19-Year-Old Rapper Tay-K Found Guilty of Murder, Faces Life in Prison

Texas rapper Tay-K, real name Taymore McIntyre, was convicted of murder and aggravated robbery in connection to a 2016 home invasion in the city of Mansfield, which sits just outside of Dallas.

via Page Six:

The 19-year-old is also facing capital murder and aggravated robbery charges in Bexar County, where authorities say he killed a man and beat another half to death.

Tay-K rose to fame in the months after the Mansfield break-in — running from cops and posting a song about it on YouTube titled “The Race,” which landed on the Billboard Hot 100.

The lyricist, who was 16 at the time, had been arrested and placed on house arrest for the robbery, in which 21-year-old Ethan Walker was fatally shot by one of Tay-K’s accomplices. His mugshot wound up going viral on account of his young-looking appearance.

Prosecutors said they charged Tay-K with murder because he orchestrated the home invasion and recruited the gunman.

He allegedly removed the ankle monitor he had been ordered to wear during his house arrest and went on the lam in 2017 — committing the Bexar County crimes and releasing “The Race” in the process, according to prosecutors.

Tay-K’s capital murder victim, 23-year-old Mark Saldivar, was at a Chick-fil-A in San Antonio when the rapper allegedly robbed and killed him. The other was walking in Arlington’s Cravens Park when Tay-K “savagely beat the defenseless 65-year-old, leaving him unconscious with multiple broken bones [a] brain bleed,” the victim alleges.

Tay-K is facing capital murder and aggravated robbery charges in Bexar County for those incidents and a possible life sentence. He can’t be given the death penalty because he was a minor when he allegedly committed the crimes.

So young. So sad.