An Austin businessman has been found guilty of hiring three men to kidnap and murder his mistress and her current boyfriend who threatened to expose their affair to his wife.
Erik Charles Maund was convicted following a trial that centered on accusations that Maund, formerly associated with the Austin-area Maund automotive group, orchestrated the murder-for-hire plot.
The U.S. Justice Department and FBI alleged that Maund hired individuals to kill William Lanway and Holly Williams following Lanway's demands for money upon discovering Maund's affair with Williams.
Lanway Threatened to Expose Maund's Affair if He Didn't Pay Up
Williams, 33, and 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.
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.
Maund Paid Three Former US Marines to Carry Out the Hit, Left a Review for Private Security Company
Maund then reached out to former U.S. Marines Gilad Peled, Byron Brockway and Adam Carey to kill the couple. Maund allegedly paid Peled, Brockway and Carey more than $750,000 to travel from Austin to Tennessee to kidnap, threaten and intimidate the couple.
Brockway owned a security company, Ink Force LLC, while Carey was a contractor for security companies within the private sector, according to KVUE. Peled owned Austin-based Speartip Security, a business that helped clients respond to extortion demands, according to the Department of Justice indictment.
Maund even 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!!"
Carey and Brockway Surveilled the Couple Before Fatally Shooting Them
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 for.
On March 11, Brockway and Carey 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.
Alongside Maund, Carey and Brockway, were found guilty on all counts, including murder for hire resulting in death, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and kidnapping resulting in death.
Peled, entered a plea deal in December 2022, which, according to online records, the court accepted. He is scheduled for a sentencing hearing in December 2023. According to the FBI, Peled "held himself out to be a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces."
Maund was convicted of murder for hire but acquitted on the kidnapping charge. Charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping were also dismissed against him.
