Southern Nevada man indicted in Vermont murder-for-hire plot

A Southern Nevada resident has been recognized as certainly one of two males indicted by federal authorities in reference to a kidnapping and 2018 murder-for-hire plot in Vermont — against the law the FBI says concerned the impersonation of a U.S. marshal.

Aron Lee Ethridge, 41, of Henderson, faces one rely of kidnapping within the Jan. 6, 2018, abduction of a Vermont man, in response to a two-page indictment that was unsealed earlier this week following Ethridge’s arrest.

A co-defendant, Jerry Banks, 34, of Colorado, faces the identical cost, which may ship each males to jail for all times if convicted.

Ethridge pleaded not responsible Wednesday in Vermont U.S. District Court docket, information present. He stays in custody pending a listening to scheduled for Monday afternoon to deal with his bail.

An abduction within the evening

In keeping with the indictment, Ethridge and Banks conspired between October 2017 and January 2018 to kidnap Gregory Davis, 49, from his household’s residence in Danville, Vermont. The indictment, nevertheless, signifies that authorities had been nonetheless wanting into whether or not extra individuals had been concerned within the alleged scheme.

The sufferer’s physique was found the day after the kidnapping about 15 miles from his residence, courtroom information present. Authorities stated he had been handcuffed and shot a number of occasions within the head and torso.

In a latest courtroom submitting, FBI Particular Agent Patrick Hanna detailed the evening of the kidnapping in addition to the following investigation.

That night, round 9 p.m., in response to the agent, Davis and his spouse had been in a first-floor bed room once they heard a knock at their entrance door.

Davis swung open the door, Hanna wrote, and Banks got here into view, wearing a jacket and a masks with U.S. Marshal emblems.

Banks, who additionally was holding a set of handcuffs and a rifle, instructed Davis that he had a warrant for his arrest “for racketeering and was bringing him to Virginia.” Authorities later decided that there had been no energetic federal warrants out for Davis.

The sufferer received dressed and left with the person he believed to be a federal officer, in response to Hanna. Upstairs, the person’s 12-year-old son watched from a window as his father was positioned inside a white automobile “with crimson and blue emergency lights activated on the sprint.”

In keeping with Ethridge’s indictment, Banks known as him with a burner cellphone the next day “to tell him that Davis had been efficiently kidnapped and murdered.”

Additional particulars relating to Ethridge’s ties to Davis, if any, and his alleged position within the scheme haven’t been launched.

As for Banks, in response to Hanna’s courtroom submitting, authorities “discovered no proof of any private connection” between him and Davis. However Banks’ funds, Hanna stated, level to how the Colorado man ended up on the sufferer’s doorstep in January 2018.

Connecting the dots

Within the fall of 2017, Banks was making about $500 weekly whereas working for a sheriff in Costilla County, Colorado. And he owed cash to not less than one pal.

However within the months that adopted, across the time of the kidnapping and killing, in response to financial institution statements obtained by the FBI, the suspect had deposited greater than $15,000 into his account.

“I consider that Banks,” Hanna wrote, “was paid to kidnap and homicide GD.”

Gregory Davis was married to his spouse for 14 years. In keeping with an obituary, he left behind six kids.

“He resided in Vermont for a short while,” the obituary reads, “but beloved the attractive panorama of mountains and the serenity of the state.”

Rio Lacanlale is the Las Vegas correspondent for the Reno Gazette Journal and the USA Immediately Community. Contact her at rlacanlale@gannett.com or on Twitter @riolacanlale. Assist native journalism by subscribing to the RGJ immediately.