Incarcerated rapper Tay-K has avoided a literal death sentence in the case concerning his involvement with the murder of a photographer in Texas several years ago.
On Monday (April 14), Tay-K, whose real name is Taymor McIntyre, avoided receiving the death penalty after he was found not guilty of capital murder and guilty of the murder of photographer Mark Anthony Saldivar in 2017.
If McIntyre would’ve been convicted of the capital murder charge, he would have been facing the death penalty. Instead, he will now be facing a sentence somewhere between five and 99 years over his guilty murder charge conviction.
The ruling brings the trial, which saw McIntyre accused of both robbing and fatally shooting Saldivar, to a close. At the time the fatal shooting occurred, prosecutors allege that McIntyre, who was out on bond and under house arrest, cut off his GPS monitor and fled. It was at this time his song “The Race” gained viral attention by attracting over 360 million views on YouTube and reaching the Billboard Hot 100.
According to reports, McIntyre was able to circumvent the capital murder charge due to conflicting physical evidence and eye witness testimony. Mcintyre’s ex-girlfriend Joanna Reyes, who drove the car involved in the incident, testified against him during the trial.
“He climbed on the hood of the car, trying to get his stuff back, and that’s when Tay-K shot him,” Reyes said during her testimony earlier this month in a Bexar County Court.
Though Reyes testified in that she witnessed McIntyre shoot and kill Salidivar in April 2017, additional eyewitness accounts uncovered various descriptions of the shooter and there was conflicting information about the weapon used.
McIntyre is already serving a 55-year sentence on a separate murder conviction from a 2016 home invasion case. The jury is set to reconvene on April 14 to deliver a ruling on sentencing.