Tay-K Trial Update: Rapper Sentenced to 80 Years for 2017 San Antonio Shooting

Tay-K has been sentenced to 80 years in prison in the deadly 2017 shooting of a photographer in Texas, News 4 San Antonio reports.

Taymor McIntyre, known as Tay-K 47, was found guilty of the murder of Mark Anthony Saldivar earlier this week. A jury in Bexar County, Texas, delivered its sentencing in the murder trial of rapper on Tuesday after hours of testimony surrounding the punishment phase of the trial. He was facing life in prison with the possibility of parole. 

“I do realize that while this is a lot of time, you’re still alive. You can still better yourself,” 187th District Court Judge Stephanie Boyd said to Tay-K directly, per KENS 5. “But the complainant in this case is deceased, and you need to internalize that the complainant in this case is deceased. You’re going to have to make changes.”

The sentencing comes after Tay-K was found guilty on Monday of murder stemming from the 2017 shooting of Saldivar. According to prosecutors, the 24-year-old, who was 16 at the time, fatally shot Saldivar after stealing his photography equipment.

Tay-K was facing a capital murder charge which the judge reduced to a lesser charge of murder after deliberating on Monday. The rapper’s attorneys argued against how the police investigated the shooting and that the case relied heavily on “self-serving” witness accounts from inside the car where the shooting took place.

“Taymor McIntyre is not guilty of capital murder, murder, or manslaughter, and the reason for that is very simple,” Tay-K’s lawyer John Hunter told jurors during last week’s closing arguments. “You have to do it right. You have to do the work. And this case clearly demonstrates the work wasn’t done.”

In 2019, Tay-K was sentenced to 55 years for the 2016 murder of Ethan Walker during a home invasion. His biggest hit, “The Race,” garnered 416 million Spotify streams to date, and was recorded while he was on the run after the shooting.