A Texas auto dealer has been arrested after allegedly hiring a former Israeli soldier and two ex-Marines to kidnap and kill his mistress and her boyfriend, who threatened to tell his wife about the affair, the Washington Post reports.
According to the Department of Justice, Eric Charles Maund, 41, whose family runs Volkswagen and Toyota dealerships in Austin, TX, allegedly paid three men $750,000 to kill Holly Williams, 33, and William Lanway, 36, who were murdered in Nashville, Tennessee on March 12, 2020.
A federal indictment unsealed Monday charges Maund, 41, Gilad Peled, 47, Bryon Brockway, 46, and Adam Carey, 30, with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping resulting in death, and carrying, brandishing and discharging a firearm during a violent crime.
Officials say Peled claims he is a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces, while Brockway and Carey were both identified as former active duty U.S. Marines.
If they are convicted, they could face life in prison.
The chain of events leading to the murders of Williams and Lanway began in early February 2020, when Maund contacted Holly Williams, with whom he previously had an extramarital relationship, to try and set up a meeting with her while he was in Nashville, TN.
After receiving text messages from Lanway, who was Williams’ boyfriend, and who demanded money from Maund and “threatened to expose his relationship,” Maund allegedly enlisted the services of Peled, Brockway and Carey.
“The indictment alleges that between March 11, 2020, and the present, 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 murder of H.W. and W.L.,” federal prosecutors said Monday.
According to authorities, Brockway and Carey confronted Williams and Lanway in the parking lot of Williams’ apartment complex in Nashville on March 12, 2020. The two former Marines fatally shot Lanway multiple times, before kidnapping Williams and driving her to a construction site where they murdered her and disposed of her body.
Last Friday, all four were arrested for the murders of Williams and Lanway.
In a statement to the Austin American-Statesman, Maund’s attorneys Perry Minton and Sam Bassett said they “have spoken to Mr. Maund only briefly on the matter.”
