Tay-K Sentenced To 55 Years In Prison After Being Found Guilty Of Murder In Shooting Death

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Tay-K is gearing up to go to prison for a long time. The 19-year-old rapper was found guilty of one count of murder by a Tarrant County jury in Forth Worth, TX on July 19 and was sentenced to 55 years in prison as well as $10,000 in fines on July 23, according to The Fort Worth Star Telegram. The sentence comes from his part in the 2016 shooting murder of 21-year-old father Ethan Walker during a home invasion in Mansfield, TX. He also pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated robbery in the incident.

The jury also sentenced Tay-K, whose real name is Taymor McIntyre, to 30 years in prison and a $5,000 fine on one count of aggravated robbery and 13 years in prison and a $3,000 fine for the remaining two counts of aggravated robbery in regards to the home invasion. It took the jury around three hours to decide the verdict, the outlet reported, and the sentences are expected to run simultaneously. Tay-K will serve at least half of the 55 years before he is eligible for parole.

After the 55 year verdict was announced, Ethan’s father, Richard Walker, who was in the courtroom, took the stand to thank jurors and State District Judge Wayne Salvant, the Fort Worth Star Telegram further reported.  “I have tried to live a good life and I know hate is a very negative emotion but right now there are three people I hate,” Richard said. “One is the planner, one is the person who pulled the trigger and one is the person who profited off of this and saw this as a career move.” Tay-K used the incident that killed Ethan as inspiration for his song, “The Race” and Richard mentioned that in his closing comments. “Every lyric to ‘The Race’ is stained with my son’s blood. Every ‘free Tay-K’ T-shirt that was ever sold has my son’s blood on it,” he said.

Steven Wright, Texas state criminal lawyer, EXCLUSIVELY spoke with HollywoodLife about Tay-K’s sentencing after it was announced and revealed why he thinks the jury came up with the 55 years sentencing and how likely it would be for him to either get off or get a reduced sentencing if he filed for an appeal. “My guess as to why he received the amount he did had to do a lot with his prior criminal history and the lack of remorse he showed,” Wright said. “I would put a very, very high likelihood that his attorneys have already started working on the appeal. I don’t think anything will change, as long as the court didn’t make any major errors, but I would put a lot on the case getting appealed.”

“I was informed that the punishment was done by a jury,” he continued. “Another reason I believe that the punishment might have been what it was is a lot of the time one juror will say ‘give him the max’ and another will say ‘he didn’t pull the trigger give him 20’ and they will split the baby and meet in the middle. I see a lot of punishments go that route where they meet in the middle of the two extremes.” If this happened in Tay-K’s verdict and the jury met in the middle, it means the rapper didn’t receive a “max” and there was potential for his sentencing to end up even longer than the 55 years.

In addition to his charges in the robbery that resulted in Ethan’s murder and the wounding of Zachary Beloate, Tay-K has also been charged in a second capital murder case out of Bexar County and an aggravated robbery case in Tarrant County that happened after the murder of Ethan. In that incident, he cut off his ankle monitor and fled while being on home arrest for Ethan’s murder case. Officials allege that during this time, which was Apr. 2017, he fatally shot  Mark Saldivar, 23, at a Chick-fil-A in San Antonio, TX and allegedly attacked and robbed Skip Pepe, 65, in Arlington’s Cravens Park. Tay-K was captured by authorities in June 2017.