Former Austin car dealer and 2 others granted retrial in murder-for-hire case

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Three people who were convicted in a murder trial for their roles in the 2020 kidnapping and murder of a Tennessee couple in November 2023 were granted a retrial due to “discrepancies” in exhibits submitted to the jury, according to court documents.

Erik Charles Maund, a former partner with the Austin-area Maund Automotive Group, was convicted on a charge of murder-for-hire with death resulting.

Co-defendants Bryon Brockway, of Austin, and Adam Carey, of Richlands, North Carolina, were convicted on a murder-for-hire charge as well as conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping resulting in death.

Maund was acquitted on the kidnapping charge, as well as the conspiracy to kidnap charge. All defendants face a mandatory life sentence, according to officials.

A hearing was set in January for the defendants, and the court “identified discrepancies in the exhibits provided to the jury,” court documents said. The court then allowed the parties until Feb. 19 to file motions about the information provided in the notice of the upcoming hearing.

In total, three exhibits submitted as evidence were not provided to the jury, nine exhibits were provided to the jury but not admitted into evidence and one exhibit did not include redactions but was ordered by the court to have them, court documents said.

That last exhibit included the date the murders happened and were supposed to be redacted but were included with exhibits “in its unredacted form.” Though that discrepancy was not included in the notice, it was identified by the defendants before the hearing, court documents said.

Based off several other discrepancies, the defendants argued “the Court should grant a new trial without a further hearing” due to those discrepancies submitted were a “structural error.”

During the hearing on May 15, attorneys “discussed their recollection of their review of the exhibits,” court documents said.

A U.S. district judge granted the defendants a new trial based off the discrepancies provided in court documents. However that new trial will “be on only the counts on which the jury found the defendants guilty, as double jeopardy bars retrial of acquitted counts.”

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