3 Austin Men Among 4 Indicted In Double Murder-For-Hire Case

Austin TX

13 December, 2021

4:00 PM

Description

AUSTIN, TX — Three Austin men —an executive with an Austin-based auto dealership and two local men who served in the U.S. Armed Forces — were among four people indicted Monday by a federal jury in the murder-for-hire deaths of two people in Nashville, Tennessee. Erik Charles Maund, a partner in Maund Automotive Group in Austin, Gilad Peled and Byron Brockway face three-count indictment charges for the deaths of 33-year-old Holly Williams and her estranged boyfriend, William Lanway, 36, in March 2020. Adam Carey, 30, of Richlands, North Carolina, was also charged in the slayings. Peled, 47, is a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces and owner of Speartip Security in Austin, federal officials said. Brockway, 46, is a former active-duty U.S. Marine who previously served in a Special Operations Capable Unit, and is the owner of Ink Force LLC, a security company, in Austin. Carey is a former active duty U.S. Marine who had previously served in the Marine Corps' Special Operations Group, authorities said. The four men face conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping resulting in death and carrying, brandishing and discharging a weapon during and in relation to a crime of violence, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee said in a news release. BREAKING: Four men are in custody, charged in an alleged elaborate murder-for-hire scheme involving an Austin, TX businessman & former military members that resulted in the 3/12/20 shooting deaths of Nashvillians Holly Williams, 33, & William Lanway, 36. pic.twitter.com/IyH1sTBL0K— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) December 13, 2021 According to the indictment, Maund, 46, used to visit a relative in Nashville. In early February 2020, he emailed Williams, whom he had a previous relationship with, to see her during his upcoming visit to Nashville from Feb. 5-7. After his visit, on March 1, 2020, Maund received a series of texts from Lanway, who had a personal romantic relationship with Williams. Lanway demanded payments from Maund, officials said, and threatened to expose his relationship with Williams if he did not receive it. Maund then enlisted the services of Peled, Brockway and Carey to "assist with dealing with the threats" to expose his relationship with Williams and the extortion demands. The indictment further alleges that on March 5, 2020, Maund withdrew $15,000 from his bank account and on that same day an "intelligence report" was prepared and provided to Peled by a relative of Brockway who worked for an internet-based security company. Carey and others then undertook a series of actions, including traveling from out-of-state to Nashville to surveil Williams and Lanway, and create and use a Pinger account to communicate with the two of them, the indictment reports. The indictment goes on to say that Peled received a document entitled "Tennessee Sitrep" on March 9, 2020. The document said 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 deposited $8,000 in cash into Speartip Security's business account and $7,000 in cash into his personal bank account. The following day, Maund transferred $150,000, by wire, from his bank account to a bank account controlled by Peled, according to the indictment. On that same day, March 12, 2020, Brockway and Carey, while armed with guns, confronted Williams and Lanway in the parking lot of the 33-year-old's apartment complex in Nashville and shot Lanway multiple times, killing him, according to the court document. The two men then kidnapped Williams and drove her and Lanway's body to a construction site on Old Hickory Boulevard in Nashville, where they shot the woman several times, killing her as well, authorities said. Both Williams' and Lanway's bodies were dumped at the construction site and within hours of their slayings, the Pinger account used to communicate was deleted, authorities said. Brockway's rental car was also returned, officials said. Carey drove Brockway to Memphis, Tennessee, and Brockway caught a flight to Austin, Texas following the incident, the indictment said. Carey drove to Austin from Memphis. Between March 11, 2020, and now, Maund wired more than $750,000 from his bank account to an account controlled by Peled, as payment to Peled, Brockway and Carey, for the kidnapping and killing of Williams and Lanway, the indictment said. On Friday, FBI agents and Metro Nashville Police detectives arrested all four men across several states. Erik Maund was arrested after a traffic stop near Austin; Peled were arrested at the airport in Austin; Brockway was arrested in San Diego, California; and Carey was arrested at his home in North Carolina. All four men will make an initial appearance before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the district where they were arrested, federal officials said. They will return to the Middle District of Tennessee at a later date for further proceedings. If convicted, the men face up to life in prison.