Erik Maund had it all. He had a great business, a beautiful wife, and amazing kids but somehow, he managed to screw it all up. By the end, he was without his company, and family, and may end up without his freedom.
The story of Erik Maund began in early 2020, at a time when the world was grappling with many uncertainties over a looming pandemic caused by COVID-19. It came to full light on the morning of March 13, when two bodies were found inside a car. They were shot and killed. investigations began, and that was how everything went south for Maund.
Who is Erik Maund?
Erik Charles Maund was born between 1974 and 1975 in Texas. He was born into a family that was wealthy as his grandfather, Charles Maund, was famous for owning multiple dealerships in Austin.
It was his grandfather who opened Charles Maund Oldsmobile-Cadillac in 1957 before going on to own other dealerships. Erik found his way into the car dealership business.
On on February 20, 1999, Erik got married to Sheri Susanne Blaschke. The ceremony was held at St. Louis Catholic Church.
How did he find himself at the center of the murder for hire case?
For the better part, Erik Maund had a good life and a stable one too. He had a business that was thriving and a beautiful family. However. he made a costly mistake when his path crossed that of an escort named escort Layla Love, whose services he later sought.
Maud thought everything about the escape had come to an end after the two went their separate ways, but he was dead wrong. On March 1, 2020, he received a test that would jolt him into actions no one saw coming. It was a message from a blackmailer, threatening to expose his affair with Layla Love if he failed to pay him $25,000.
Most people in such a situation would either pay, be open with their wife, involve the cops, or think of a better way out. That was not what he did. Maund decided to hire a security guard who was also the former bodyguard of famous American actor, Charlie Sheen, Gilad Peled. Gilad was assigned to make the problem go away and he, in turn, hired a man who once worked with the CIA and the Marines, Bryon Brockway.
Brockway would only go ahead and make the chain even longer by hiring ex-Marine Adam Carey to fix the problem. Carey and Brockway carried out an investigation, which pointed them in the direction of Layla Love, whose real name was Holy Williams, and her boyfriend William Lanway. The investigators found out that the couple was behind the blackmail threats.
Brockway and Carey reported back to Maund and made a recommendation to terminate the lives of Williams and Lanway for a charge of $750,000. He agreed and that was how the men proceeded to kill the couple.
The tragedy impacted his business and relationship with his wife
After the murder of the couple, an investigation followed, and by the time the FBI and the Metro Nashville Police Department were done, everything pointed in the direction of Maund.
He was subsequently arrested in December 2021 outside San Marcos. Before then, Brockway, Carey, and Peled were already all tracked down.
The tragedy and the involvement of Maund forced him to sell his business a to Fortune 300 company Group 1 Automotive. The amount that he sold the business was never made known.
It also affected his marriage as his wife, Sheri Blaschke Maund filed to be separated from her husband. This came only a couple of months after the murder. It has been reported that neither Sheri nor the couple’s kids were at the trial of Erik Maund.
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Where is Erik Maund today?
A trial was held in Nashville which found Maund guilty of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. However, he was found not guilty on the charges of kidnapping resulting in death.
The ruling which was delivered on November 17, 2023, found Brockway and Carey guilty of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, kidnapping resulting in death, and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
Their sentencing was scheduled for the latter part of 2024. It was expected that if they were handed the maximum sentence, they might end up getting life imprisonment or death.
However, in September 2024, a new trial was ordered as result of an an administrative mistake that caused some things to be left out inthe evidence during the trial.
