Brady Ebert was indicted by a Montgomery County, Maryland grand jury on attempted first-degree murder, a charge that can bring a life sentence. He is accused of driving to the Silver Spring home of 79-year-old William Yates on March 29 and intentionally striking him with his car.
Police said Ebert yelled obscenities and honked his horn at Yates and other members of the family before the car strike. Ebert had been arrested in March on charges of attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault, and the indictment now raises the legal severity of the case.
The case lands amid a long and public rupture between Ebert and Turnstile, the band he co-founded in 2010 and left in 2022 after the group said it parted ways with him because of “a consistent pattern of harmful behavior affecting himself, the band, and the community.” Ebert was later fired from The S.E.T. earlier this year after accusing Turnstile in social media posts of misusing benefit show funds.
Turnstile also used its Coachella set last month to play a video of Yates introducing the band. In it, he told the crowd, “I’m Bill Yates, I’m the proud father of Brendan. They’re all sons of mine.” He added that the band had been practicing in the house for 13 years, had only recently vacated the basement, and told fans, “Finally, after a dozen years, the larger the venue the better,” before closing with, “They just enjoy the energy” and “All the fans out there: we love you, and Turnstile loves you. Enjoy the ride.”
Ebert told a district court commissioner, “This is pure self-defense. They’re the attackers.” He is being held in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility without bail and is set to appear in court on May 8 for a scheduling conference. The indictment answers the immediate question in the case: prosecutors are treating the March attack as a far more serious crime than the arrest that came before it.