Photo Credit: Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office
Teen rapper Tay-K whose real name is Taymor McIntyre was just found guilty today of murder for his role in a 2016 murder from a home armed robbery gone bad and a series of other events. He went viral while being on the run from the police driving across the country from Texas to New Jersey where he proceeded to release the song The Race, detailing his attempt to escape. “Fuck a beat, I was tryna beat a case/but I ain’t beat that case, bitch I did the race,” the song goes. With a video viewed over 173 million times and remixed by a number of artists including Fetty Wap and Lil Yachty as #FreeTayK, he embodied the stereotype of rallying cries to free someone who was likely 100% guilty. But being the son of a Crip gang member, he got it honestly. After the original shooting, he was placed on house arrest in 2016 which is when he cut his ankle monitor off, proceeded to go on the run and committed another murder in San Antonio according to prosecutors. He’s also been charged with beating and robbing a 65 year old man in an Arlington park. Those two trials will soon be coming.
As of today he now faces between 5 and 99 years in prison. He wasn’t found guilty of capital murder, though which would have been a minimum sentence of 40 years without parole. Tarrant County prosecutors have now moved on to the sentencing phase where a decision is expected next week. He had already plead guilty to 2 counts of aggravated robbery and found guilty of a third count tied to the incident. His attorneys argued that because he wasn’t the gunmen he shouldn’t be convicted of murder. Prosecutors said because he was involved in the planning of the robbery knowing a shooting would occur where two women were used as foils to seduce 21 year old Ethan Walker while the others were to engage in robbery, he should be charged with capital murder. A second man was shot and survived, Zachary Beloate. The parents of both are seeking $1 million of damages. Latharian Merritt, who was accused of shooting Walker received a life sentence last year. Sean Robinson, accused of shooting Beloate was sentenced to 40 years after pleading guilty to murder last year.
A representative for the families of Walker and the other two alleged victims of McIntyre, Brian W. Butcher said in a statement that there are ongoing civil suits against the rapper. “I am glad a Fort Worth jury delivered justice,” he said, but added that “justice will not be fully complete until every penny of profit from McIntyre’s music is awarded as compensation to his victims.” So far a representative for McIntyre has not made a comment yet. His legal issues are numerous to say the least and we haven’t even covered them all but seeing a teenager doing all of this and throwing his life away so early is quite sad. There are plenty of other people who started out involved in burglary as teens who stopped, got their lives together and moved on. In this case, there’s no telling where these charges will get him but hopefully it will all serve as a cautionary tale for someone out there.
