Seventh suspect in slaying of Mendocino County pot farmer captured in New Jersey

A Garberville man who authorities said is the seventh and final suspect in a brutal Mendocino County pot farm slaying in November was captured Friday in New Jersey, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office reported.

Gary Blank III, 34, was taken ?into custody at a residence in the borough of ?Red Bank on a Mendocino County warrant. He is suspected in the Nov. 11 killing ?of Jeffrey Quinn Settler, 35, on a remote property near Laytonville.

New Jersey State Police moved in to arrest Blank at about 9 p.m. Friday after they developed information he was at the home.

Blank was booked into the Mercer County Jail on a no-bail warrant for murder.

Authorities will seek Blank’s extradition to Mendocino County for prosecution. His arrest concludes ?a 4-month nationwide manhunt ?for the seven suspects in Settler’s slaying.

Authorities believe most of the suspects had worked on Settler’s pot farm as marijuana trimmers and may have fled the crime scene with more than ?100 pounds of pot. None of the pot has been recovered.

Suspect Jesse Cole Wells, 33, was taken into custody Feb. 24 in South Lake Tahoe.

Frederick Gaestel, 27, of Clifton, New Jersey, was arrested in early February in Virginia.

Michael Andrew Kane, 24, of Pleasantville, New York, gave himself up to authorities at the Mexican border in January.

Abdirahman Mohamed, 28, of San Diego was ?arrested in December in Southern California.

Zachary Ryan Wuester, 24, of Haskell, New Jersey, and Gary Lynn Fitzgerald, 23, of Roanoke, Illinois, surrendered separately in Mendocino County in November.

Settler, a father of three, had been growing marijuana in Laytonville for about 10 years, family members said.

He was found beaten and stabbed to death on his remote Laytonville property, where marijuana was grown.

You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 521-5336 ?or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com.

On Twitter @deadlinederek.