducted from his home in Vermont and was later discovered shot and abandoned in a snowbank, as reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The founder of Enochian Biosciences, Gumrukcu was found guilty of plotting the deadly crime after Davis, a father whose wife was expecting their seventh child, threatened legal action against him concerning their failed oil deal.
Prosecutors stated that Gumrukcu enlisted the help of his friend, Berk Eratay, 38, who in turn employed a second intermediary, Aron Ethridge, 45, to hire assassin Jerry Banks, 37.
On January 6, 2018, Banks arrived at Davis’s residence in a vehicle equipped with flashing lights, impersonating a Deputy U.S. Marshal and misleading Davis into believing he was needed for questioning.
Once inside, Banks abducted Davis from his home in Danville and subsequently murdered him, according to the prosecution.
Davis’s remains were found on January 7, 2018, in a snowbank not far from his home in Barnet, Vermont.
Following the murder, “investigators swiftly uncovered emails and messages highlighting the strain between Gumrukcu and Davis over the impeded oil deal, leading to two interviews with Gumrukcu by the FBI,” prosecutors detailed.
Authorities later found that Gumrukcu had lied during those interviews; however, he and his accomplices were ultimately implicated through cellphone data, purchase records, banking documents, emails, and messages, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Around 2017, Gumrukcu was negotiating a multibillion-dollar merger in the biotech sector involving Enochian Biosciences centered on his claimed HIV cure, a deal that prosecutors argue made it increasingly critical to silence Davis.
Prosecutors asserted that Davis’s intention to pursue legal claims over their broken oil agreement could have undermined Gumrukcu’s aspirations to take command of Enochian Biosciences.
Gumrukcu’s arrest occurred in May 2022, leading to his conviction in April for murder-for-hire, conspiracy, and wire fraud.
“Serhat Gumrukcu attempted to obscure his involvement in Greg Davis’s murder by orchestrating a chain of payments from one man to another to the hitman who ultimately shot and killed Greg Davis on that January night in Vermont,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Michael P. Drescher.
“Exposing Gumrukcu’s connection to this murder required years of persistent investigation by the dedicated professionals of Vermont’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, in close collaboration with the FBI and Vermont State Police.”
Banks and Ethridge were apprehended in April 2022, while Eratay was detained in May.
Banks received a sentence of 200 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release; Eratay was given 110 months, with three years of supervised release; and Ethridge was sentenced to 140 months in prison, also followed by five years of supervised release.
Recently, Davis’s widow, Melissa, strongly criticized Gumrukcu in court for destroying the lives of her and her seven children following her husband’s murder, as reported by Vtdigger.
“I stand here as a widow, as well as the mother of seven children whose futures were irrevocably altered the night Gregg was taken from us,” she addressed Gumrukcu during a courtroom appearance on September 25.
“You believed you could silence my husband, but your fabrications come to an end here in this courtroom.”
During that same court session, Gumrukcu’s sentencing was postponed until November.
He is now facing a mandatory life sentence.
