A California biotech tycoon murder-for-hire case has ended in conviction after jurors found Serhat Gumrukcu, 42, guilty of orchestrating the 2018 killing of Gregory Davis, a Vermont father of six, following a failed oil deal.
Gumrukcu — founder of Enochian Biosciences, once touted for developing an experimental HIV cure — faces a mandatory life sentence for ordering the abduction and murder of Davis, who had threatened to sue him over a soured business transaction.
According to prosecutors, Gumrukcu enlisted his associate Berk Eratay, 38, who then contacted Aron Ethridge, 45, to hire hitman Jerry Banks, 37. On Jan. 6, 2018, Banks arrived at Davis’ Danville, Vermont, home disguised as a federal marshal, abducted him, and fatally shot him. Davis’ body was found the next day in a nearby snowbank.
Federal investigators uncovered a tangled web of lies, payments, and digital evidence linking Gumrukcu to the killing. Emails, bank transfers, and cellphone data revealed that the biotech executive had sought to silence Davis to protect his multimillion-dollar biotech merger involving Enochian Biosciences.
“Serhat Gumrukcu tried to hide his role in the murder of Greg Davis by paying one man to pay another man to pay the hitman,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher, praising years of “determined investigation” by the FBI and Vermont State Police.
Co-conspirators Banks, Ethridge, and Eratay were each sentenced to lengthy prison terms ranging from 110 to 200 months.
At a recent hearing, Davis’ widow Melissa Davis confronted Gumrukcu, declaring, “You thought you could silence my husband, but your lies die here in this courtroom.”
