An earlier version of this story was published in the Caledonian-Record

The California scientist, who authorities say orchestrated the successful execution of a Danville resident by a hit man seven years ago, took the witness stand in U.S. District Court in Burlington on Monday afternoon.

Serhat D. Gumrukcu, 42, of Los Angeles, who has pleaded not guilty to a three-count federal indictment, admitted in court he had secured false university diplomas in Russia to show he was a medical doctor.

The diplomas would show in a listing from the Ministry of Health in Russia.

It was just one of several misrepresentations Gumrukcu testified about while telling his life story to the jury, which is now in its fifth week hearing testimony.

The defense apparently brought up Gumrukcu’s fraud about his diplomas in an apparent effort to possibly take some winds away from the prosecution from introducing the information.

Gumrukcu, who is being questioned by defense lawyer Susan Marcus of New York City, will resume his testimony at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

It is unclear how long he will be on the stand before either Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul J. Van de Graaf or Zachary Stendig will get to cross examine the defendant.

There was no testimony Monday about the homicide and only a few mentions of one of the other three co-conspirators involved in the case. Berk Eratay, 37, of Las Vegas, Nev. one of the other chief organizers worked for Gumrukcu as an assistant.

The hitman, Jerry Banks, 37, of Garland, Col., and two others involved in the case, have each testified against Gumrukcu. Banks, Eratay and Aron Ethridge, 44, of Henderson, Nev., who recruited Banks, have all pleaded guilty to felony charges and are awaiting sentencing.

During his trial testimony, Banks went into great detail as he outlined the elaborate ruse that he used to extract Gregory Davis, 49, out of his Caledonian County home on a cold wintry Saturday night, January 6, 2018.

He also testified the deal had two middlemen so that Gumrukcu, who reportedly ordered the hit, and Banks, who carried it out, would be unaware of the identity of each other, if ever questioned by authorities.

Gumrukcu did mention Eratay in his testimony, but it focused mostly on some investments. Gumrukcu also testified that Eratay had set up fake email accounts, including for the defendant’s older brother, Murat Gumrukcu.

Gumrukcu testified that his older brother was never involved in any fraudulent deals, but the emails were used to help facilitate some claims and communications.

Eratay had worked as an assistant for Serhat Gumrukcu from January 2015 to January 2018 and it was part of his job to provide false information to Davis about business dealings, court records show. Eratay sent and received emails at Gumrukcu’s direction and used some of his Google accounts to falsely pose as Gumrukcu, they said.

Serhat Gumrukcu was listed as a co-founder and inventor at Enochian BioSciences Inc. He claimed on the company website he held a medical degree and doctorate from Russian universities, but authorities said they had serious doubts about his claims.

Security remains tight at the trial. Two members of the U.S. Marshals Service sit behind Gumrukcu at the defense table. While the jury was out of the courtroom, he was moved to the witness stand and one of the deputy marshals took a seat between him and the jury box.

During criminal trials in both federal and state courts in Vermont efforts are made to try to hide from the jury that the defendant is in custody for fear it might cause some prejudice.

Gumrukcu was calm during his testimony, which at times was hard to follow. He used pronouns that sometimes made it difficult to follow when he had mentioned multiple people.

Gumrukcu has pleaded not guilty to three felony charges, including intentionally conspiring between May 2017 and February 2018 with several people, including Banks, Eratay and Ethridge to have Davis killed.

Gumrukcu also has denied a conspiracy count for causing Banks to travel from Colorado to Vermont between Jan. 1, 2018 and Jan. 6, 2018 to carry out the homicide in exchange for a payment.

The third felony count maintains Gumrukcu, Eratay and others committed wire fraud between 2015 and 2018 when Davis owned and operated Mode Commodities LLC, which sought to engage in oil trading, the indictment said.

The charges are based in part on a multi-million-dollar fraud case that sparked a cross-country trip by a hitman in January 2018 to kill Davis, an investor, that was planning to become a whistleblower about the international investment scam.

Ten women and five men from across the Northern half of Vermont are serving as jurors in the case.

Vermont State Police, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies were eventually able to piece together the complex case over the subsequent years and make arrests in 2022.

Melissa Davis, the widow, told state police the night the body was found that her husband he had been in an investment feud with Gumrukcu.

The victim and his wife, who has sat through the trial, had been married for 14 years and had six children when he was abducted and killed. The couple had just told their children on the day of the abduction that she was pregnant with a seventh child.