Israeli man indicted in slaying of couple who blackmailed US businessman
Texas car dealer suspected of paying Gilad Peled over $750,000 to kill former mistress and her boyfriend, who was apparently demanding hush money
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
An Israeli citizen was arrested on suspicion that he received over three-quarters of a million dollars from a US businessman, who paid him to arrange the murder of a former mistress and her blackmailing boyfriend, the Tennessee state attorney’s office said in a statement Monday.
Gilad Peled, 47, was arrested on Friday at the airport in Austin, Texas. The statement did not say where he was headed.
Erik Charles Maund, 46, a married car dealer who allegedly ordered the hit, was arrested the same day, as were Bryon Brockway, 46, and Adam Carey, 30, who are suspected of the actual murders.
From March 11 until the present, Maund moved over $750,000 to an account controlled by Peled as payment for the kidnappings and murder of the victims, prosecutors say.
According to the statement, Peled, the owner of Speartip Security in Austin, Texas, “held himself out to be a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces.”
Brockway and Carey are both former US Marines who served in special forces units.
All four have been charged in a three-count indictment of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping resulting in death, and carrying, brandishing and discharging a firearm during a violent crime.
If convicted, they could face life in prison.
According to the indictment, Maund made occasional trips to Nashville to visit a relative and ahead of a trip in February 2020 contacted Holly Williams, 33, with whom he had a “prior relationship.”
On March 1, Maund began receiving text messages from William Lanway, 36, who was engaged in “a personal romantic relationship” with Williams. Lanway demanded payment from Maund, threatening that he would otherwise expose the businessman’s infidelity with Williams, according to the indictment.
Maund then contacted Peled, Brockway and Carey to deal with the threats and extortion.
The indictment noted a number of cash transfers from Maund to Peled in the weeks that followed, including $150,000 on March 12. The same day Brockway and Casey confronted Williams and Lanway in Nashville, shooting Lanway dead. They then allegedly kidnapped Williams, driving her and the body to a construction site. There they killed Williams as well and dumped both bodies, prosecutors say.