Chester T. Dean 
Erik Charles Maund, whose family runs Volkswagen and Toyota dealerships in and around Austin, has been charged with allegedly hiring hitmen to kidnap and kill his former girlfriend and boyfriend, federal prosecutors said. in a press release on Monday, December 13. -The federal indictment comes 21 months after the brutal murders of Nashvillians Holly Williams, 33, and William Lanway, 36.
Maund, 46, was charged with paying an alleged former Israeli soldier and two ex-Marines $750,000 to kill the victims in March 2020, according to a statement from the Nashville Police Department. In early February 2020, Maund emailed Williams, with whom he had a previous relationship, to see her when she visited Nashville, the state of charge.
Holly Williams, 33, was kidnapped and then shot multiple times on March 12, 2020 in Nashville.
Nashville Police DepartmentAfter her visit on March 1, 2020, Maund, who is married, received a series of text messages from Lanway, who was romantically involved with Williams. Lanway demanded payment and threatened to reveal Maund’s “relationship” to Williams if he did not receive it, according to the indictment.
Maund then allegedly enlisted three men to deal with the threats: Gilad Peled, a former member of the Israel Defense Forces from Austin; Bryon Brockway, a retired US Marine on active duty from Austin; and Adam Carey, of North Carolina, also a former active-duty Marine.
Peled, Brockway and Carey are believed to have left the state for Nashville to watch Williams and Lanway, the statement said. The trio used a Pinger account to communicate with the alleged couple.
On March 12, 2020, Brockway and Carey confronted Williams and Lanway in the parking lot of Williams’ West Nashville apartment complex and murdered Lanway by shooting him multiple times, according to the indictment.
William Lanway, 36, was fatally shot on March 12, 2020 in Nashville.
Nashville Police DepartmentThey then kidnapped Williams and drove her and Lanway’s body to a construction site on Old Hickory Boulevard in West Nashville, where they murdered Williams by shooting her multiple times. The bodies were then dumped at the construction site and within hours of the killings the Pinger account used to communicate was deleted and a rental car rented by Brockway was returned.
The indictment also alleges that since March 11, 2020, Maund transferred more than $750,000, by wire transfer, from his bank account to an account controlled by Peled, as payment to the three men for the kidnapping and murders of Williams and Lanway.
According to the statement, Maund and the three alleged hitmen were all charged in a three-count indictment with conspiracy to commit kidnapping; kidnapping resulting in death; and carrying, brandishing and discharging a firearm during a violent crime, prosecutors said.
If found guilty, the defendants risk life in prison.
