Jury Convicts Three Men in Murder for Hire Scheme

NASHVILLE – A federal jury returned guilty verdicts against three men indicted in a murder-for-hire scheme, announced United States Attorney Henry C. Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Erik Maund, 48, and Bryon Brockway, 48, both of Austin, Texas and Adam Carey, 32, of Richlands, North Carolina were convicted of murder-for-hire with death resulting after a two-and-a-half-week jury trial. Brockway and Carey were also convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping with death resulting.  A fourth member of the conspiracy, Gilad Peled, 49, of Austin, Texas had previously pleaded guilty to the same charges and agreed to cooperate with the United States by testifying at trial.

According to evidence admitted at the trial, Maund had previously had an extramarital affair with Holly Williams of Nashville.  In March of 2020, William Lanway, also of Nashville, attempted to extort Maund about his affair with Williams.  At that time Maund was an executive for his family’s automobile dealerships in Austin, Texas.

Maund hired Peled to respond to the extortion attempt.  Peled, in turn, hired Brockway and Carey to go to Nashville to investigate Lanway and Williams. Peled testified at trial that when Lanway’s efforts to extort Maund persisted, Maund agreed to pay Brockway and Carey $100,000 each to murder Lanway and Williams.

The evidence showed that Maund wired Peled, who acted as the middleman for the scheme, $150,000 on March 12, 2020, the day the murders occurred. On the same day, Brockway and Carey kidnapped Williams and Lanway from outside of Williams’ apartment complex in West Nashville and drove them to a nearby construction site where they were murdered. The victims’ bodies were found on the morning of March 13, 2020 inside Williams’ vehicle. Over the course of the next year, Maund wired Peled an additional $900,000 as payment for the scheme and Peled withdrew cash to pay Brockway and Carey for their roles.

“We are committed to aggressively prosecuting violent crime in Middle Tennessee and I am very pleased that the men responsible for these murders have finally been held accountable for their deplorable actions,” said United States Attorney Henry C. Leventis. “I want to commend the detectives of the Metro Nashville Police Department and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation whose thorough investigation made this outcome possible.”

“Those who devalue life need to know that when you break the law, you will be brought to justice,” said Special Agent in Charge Douglas DePodesta of the FBI Memphis Field Office. “This conviction should send a clear message that the FBI and our law enforcement partners are dedicated to keeping our citizens safe, and nothing will stop us from accomplishing that mission. We will continue to combine our resources and share our expertise to target those who hope to commit similar heinous acts.”

“This investigation began with the discovery of two murder victims, Holly Williams and William Lanway, inside a vehicle off a construction road in West Nashville on Good Friday 2020,” Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said.  “Months of outstanding investigative work, led by Detectives Patrick Cuthbertson and David Willover, provided multiple leads that drew our attention to other states.  Realizing that this elaborate criminal case reached far outside of Nashville, our team enlisted the help of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.  It is that partnership that brought justice for the victims in federal court last week, and a partnership that will continue to hold violent criminals accountable in the future.”

Maund, Brockway, and Carey all face a mandatory life sentence in federal prison. They will be set for separate sentencing hearings sometime in 2024. Peled will also be sentenced in 2024 where U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell, Jr. will take his cooperation into consideration as part of his ultimate sentence.

This case was investigated by the FBI and the Metro Nashville Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert McGuire and Brooke Farzad prosecuted the case.

#####