Married Texas car dealership heir, Erik Charles Maund, 48, is found guilty of paying two ex-US Marines and former IDF fighter $750k to kill sex worker, 33, and boyfriend after they tried to blackmail him out of $25k
A married heir to a Texas car dealership has been found guilty of plotting to kill a sex worker and her boyfriend after they tried to blackmail him.
Erik Charles Maund, 46, paid two ex-Marines and a former Israeli Army soldier $750,000 to kill Holly Williams, 33, and her partner William Lanway, 36, in 2020.
Williams and Lanway were both found shot several times in his crashed Acura, which had veered off a construction road, down an embankment and into a tree at a construction site in Nashville.
Maund, the grandson of an auto magnate, was arrested more than a year after the murders, along with Austin residents Gilad Peled, 47, Byron Brockway, 46, and North Carolina resident Adam Carey, 30 – former military personnel who worked for private security companies. .
Prosecutors said Maund plotted to kill the couple after receiving text messages demanding $25,000 not to reveal an extramarital affair he was having with Nashville native Williams.
Erik Charles Maund, 46, paid two ex-Marines and a former Israeli Army soldier $750,000 to kidnap and kill Holly Williams, 33, and her partner William Lanway, 36, in 2020
Holly Williams (right), 33, and William Lanway, 36 (left), were found dead in Lanway’s crashed Acura sedan on March 12, 2020
Lanway’s white 2005 Acura sedan (pictured) had veered off a construction road, down an embankment and into a tree, and the occupants were both fatally shot multiple times
The father-of-two began an investigation after receiving the threatening text messages that resulted in the couple’s murder 11 days later.
Maund was found guilty of the murders earlier this month after an 11-day trial in which former Marines Brockway and Carey were also convicted. They each face life in prison and will be sentenced separately next year.
Former IDF member Peled in turn pleaded guilty before the trial and was the key witness against the other defendants.
Maund met with Williams after texting her in February 2020 saying he was traveling to Nashville. The two had already had contact about a year earlier.
Peled claimed in court that Maund told his wife he was traveling to the city to visit their son at college, according to transcripts seen by Fox News Digital.
“He told me he was going to visit his son, and while he was there he used escort services,” Peled testified, adding that Maund said he would be “devastated” if his family found out about his extramarital escapades to discover.
The ‘hitmen’: Former Marines Byron Brockway (left) and North Carolina’s Adam Carey (right) were found guilty of killing the couple in the murder-for-hire plot
Former IDF member Gilad Peled Peled pleaded guilty before trial and was a key witness against the other defendants
On March 1, William’s friend Lanway began sending a series of text messages demanding money in exchange for keeping quiet about Maund’s use of escort services.
The next day, Maund contacted Peled and offered to pay him $60,000 to investigate the sender of the text messages.
Maund then brought in family friend Brockway, who recruited Carey.
The two ex-Marines and the former IDF fighter then traveled to Nashville to track Williams and Lanway, but were unable to contact them for ten days.
Meanwhile, on March 11, 2020, as Lanway’s stated payment deadline approached, Mound panicked, prompting Brockway to return to Nashville to “resolve the issue by eliminating Lanway,” according to Peled’s testimony.
William’s friend Lanway tried to blackmail Maund after meeting the escort in 2020. Williams and Lanway are pictured together
Maund took him up on the offer and agreed to pay $100,000 each to Brockway and Carey. The heir also gave $550,000 to Peled, according to prosecutors.
Brockway then shot Lanway in the parking lot of William’s apartment building, and Carey killed Williams after driving to the construction site where the bodies were found.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire said after the verdict, “Holly and William won’t come back, but they know now that the people who killed them will be held accountable for what they did.”
The Maund auto group, which operates its flagship location at 6900 Burnett Road in Austin, has a prominent presence in the Central Texas region.
In 1945, at the age of 18, Maund’s grandfather opened a used car lot in Port Arthur and eventually acquired four more lots. Over time, he bought four car dealerships in the area, according to the company’s website.