Texas car dealer Erik Charles Maund charged with murder-for-hire after allegedly paying hitman to kill mistress and her boyfriend

Months after an Austin car dealership government was arrested for allegedly arranging the homicide of his mistress and her boyfriend, federal prosecutors have charged him and three of his associates with murder-for-hire. 

On Thursday, Erik Charles Maund, 47, Gilad Peled, 48, Bryon Brockway, 47, and Adam Carey, 31, had been additionally charged with conspiracy to kidnap leading to dying, and kidnapping leading to dying, Mark H. Wildasin, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, stated in a news release.

In December, Maund, a associate at Maund Automotive Group in Austin, was accused in a federal indictment of paying Peled, Brockway and Carey to kidnap and kill his former mistress, Holly Williams, 33, and her boyfriend, William Lanway, 36, in Nashville, Tennessee, in March 2020.

According to the indictment, Maund, who would sometimes journey to Nashville to go to a relative, emailed Williams in the beginning of February 2020 to see her throughout a visit that month. The following month, Maund acquired a collection of textual content messages from Lanway, Williams’ boyfriend, demanding cash to maintain his relationship with Williams a secret, police stated. 

Maund then enlisted the providers of Peled, who offered himself as a former member of the Israel Defense Forces, and Brockway, and Carey, two former active-duty Marines, authorities stated.

According to prosecutors, on March 5, 2020, Maund withdrew $15,000 from his checking account, the identical day a relative of Brockway who labored for an internet-based safety firm supplied Peled with an “intelligence report.” Carey and others travelled from out of state into Nashville to surveil Williams and Lanway and created a Pinger account to try to talk with the couple. Then on March 11, 2020, Peled deposited $8,000 in money right into a enterprise account and $7,000 in money into his private checking account.

Prosecutors stated that on March 12, Brockway and Carey confronted Willilams and Lanway within the parking zone of Williams’ condominium complicated in Nashville, fatally capturing Lanway. The pair then allegedly kidnapped Williams, driving her and Lanway’s physique to a building web site earlier than murdering Williams and discarding each the our bodies.

That identical day, they allege Maund wired $150,000 to a checking account managed by Peled. 

Months later, on December 10, 2021, police picked up all 4 of the alleged co-conspirators — arresting Maund following a visitors cease close to Austin, Peled on the airport in Austin, Brockway in San Diego, and Carey at his dwelling in North Carolina. All 4 stay in custody.

The Justice Department stated that since March 11, 2020, Maund has transferred over $750,000 in funds to a checking account managed by Peled to pay his three co-defendants for finishing up the plot.

Following their arrests, prosecutors say Peled instructed Maund that one of many co-conspirators needed more cash for his or her half within the alleged murders.

“Maund agreed to pay the co-conspirator an additional $25,000 and then offered Peled $50,000 to arrange to pay Brockway $100,000 for the murder of the co-conspirator, to cut off any future requests for payment for the original murders,” the Justice Department stated. 

If convicted, all 4 males face up to life in jail.