Appeals Court Reinstates Convictions in 2020 Nashville Double Homicide

Erik Charles Maund, an Austin, Texas businessman, and co-defendants Bryon Brockway and Adam Carey had their November 2023 murder-for-hire convictions reinstated by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Feb. 23, 2026 in case No. 24-5932. The panel reversed a district court order that had vacated the jury verdicts and remanded the case for further proceedings.

The convictions arise from the March 2020 killings of Holly Williams, described as an aesthetician, and William Lanway, described as her on-again, off-again boyfriend, in Nashville. Metro Nashville Police Department said March 16, 2020 that "what initially looked like a fatal car crash has turned into a double homicide investigation" after the victims were found that month.

Prosecutors told jurors that the alleged scheme began in February 2020 when Maund visited his son in Nashville and had an alleged affair with Williams, and that Lanway then tried to extort Maund. Prosecutors allege Maund hired Gilad Peled to "deal with the blackmail problem," that Peled in turn hired surveillers including Brockway, Adam Carey, Anthony Repinski and David Conaway, and that Peled arranged and was paid to carry out a murder-for-hire in March 2020.

A federal grand jury returned indictments charging murder-for-hire conspiracy, kidnapping, and a kidnapping conspiracy resulting in death. In November 2023 a jury convicted Maund, Brockway and Carey of murder-for-hire conspiracy, and convicted Brockway and Carey of kidnapping resulting in death and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Each defendant faces exposure up to life in prison.

A little over two months after the convictions, U.S. District Judge William Campbell concluded that the evidence sent into the jury room for deliberations did not exactly match the evidence admitted at trial, finding jurors had been given access to exhibits that were not properly admitted and had not been given all admitted exhibits. Judge Campbell vacated the guilty verdicts and ordered a new trial; the government immediately appealed.

The Sixth Circuit applied the harmless-error standard and sided with the government. "The error here was neither structural nor harmful to any defendant," the appeals panel of Judges Karen Nelson Moore, Amul Thapar and Kevin G. Ritz wrote, adding, "…We reverse the district court’s grant of a new trial and remand for further proceedings." The opinion further states, "The government appealed, arguing that the error was not structural, the harmless-error standard applies instead, and the error was harmless. We agree and reverse."

In assessing prejudice the panel pointed to substantial trial evidence. The opinion highlights Gilad Peled’s testimony implicating Brockway, evidence placing Brockway in Nashville during the murders and leaving afterward, and records that Brockway rented a car matching surveillance footage near the site where the victims’ bodies were found. The court noted Brockway presented the strongest claim of potential prejudice because his defense was that Carey acted alone, yet the panel found the exhibit error insufficient to overturn the verdicts.

The Sixth Circuit’s Feb. 23, 2026 decision remands the case to the district court for further proceedings, which in ordinary course would include sentencing unless the defendants obtain review by the U.S. Supreme Court. If the convictions stand, Maund, Brockway and Carey face sentences up to life in prison.