Three men sentenced for their roles in Barnet, Vermont murder-for-hire

Date: Sept. 30, 2025

Contact: [email protected]

Burlington, VT - The United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that on September 25, 2025, and September 26, 2025, Chief United States District Judge Christina Reiss, sentenced three men, Berk Eratay of Las Vegas, Nevada, Jerry Banks of Gardener, Montana, and Aron Ethridge of Henderson, Nevada for their roles in the January 6, 2018, murder of Gregory Davis in Barnet, Vermont.

Serhat Gumrukcu of Los Angeles, California, the fourth member of the Murder-for-Hire conspiracy, was convicted by a jury on April 18, 2025. Gumrukcu faces a mandatory life sentence. The Court has continued Gumrukcu's sentencing, over the Government's objection, until November 24, 2025.

At sentencing, Chief Judge Reiss imposed the following sentences:

• Berk Eratay: 110 months of imprisonment to be followed by 3 years of supervised release.
• Jerry Banks: 200 months of imprisonment to be followed by 5 years of supervised release.
• Aron Ethridge: 140 months of imprisonment to be followed by 5 years of supervised release.

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Gumrukcu solicited the murder of Gregory Davis due to Davis's threats of legal action related to Gumrukcu's role in a failed oil commodities transaction. Gumrukcu's conviction for wire fraud stemmed from his fraudulent activities in relation to this failed oil deal. Gumrukcu was particularly motivated to silence Davis due to his negotiations of a multi-million-dollar biotech merger involving Gumrukcu's alleged discovery of a cure for HIV. Gumrukcu relied on his close friend, Berk Eratay, to arrange through a second intermediary, Aron Ethridge, the hiring of a hitman to kill Davis. Ethridge recruited Jerry Banks for the hitman role, who on January 6, 2018, posed as a Deputy U.S. Marshal, and abducted Davis from his Danville, Vermont home. On January 7, 2018, Davis's deceased body was located in a snowbank a short distance from his home in Barnet, Vermont. Investigators quickly discovered emails and messaging indicating the tension between Gumrukcu and Davis over the failed oil deal, resulting in Gumrukcu being interviewed twice by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Gumrukcu made false statements during each interview. Cellphone location

information, purchase records, banking documentation, emails, and messaging discovered during the investigation led to the identification of Gumrukcu, Ethridge, Eratay, and Banks who caused the kidnapping and death of Davis.

Acting U.S. Attorney Michael P. Drescher commended the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Vermont State Police for their collaborative investigation of Gumrukcu, Eratay, Banks, and Ethridge, and the crimes associated with Davis's murder. Drescher also thanked the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Homeland Security Investigations, as well as the numerous law enforcement entities across the country who worked to identify Banks as the hired hitman, Ethridge and Eratay as middlemen, and Gumrukcu as the financier and benefactor of the murder scheme.

At trial, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul J. Van de Graaf and Zachary Stendig represented the government, with support from Karen Arena-Leene and Erin Thompson-Moran. Berk Eratay was represented by Allan Sullivan, Esq. and Mark Oettinger, Esq. Jerry Banks was represented by Assistant Federal Public Defender Steven Barth. Aron Ethridge was represented by Mark Kaplan, Esq.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.