American rapper, Tay-K has been sentenced to 80 years in prison in the de@dly 2017 sh0oting of a photographer in Texas.
Taymor McIntyre, known as Tay-K 47, was found guilty earlier this week of the murder of Mark Anthony Saldivar. A jury in Bexar County, Texas, delivered its sentencing on Tuesday after hours of testimony during the punishment phase of the trial.
Tay-K is currently behind bars at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, where he will remain in custody until further notice. 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 initially facing a capital murder charge, which the judge reduced to a lesser charge of murder after deliberations on Monday.
The rapper’s attorneys criticized the police investigation, arguing that the case relied heavily on “self-serving” witness accounts from individuals who were inside the car at the time of the shooting.
“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.”
He had previously been convicted in 2019 for the 2016 sh0oting de@th of 21-year-old Ethan Walker southeast of Fort Worth, Texas, and was sentenced to 55 years in prison.
His biggest hit, “The Race,” garnered 416 million Spotify streams to date, and was recorded while he was on the run after the sh0oting.