Rapper Tay-K has been found guilty of murdering a photographer in 2017, but was acquitted of capital murder.
On Monday (April 14), a jury found the rapper, real name Taymor Mclntyre, guilty of robbing and killing photographer Mark Anthony Saldivar, according to News 4 San Antonio. Prosecutors had argued Mclntyre fatally shot Saldivar after stealing his photography equipment, while defense attorneys contested both the physical evidence and eyewitness testimony, saying they didn’t directly tie Mclntyre to the crime.
Tay-K, who was a minor at the time of the shooting, now faces five to 99 years in prison. Had he been convicted of capital murder, he would have received an automatic life sentence.
The rapper, who rose to fame with the 2017 hit “The Race,” was convicted on a different murder charge in 2019 related to a 2016 home invasion. That case resulted in a 30-year sentence for aggravated robbery, along with an additional 13-year sentence for two other counts of aggravated robbery.
In social media posts from behind bars, the 24-year-old pleaded with the judge in this latest case to give him a second chance.
“I really just need 1 chance @ adulthood,” he wrote in 2023. “I bet if I was a lil white kid they wouldn’t have gave me no 55 years for a crime I was alleged to play the most insignificant role in when I was 16….they woulda rightfully argued that my mind wasn’t fully developed and gave me rehabilitation and a 2nd (1st) chance at adulthood.”
