24-year-old California rapper Tay-K, widely known for his hit 2017 song “The Race,” has been convicted of murder for the second time in the last decade.
Tay-K, whose real name is Taymor McIntyre, was sentenced to 55 years in prison in 2019 in relation to the murder of 21-year-old Ethan Walker during a screwed-up home invasion.
Six years on, the California rapper is facing an additional five to 99 years behind bars after being convicted for fatally shooting a photographer while on the run from cops for the initial killing, which unfolded in 2016.
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The 24-year-old was placed on house arrest at the time and ordered to wear an ankle monitor. Meanwhile, Latharian Merritt, the man who was accused of shooting Walker, was given a life sentence for the murder.
Although the jury found Tay-K guilty of murdering Mark Anthony Saldivar, in April 2017, he was not convicted of capital murder — which comes with an automatic life sentence, as per News 4 San Antonio.
After he took off his ankle monitor, the young California rapper escaped house arrest only hours prior to a court hearing in connection to his involvement in a 2016 home invasion, which happened when he was 16.
An arrest warrant connected to the second killing indicates that the rapper acted as an accessory as part of a group that picked up the 23-year-old photographer in San Antonio, Texas, for a photoshoot happening close by.
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During the drive for the photoshoot while they were headed to a mall, Saldivar was robbed at gunpoint of his camera and photo equipment, before being killed, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.
At the time of the killing, Tay-K was 17 years old, and one of his attorneys told jurors last week that officers relied too heavily on statements from witnesses in the car during the investigation.
“Taymor McIntyre is not guilty of capital murder, murder, or manslaughter, and the reason for that is very simple,” Tay-K’s attorney John Hunter said in court, per KSAT. “You have to do it right. You have to do the work. And this case clearly demonstrates the work wasn’t done.”
At the time the second murder happened, the now-convicted California rapper released his hit song “The Race.”
Only hours after the single’s video came out on June 30, 2017, police arrested him in New Jersey.
On YouTube, the song’s music video amassed over 251 million views but the rapper was reportedly handed a 30-year prison sentence and a $5,000 fine on one count of aggravated robbery.
Tay-K was also handed an additional 13 years behind bars and a $3,000 fine for the remaining two counts of aggravated robbery relating to the botched home invasion in 2016.
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The convicted California rapper must now serve at least half of his sentence before being eligible for parole.
