The attorney for a former California man convicted of charges in a plot to kill a business partner in Vermont is asking a judge to delay his sentencing where he faces a mandatory sentence of life behind bars.
Prosecutors responded in their own filing that the hearing should go forward as scheduled.
Serhat Gumrukcu, 42, is set to be sentenced later this month in federal court in Burlington after a jury returned guilty verdicts against him in April for offenses including murder for hire, conspiracy to commit murder for hire and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The case against Gumrukcu stems from the fatal shooting of 49-year-old Gregory Davis of Danville. According to prosecutors, Gumrukcu ordered and paid for Davis to be killed over a failed oil trading deal between the two men.
Susan Marcus, Gumrukcu’s attorney, filed a motion Wednesday morning seeking to delay that sentencing for at least 60 days.
Marcus wrote that a draft presentence report prepared by federal probation officers has raised issues that she wanted to address before her client’s sentencing.
While Gumrukcu faces a mandatory life sentence, Marcus wrote in the filing, “nonetheless issues like the amount of a fine, restitution, as well as factual assertions that we dispute are relevant to sentencing and warrant a response from Serhat Gumrukcu.”
Prosecutors, in a response filed later Wednesday afternoon, wrote that a delay was not warranted.
“This Court must sentence the defendant to life,” the filing stated. “Sentencing is therefore not complex.”
The prosecution filing also included a statement from Melissa Davis, Gregory Davis’ widow. She wrote about the impact a delay would have on her and her family.
“For seven long years we have prayed and waited for justice in the death of my husband. We are deeply grateful for the jury’s verdict earlier this year, which finally brought us a measure of justice and peace,” Melissa Davis wrote.
“Your Honor, each postponement reopens wounds that have struggled to heal. We have endured years of extensions and delays with patience and grace, but the weight has been heavy,” Melissa Davis added. “My children and I long to take the next step forward in our lives, and that step cannot fully come until this process is complete.”
Judge Christina Reiss, who has presided over the case, had not issued a ruling by late Wednesday afternoon.
Gumrukcu led the murder-to-hire plot to kill Davis over fears that the Vermont man was going to go to authorities and accuse him of fraud in a business deal between them regarding oil trading that had been ongoing for months.
That would, prosecutors said during the trial, possibly have hindered a larger business deal Gumrukcu had in the works with a biomedical company with millions of dollars at stake.
Gumrukcu was a Turkish national with permanent U.S. residency status at the time of Davis’ killing. Davis, who was 49 at the time of his death, was living in Vermont with his wife and six children, with a seventh on the way.
