BURLINGTON — A former Colorado man calmly described to a jury how he posed as a U.S. marshal, complete with badges, tactical vest and flashing lights attached to his vehicle, to kidnap and then kill a Vermont man on a snowy night more than seven years ago.
Jerry Banks, who has repeatedly been called by other witnesses in the now three-week trial as the “hitman,” was the final person to testify for the government as prosecutors rested their case Monday against Serhat Gumrukcu on charges that could land him behind bars for life, if convicted.
Banks, speaking in a matter-of-fact and flat tone, began his testimony Friday dressed in a red prison jumpsuit and finished on the witness stand wearing beige jail clothing Monday in federal court in Burlington.
The defense was set to start presenting its case this week, though it was unclear Monday if Gumrukcu, who has pleaded not guilty to the offenses against him – including conspiring to commit a murder for hire – would take the stand in his own defense.
Banks told the jury in his testimony how he was recruited by a member of the deadly scheme to carry out the killing of 49-year-old Gregg Davis of Danville. Prosecutors allege Gumrukcu led and financed the plot against Davis, his former business partner, stemming from a multimillion oil deal turned bad.
Banks told jurors that after he kidnapped Davis from his home, he handcuffed him and put him in his vehicle, and as he drove Davis about 15 miles away and eventually killed him in a pull-off along the road, Davis posed a question.
“He asked me if I believe in God,” Banks testified Davis said to him.
“I said, ‘No,’” Banks recalled on the witness stand.
Initially, Banks told jurors that he had planned to “snipe” Davis, or shoot and kill him from a long distance.
However, he testified, after making a trip to Vermont to check out where Davis lived, he determined that it would be better to try to lure Davis away from his home where he lived with his wife and six children.
That’s when, Banks said on the witness stand, he decided to impersonate a U.S. Marshal. Late on the night of Jan. 6, 2018, he carried out the ruse, driving up the remote road in Danville where Davis lived with his family.
In addition to displaying U.S. Marshal Service badges, Banks told jurors he made up a fake arrest warrant stating that Davis was wanted for financial crimes, including money laundering and fraud.
Banks testified he drove up to Davis’ home and knocked on the door, and soon after Davis answered, Banks told him he was under arrest and placed him in handcuffs before they drove away.
Banks said he had planned to shoot Davis and then throw his body over a bridge into water below in an area he had previously scouted out. However, he told jurors as he drove with the restrained Davis in his vehicle, he couldn’t find the bridge again, so he stopped at a pull-off. Banks then told Davis to get out of the car so his handcuffs could be loosened to make him more comfortable. Banks said he then shot Davis and worked with his hands and feet to try to cover his body with snow.
Police reported finding Davis’ deceased body with his hands still in cuffs behind his back the next day at that spot in Barnet, about a dozen miles from his Danville home.
Banks testified that he got back in his vehicle after killing Davis and drove away, eventually calling Aron Ethridge, the man Banks said had asked him to carry out the killing, and told him, “It was done.”
More than four years later in 2022, authorities arrested Banks and then Ethridge, of Henderson, Nevada, for their roles in Davis’ death.
Soon after, Gumrukcu, a biomedical researcher and business tycoon living in Los Angeles, and Berk Eratay, a close friend and employee of Gumrukcu’s who lived in Las Vegas, were each arrested in the case. Both Gumrukcu and Eratay are originally from Turkey and knew each other from that country where they had both worked as magicians.
Banks, Ethridge and Eratay have all reached plea deals with federal prosecutors, agreeing to cooperate in the case against Gumrukcu in hopes of receiving lesser prison terms when they are each sentenced later this year.
Eratay testified during the trial that he asked Ethridge, who in the past had been his neighbor in Nevada, if he knew someone who could carry out a killing. Ethridge, during his testimony, said he recruited Banks, an acquaintance of his, but only after two other people turned him down.
Ethridge testified that he had in the past described Banks as “stoic,” as well as a “psychopath” and someone who “needed to be put down.”
The government’s case against Gumrukcu during the trial over the past three weeks has focused on the testimony of those three men as well as other witnesses who broke down business transactions and electronic communications tied to the case.
Prosecutors allege the bank records, texts and emails point to Gumrukcu as the leader of the murder plot who also put up the money to pay for it because he was upset with Davis and feared Davis was going to accuse him of fraud in a failed oil deal involving the two men.
Gumrukcu’s attorney, Ethan Balogh of San Francisco, cross-examined Banks through most of Monday, including playing an audio recording in court of Banks shortly after his arrest in April 2022, when he was living and working in Yellowstone National Park in Montana.
Throughout an hourlong interrogation by investigators from the Vermont State Police and the FBI, Banks declined to answer specific questions about his involvement in Davis’ fatal shooting.
Banks also refused during that recorded interview to respond when one of the detectives questioning him stated that he knew the killing wasn’t Banks’ idea but that he was being “used” by someone else.
Banks, during his testimony, told jurors that in the past he took part in training to become a law enforcement officer. However, he testified, he never became one because he and the sheriff who had come into office and who he would have had to work for did not get along.
Asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Stendig, the prosecutor, what he did with his share of the money he obtained for killing Davis, Banks replied that he bought a 2001 Chevrolet Corvette.
The prosecutor then inquired as to why that type of vehicle.
“Because I wanted it,” Banks replied.
Stendig also asked Banks why he decided to plead guilty in the case and cooperate with prosecutors.
Banks responded that as a result of the plea deal the death penalty would no longer be under consideration as a punishment for him for his role in the plot, though he could still be sentenced to up to life in prison.
Banks also said he wanted to ensure there was “justice” for those who had played a part in Davis’ killing.
