Feds seek to hold suspect in 2018 murder of Vermont man

Federal prosecutors need a choose to order the suspect in a 2018 murder-for-hire of a Vermont man held with out bail pending trial, courtroom paperwork present.

In paperwork filed Monday in U.S. District Court docket in Los Angeles, prosecutors say that Serhat Gumrukcu, 39, can be a flight danger even when he posts thousands and thousands of {dollars} in bail as he has provided to do.

If convicted of the cost in opposition to him — conspiring to make use of interstate commerce amenities within the fee of a murder-for-hire which resulted within the loss of life of Gregory Davis, of Danville — Gumrukcu is going through life in jail or the loss of life penalty.

“The very actual prospect of Gumrukcu spending the remainder of his life in jail gives him with a compelling incentive to flee,” prosecutors stated within the courtroom paperwork.

A detention listening to for Gumrukcu, who was indicted final month by a Vermont grand jury, had been scheduled for earlier this month in Los Angeles, nevertheless it was postponed till Wednesday. It’s anticipated that Gumrukcu will probably be delivered to Vermont sooner or later to reply the cost in opposition to him.

A separate submitting by Gumrukcu’s lawyer asking that he be launched on bail stated he was prepared to simply accept house detention in California or Vermont and he would put up thousands and thousands of {dollars} in bail. It additionally claimed the fees in opposition to Gumrukcu had been flimsy and famous that the FBI had requested him about Davis’s loss of life over time and he has made no effort to flee.

“There may be nothing aside from an unproven and untested allegation within the indictment and no extrinsic proof to corroborate something,” stated the June 1 submitting by Los Angeles Legal professional Victor Sherman.

Davis, 49, was kidnapped from his Danville house on Jan. 6, 2018. He was discovered shot to loss of life the following day in a snowbank on a again highway in Barnet.

Prosecutors have stated Davis had been threatening to go to the FBI with info that Gumrukcu, the co-founder of the Los Angeles-based biotechnology firm Enochian Bioscience, was defrauding Davis in a multi-million greenback oil deal that Gumrukcu and his brother had entered into with Davis in 2015.

In 2017, Gumrukcu was going through fraud fees in California state courtroom and he was placing collectively a deal that got here collectively quickly after Davis’s loss of life, which gave him important possession stake within the firm.

Prosecutors allegedly linked Gumrukcu to the killing of Davis via three different males, together with a Colorado man charged with abducting Davis whereas impersonating a U.S. marshal, Jerry Banks, who pleaded not responsible earlier this month to the kidnapping cost.

Whereas Banks has solely been charged with kidnapping, prosecutors say he killed Davis.

(Copyright 2022 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials might not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.)