TUNICA, MS (abc24.com) - Murder charges have been filed for the man accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend at Tunica's Hollywood Casino Hotel earlier this month.
Brandi Floyd was killed April 5. Deputies took Nathaniel Yates III into custody immediately after the crime, and then to the hospital. They've been waiting the last week and a half to charge him.
Yates was injured after he jumped through a hotel window to avoid arrest. After a lengthy hospital stay, he appeared before a judge Monday, April 16, covered in bandages. He's officially charged with two counts of murder.
"One for the victim Brandi, the second count came from her unborn child," says Captain Cedric Davis with the Tunica County Sheriff's Office.
Floyd was six months pregnant. The baby would have been her and Yates' second child.
Yates is also charged with kidnapping. Deputies say Floyd went to Tunica's Hollywood Casino willingly, but tried escaping when Yates turned violent.
"When the physical altercation came, apparently at one point she tried to exit the hotel room and wasn't able to," says Davis.
The Tunica Sheriff's Office believes Floyd was stabbed to death, cut with a sharp object multiple times.
Yates could be sentenced to life in prison for each of the murder charges and 30 years to life for the kidnapping.
Investigators wondered from the beginning whether he was under the influence when the crime occurred.
"We're still looking into that," Davis tells abc24.com. "We have to wait until the official toxicology report comes back."
They're also waiting on Floyd's autopsy report.
If he doesn't post a $10 million bond, Yates will be held in the Tunica jail until his next court appearance in August.
