Formerly prominent car dealership owner Erik Maund and two men with whom he plotted a murder-for-hire plot face life in prison after being found guilty by a federal jury.
A once-successful Texas car dealer and two other men were convicted of a murder-for-hire plot after his lover’s estranged boyfriend tried to blackmail him over the affair, authorities said.
A federal court jury found 48-year-old Eric Maund of Austin, a former partner in the lucrative Maund Automotive Group founded by his grandfather, guilty of murder-for-hire resulting in death after a two-week trial, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee said in a statement Monday.
Bryon Brockway, 48, of Austin, and Adam Carey, 32, of Richlands, North Carolina, were convicted of murder for hire, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and kidnapping resulting in death.
A fourth man, 49-year-old Gilad Peled of Austin, had previously pleaded guilty to the same charges and agreed to cooperate with the United States by testifying in court.
The four were convicted in connection with the fatal shooting of 33-year-old Holly Williams and her estranged boyfriend William Lanway, 36, in Nashville in 2020 after Lanway allegedly tried to blackmail Maund over his affair with Williams.
According to federal prosecutors, Maund, who was married at the time, had previously had an affair with Williams, who lived in Nashville and sometimes traveled there to visit a relative.
On February 3, 2020, he sent an email to Williams under a pseudonym, telling him he would be in Nashville on Wednesday and Thursday nights and would “like to see you again … again,” according to the federal indictment.
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Two days later, Maund Williams wrote: “Good morning, beautiful! I’m looking forward to today. I’m in Nashville. I’ll meet you at the bar like last time. Text me when you get there.”
But on March 1, 2020, Maund received a series of text messages from Lanway, “who had a personal romantic relationship” with Williams.
Lanway demanded money from Maund and threatened to reveal his relationship with Williams if he did not receive the money.
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Maund then instructed Peled to respond to the extortion attempt, the US attorney said in a statement.
Peled, in turn, hired Brockway and Carey to go to Nashville to investigate Lanway and Williams. Peled testified in court that when Lanway’s extortion attempts continued, Maund agreed to pay Brockway and Carey $100,000 each to kill Lanway and Williams, the U.S. Attorney’s Office statement said.
“The evidence showed that Maund Peled, who acted as a middleman for the plot, wired $150,000 on March 12, 2020, the day of the murders,” the statement said.
“That same day, Brockway and Carey abducted Williams and Lanway outside Williams’ West Nashville apartment complex and drove them to a nearby construction site where they were murdered,” it says.
Their bodies were found in Williams’ vehicle the next morning.
Over the next year, Maund wired Peled another $900,000 as payment for the plot, and Peled withdrew cash to pay Brockway and Carey for their roles, the U.S. attorney’s statement said.
“Those who hold life in contempt need to know that if they break the law, they will be brought to justice,” Special Agent in Charge Douglas DePodesta of the FBI’s Memphis Field Office said in the statement. “This conviction should send a clear message that the FBI and our law enforcement partners are committed to keeping our citizens safe and nothing will stop us from accomplishing that mission.”
Maund, Brockway and Carey face life sentences in a federal prison.
The verdict will be announced in separate hearings sometime in 2024.
Peled will also be sentenced in 2024. U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell, Jr. will take his cooperation into account when determining the final sentence.
The lawyers of the three men were initially unavailable for comment.
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