AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- An Austin-based auto dealership executive, along with three other men, have been indicted for their alleged roles in an "elaborate" murder-for-hire scheme that led to the murder of a man and woman in March 2020 in Tennessee, officials said Monday.
According to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, the federal indictment unsealed Monday charges 46-year old Erik Charles Maund, 47-year old Gilad Peled, 46-year old Bryon Brockway, and 30-year old Adam Carey on three counts, including conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping resulting in death, and carrying, brandishing, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
The charges are in connection with the deaths of 33-year old Holly Williams and her estranged boyfriend, 36-year old William Lanway. The couple were found shot to death in Williams' crashed Acura sedan in March of 2020.
Maund is the grandson of Charles Maund, and is a partner in Austin-based Maund Automotive Group, according to the indictment.
Investigators say Maund sometimes travelled to Nashville to visit a relative. In early February 2020, he emailed Williams, with whom he had had a prior relationship, for the purpose of seeing her during an upcoming visit.
After that initial visit, on March 1, the indictment indicates that Maund received a series of text messages from Lanway, demanding payment from Maund and threatening to expose their relationship. At that point, the indictment alleges Maund enlisted the services of Peled, Brockway and Carey to deal with the threats and extortion demands.
Peled, according to the indictment, is a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces and owner of Austin-based Speartip Security; Brockway is a former United States Marine and owner of Austin-based Ink Force LLC; and Carey, who lives in North Carolina, is also a former Marine.
The indictment alleges that Maund withdrew $15,000 from his bank account on March 5, 2020, the same day that an "intelligence report” was prepared and provided to Peled by a relative of Brockway who worked for an internet-based security company.
A series of actions were then undertaken by Carey and others, including travelling from out of state to Nashville to surveil Williams and Lanway, and creating and using a Pinger account to attempt to communicate with Williams and Lanway.
On March 9, the indictment alleges, Peled received a document entitled “Tennessee Sitrep,” which stated that Carey and others had surveilled Williams; confirmed her address and vehicle; confirmed that Lanway had been staying at the same address; and advised that Carey and others would use everything at their disposal to stop the attempted extortion of Maund.
Two days later, Peled is alleged to have deposited $8,000 into Speartip Security's business account and $7,000 in cash into his personal account, which was followed by a $150,000 wire transfer from Maund to an account controlled by Peled.
The indictment alleges that on March 11, Brockway and Carey confronted Williams and Lanway in the parking lot of Williams’ apartment complex in West Nashville and murdered Lanway by shooting him multiple times. They then kidnapped Williams and drove her and the body of Lanway to a construction site on Old Hickory Boulevard in West Nashville, where they murdered Williams by shooting her several times. The bodies were then discarded at the construction site.
After the murders, the indictment alleges that Maund transferred in excess of $750,000, via wire, from his bank account to an account controlled by Peled, as payment to Peled, Brockway, and Carey for the kidnapping and murders of Williams and Lanway.
The four men were arrested by FBI agents on Friday across multiple states. Maund was taken into custody following a traffic stop; Peled was arrested at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport; Brockway was arrested in San Diego, California; and Carey was arrested at his home in North Carolina.
If convicted, the defendants face up to life in prison, officials said.