Federal authorities have charged a second man in the kidnapping of a Danville resident who was found shot to death in 2018. Court records show that investigators believe more people were involved in the alleged plot.
Aron Lee Ethridge, 41, of Henderson, Nevada, was charged by a Vermont grand jury on Thursday for conspiring with a Colorado man to kidnap Gregory Davis, 49, sometime between October 2017 and January 2018.
Ethridge’s co-defendant, Jerry Banks, 34, was also indicted on Thursday for kidnapping Davis from his house in Danville on Jan. 6, 2018 — a day before Davis’ body was found in a snowbank several miles from the residence. Authorities said Davis had been handcuffed and shot in the head and torso.
Police allege that Banks took Davis away while posing as a U.S. Marshal who arrested him on racketeering charges. The Marshals Service later said the agency did not arrest Davis nor did it have any active arrest warrants for him.
Ethridge’s charging document alleges that his conspiracy with Banks took place in Vermont and other places, while Banks was traveling across state lines and the men “used a facility or instrumentality of interstate commerce.” This phrase refers to means of communication from one state to another, such as vehicles, cellphones and the internet.
The document lays out the following narrative: Sometime around Jan. 5, 2018, Banks bought a prepaid phone at a Walmart store in Clearfield, Pennsylvania.
Around Jan. 6, 2018, he used the phone to call 911 to report a “fictitious shooting” and knocked on Davis’ door dressed as a U.S. Marshal, claiming to have an arrest warrant for Davis.
And around Jan. 7, 2018, Banks called Ethridge to “inform him that Davis had been successfully kidnapped and murdered.”
In a statement to support Banks’ charge, an FBI special agent said he believes Banks “was paid to kidnap and murder” Davis because police couldn’t find a personal connection between the two men.
The statement added that Banks put down $4,500 in cash for an SUV and added at least $15,000 in cash to his debit card between October 2017 and the first half of 2018, around the time he’d been making less than $500 a week working for a local sheriff.
The FBI didn’t say who police believe paid Banks or masterminded the alleged kidnapping and murder plot. Ethridge’s charging document also states that he conspired with Banks and “others known and unknown” to authorities.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont declined to comment when reached on Tuesday about Ethridge’s indictment.
Ethridge was booked at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans on Tuesday, according to the Vermont Department of Corrections’ online records. He is scheduled to appear at the federal courthouse in Burlington on Wednesday.
Banks was arrested in Wyoming on April 6. A federal judge in the area has ordered that he be transported to Vermont to face the kidnapping charge. It’s unclear when he will make his first court appearance here.
