The grandson of a Texas automotive tycoon has been indicted after he allegedly paid three men $750,000 to kidnap and murder his mistress and her current boyfriend who threatened to expose their affair.
Holly Williams, 33, and her partner William Lanway, 36, were found dead in Lanway's crashed Acura sedan in March last year. The car had veered off a construction road, down an embankment and into a tree, and its occupants were both fatally shot several times.
Williams' ex, Erik Charles Maund, 46, was arrested on Friday during a traffic stop near Austin and charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death, and carrying, brandishing and discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, according to a federal indictment unsealed on Monday.
Maund is a partner of Maund Automotive Group in Austin and the grandson of its founder, Charles Maund. It is not yet clear whether Williams and Maund were dating at the time of her murder.
Austin residents Gilad Peled, 47, Byron Brockway, 46, and North Carolina resident Adam Carey, 30 - three former members of the military who worked with private security companies - were also arrested that day and indicted on the same charges.
Maund Left a Google Review for Hitmen's Company: 'They Get the Job Done'
Maund allegedly paid Peled, Brockway and Carey more than $750,000 to travel from Austin to Tennessee to kidnap, threaten and intimidate the couple.
Peled owns Austin-based Speartip Security, a business that helped clients respond to extortion demands, according to the Department of Justice indictment. On Tuesday, December 7, Maund left a chilling Google review for the company under his name.
"Speartip is very professional and on top of it," the review read. "They get the job done in an expedited time. Couldn't imagine using anyone else!!"
"Thank you for the kind words," read a response to the review. "Always a pleasure working with you."
Maund Hired the Hitmen After Williams, Lanway Tried to Extort Him
The sequence of events that led up to the killing began in February of 2020, according to the indictment, when Maund reached out to his former girlfriend about seeing each other when he visited Nashville to see a relative.
The following month, Lanway reached out to Maund claiming to be Williams' boyfriend, and threatened to expose Maund's relationship if the automotive heir didn't pay him hush money.
As a result, Maund hired the three men. Peled is a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces. Brockway and Carey are both former U.S. Marines. Brockway owns another security company, Ink Force LLC, and Carey is a contractor for security companies within the private sector, according to KVUE.
Carey and Brockway surveilled the couple to learn where they lived and what car they drove on March 9. The pair detailed their findings in an "intelligence report" for which Maund paid $15,000 from his bank account, the indictment noted.
On March 11, Brockway and Carey allegedly confronted Williams and Lanway in the parking lot of their apartment complex in West Nashville with firearms. They shot Lanway in the parking lot multiple times. They put his body in his own car, then used that car to kidnap WIlliams and drive her to nearby Old Hickory Boulevard, where they shot her several times.
Within hours of the murders, the Department of Justice noted, Brockway returned a rental car that the two men had used to get to the couple. Carey drove Brockway to Memphis, Tennessee, where he caught a flight to Austin, and Carey drove there from Memphis. Then, Maund wired $750,000 from his bank account to an account controlled by Peled.
