Charlie Sheen Possibly Testifying in Major Murder-for-Hire Trial
Sheen has a connection to one of the accused.
Charlie Sheen may see the inside of a Nashville courtroom in the near future. Lawyers for both sides read a list of possible witnesses to potential jurors during jury selection on Thursday morning, ahead of the federal trial for a murder for hire that will take place in Nashville in 2020, reports The Tennessean.
Even though Samuel Bassett, a lawyer for Austin, Texas auto dealer Erik Maund, did not explicitly specify to the jury pool that it would be Charlie Sheen, whose projects include Two and a Half Men and Wall Street, it is very likely that Sheen, who is a devoted fan of the show, will be taking the witness stand in the coming weeks because of his ties to the case.
Prosecutors have accused Maund of arranging the killing of 33-year-old Holly Williams and 36-year-old William Lanway in March 2020 with the help of Bryon Brockway, Adam Carey, and Gilad Peled, who owned a security company. According to previous reports, Maund was reportedly planning to hire Peled's security company to kill the couple after Lanway threatened to expose Maund's alleged affair with Williams to his family.
They face charges of kidnapping resulting in death, murder for hire, and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Sheen is introduced to the story via Peled, a man who used to work as his bodyguard but was reportedly fired in 2014.
Of the four co-defendants, Peled is the only one who has pleaded guilty ahead of trial, and the state has identified him as a potential witness, which will likely result in him testifying against his co-defendants at trial. According to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office, the office does not comment on any possible witnesses because it is not permitted to make public comments in light of the court's local rules on pretrial publicity.
There is a possibility that preliminary juror selection may end Thursday afternoon, according to U.S. District Judge William "Chip" Campbell on Thursday. He said it is also possible that opening remarks may not begin until at least Friday morning, but this is far from certain.
Campbell informed potential jurors that he expects the trial to last between three and four weeks and that there will be over 15 possible witnesses for the state and about half that number for the defendants during the course of the trial.