BURLINGTON — Calling his crimes “brutal” and “brazen,” a judge ordered a former California man to spend the rest of his life behind bars for leading a cross-country murder-for-hire plot that led to the death of a Vermont man.
The sentence handed down Monday by Judge Christina Reiss in federal court in Burlington came after 43-year-old Serhat Gumrukcu maintained his innocence and claimed he played no role in the events leading to the 2018 fatal shooting of 49-year-old Gregory Davis of Danville.
“I didn’t plan it, I didn’t ask for it, “I didn’t know about it,” he said during the hearing.
This was the first time Gumrukcu spoke publicly since a jury convicted him in April following a five-week trial. The jury returned guilty verdicts on all charges, including murder for hire and conspiring to commit wire fraud. The verdict came after three other co-defendants reached plea deals and testified against him.
In pronouncing the sentence Monday, the judge pointed out that Gumrukcu had the sole motive for the killing — silencing Davis, so he wouldn’t expose his deceitful business schemes — and that he should bear the consequences for his actions.
“You decided to commit fraud and murder,” she said.
Gumrucku is a Turkish national who had been living in Los Angeles, California, for about a decade before Gregory Davis’ killing. In Turkey, Gumrukcu had worked as a magician before moving to the United States where prosecutors said he falsely posed as a medical doctor.
Gumrukcu’s husband, William Anderson Wittekind, attended the hearing, sitting in the courtroom gallery behind him. After the hearing as Gumrukcu was placed in handcuffs and being led away, he turned to Wittekind and the two appeared to share a glance.
The three other participants in the plot were sentenced over two days in September to prison terms ranging between roughly nine and 16 years.
Gumrukcu was also initially set to be sentenced at that time, but sentencing was delayed after his attorney requested more time to prepare for the proceeding.
The murder-for-hire charge alone against Gumrukcu carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison, leaving little suspense about what sentence Gumrukcu would receive.
“I didn’t choose the sentence for you, Congress did,” the judge told Gumrukcu in formally imposing it.
In addressing the court, Gumrukcu said he made mistakes but still followed his principles and commitment to non-violence, maintaining that he wasn’t involved in the killing of Davis, despite the jury’s verdict.
Gumrukcu said he has sympathy for the family and what they have been through, but was saddened by the fact they believe he was involved in the plot.
In her statement to the court, Melissa Davis, Gregory Davis’ wife, thanked all the people who worked to ensure justice, saying that she and her family are living proof that the legal system works.
Gregory Davis was the father of six when he was killed, and his wife was pregnant with the couple’s seventh child.
Melissa Davis remembered her husband as “funny” and “brilliant” and described how his absence has been felt in every birthday, graduation, and holiday he missed.
Still, she forgave Gumrukcu even if he had shown no remorse. She had previously addressed the four defendants in September and offered forgiveness to all of them, but Gumrukcu.
“It is not my job to condemn you — that belongs to God,” Davis told Gumrukcu on Monday. “My job is to live free,” she said, adding that forgiveness would allow her to move forward without anger or bitterness.
Gumrukcu and Gregory Davis had spent years prior to the murder working on a several million dollar business deal involving oil trading. Prosecutors had contended during the trial that Gumrukcu masterminded a plot to kill Davis because he was afraid the Vermont man was going to expose his fraudulent business tactics. Prosecutors added that Gumrukcu had sent fake emails and provided phony financial records.
Jerry Banks, a former detention officer in Colorado, had been recruited by another plot member to serve as the hitman. Banks shot and killed Davis on a snowy night in January 2018 after kidnapping Davis from his home. Banks, posing as a deputy U.S. Marshal complete with a uniform and badge, showed up at Davis’ residence and told him was under arrest for racketeering.
Banks, according to prosecutors, then drove Davis away from the home in handcuffs before stopping a few miles away in a pull off in Barnet where he ordered Davis out of the vehicle. Banks then repeatedly shot Davis, killing him.
Investigators spent the next several years poring over business and banking documents and electronic records to piece together the links among the four men prosecutors would eventually charge for their roles in the deadly plot.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Stendig, one of the prosecutors, told the judge that while Gumrukcu quoted the nonviolence philosophy spoken by Gandhi, it would be Davis’ murder that would define Gumrukcu’s life.
Susan Marcus, Gumrukcu’s attorney, contested the prosecution’s argument that Gumrukcu had obstructed justice.
But the judge disagreed with her, saying that Gumrukcu’s trial testimony – denying any participation in the murder-for-hire plot – amounted to perjury and obstruction of justice.
In addition to sentencing Gumrukcu, the judge ordered that all four defendants should pay a total of $1.36 million in restitution to Davis’ family.
The payments made by each of the defendants toward that restitution would be based, in large part, on a percentage of their incomes. The restitution figure, according to prosecutors, was based on an estimate of the amount of money Davis would have earned had he continued to work up until his retirement age.
Davis’ estate has also filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against Gumrukcu in federal court in Vermont, which remains pending.
Melissa Davis, leaving the courtroom, spoke about Gumrukcu’s statement in court.
“He was trying to become the victim, and I reversed his lies with the truth,” she said. “Justice has been served.”
