Former Turnstile guitarist Brady Ebert is now facing life in prison after his charges for intentionally driving his car into the father of Turnstile singer Brendan Yates were upgraded to attempted first-degree murder.
Ebert was initially charged with second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault, both felonies, following the March 29 where the band said Ebert “used his vehicle to run over Brendan’s father [79-year-old William Yates], causing severe physical trauma.”
However, a Montgomery County grand jury formally indicted Ebert on Thursday, elevating the second-degree attempted murder to first-degree, which if convicted carries a life sentence in prison; the second-degree charge carried a maximum 30-year sentence. Ebert is also facing charges of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault and two counts of second-degree assault, the Baltimore Banner reports.
Ebert is next due in court on May 8. He has previously maintained his innocence, telling a district court commissioner, “This is pure self-defense.”
“Turnstile cut ties with Brady Ebert in 2022 in response to a consistent pattern of harmful behavior affecting himself, the band, and the community,” Turnstile previously said in a statement. “After exhausting every available resource to support his access to help and recovery, a boundary ultimately had to be set when healthy communication was no longer possible and he began threatening violence.
The band continued, “In the years since, his baseless tirades have continued in public. We never addressed it. We chose to protect his privacy and the circumstances around his departure, even when he did nothing to be deserving of that protection. Over the past few months, his threats only escalated further. … We have no language left for Brady.”
Soon after the incident, the band opened their Coachella set with a video of William Yates.
