Texas Rapper Tay-K sentenced to 55 years in prison for deadly robbery

Texas rapper Tay-K was sentenced to 55 years in prison and a $21,000 fine Tuesday on a murder charge for a 2016 robbery that left one man dead, according to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.

The Tarrant County jury also sentenced Tay-K, whose legal name is Taymor McIntyre, to 30 years in prison on one count of aggravated robbery and 13 years for each of the remaining two counts of aggravated robbery

The sentences will run concurrently, a court clerk said.

The 19-year-old was found guilty of murder last week in the death of a 21-year-old father in the incident. Tay-K was one of seven defendants. The other six either were found guilty or reached plea deals.

According to witness testimony, Tay-K was part of a plan to steal drugs and money from the victim’s home in Mansfield, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The victim, Ethan Walker, didn’t have the drugs or money the robbers were after, the witnesses said. Walker’s girlfriend testified that he was shot while his hands were in the air.

Tay-K’s attorneys argued that he wasn’t the person who fired the gun and so shouldn’t have been found guilty. Prosecutors said Tay-K knew that the plan was to rob Walker.

Tay-K gained notoriety in 2017 when he cut off his ankle bracelet and fled house arrest. He released a song called “The Race,” which now has more than 174 million views on YouTube. The video shows Tay-K posing next to a wanted poster of himself.

Tay-K was captured in New Jersey after three months on the run.