The capital murder trial of rapper Taymor McIntyre, known professionally as Tay-K, continued this week with prosecutors presenting pivotal surveillance footage in the 2017 shooting death of Mark Anthony Saldivar. The trial, which began on April 1, 2025, and remains ongoing as of April 5, 2025, centers on an alleged robbery and fatal shooting outside a Chick-fil-A restaurant in San Antonio.
McIntyre, now 24, faces the possibility of life in prison without parole if convicted, in addition to the 55-year sentence he is already serving for a separate 2016 murder case.
The incident occurred on April 23, 2017, when McIntyre, then 16 years old, allegedly robbed and shot 23-year-old photographer Mark Anthony Saldivar outside a Chick-fil-A near North Star Mall. Authorities claim that McIntyre and accomplices targeted Saldivar for his camera equipment, leading to a confrontation that ended with Saldivar’s death.
At the time, McIntyre was a fugitive, having cut off his ankle monitor while under house arrest for the earlier murder of Ethan Walker in Mansfield, Texas. The San Antonio case has since escalated to a capital murder charge, with significant implications for McIntyre’s future.
A focal point of the trial has been surveillance footage captured by a nearby business and released by the San Antonio Police in October 2017. The video shows a black SUV pulling into the Chick-fil-A parking lot, with Saldivar clinging to the vehicle’s hood, desperately attempting to intervene before falling to the ground. The footage then depicts the SUV fleeing the scene, providing critical evidence linking McIntyre to the crime.
On Day 3 of the trial, April 3, 2025, an officer testified about this footage, describing its contents to the court, though the jury had not yet viewed it. Given the trial’s progression, it is likely that the footage has since been shown to the jury, with McIntyre present in the courtroom as prosecutors presented their case.
The trial concluded with jury selection on March 31, 2025, and testimony on April 1. Four witnesses testified on the first day, and McIntyre was dressed formally in the courtroom, listening intently to what was happening. By April 3, the jury had seen evidence of the crime scene in the form of photographs and a shell casing, along with the officer’s testimony regarding the surveillance video.
Reports suggest that McIntyre sat in on the courtroom throughout the day as the prosecution constructed its case using the footage and other evidence. To date, April 5 saw the trial ongoing with plans to run into next week.
One of the witnesses, Elizabeth Adams, said she heard someone screaming and then glimpsed someone wearing a white shirt with a gun in their hand. Another, Anna Delgado, said she had seen the man on the hood stomping on the windshield before being shot.
The crime scene was grim. A 9mm casing was found nearby, along with empty magazines and a bag of marijuana. Shockingly, some marijuana was reportedly found stuffed in Saldivar’s mouth — a chilling detail that left the courtroom stunned. The medical examiner confirmed Saldivar died from a single gunshot that tore through his body, damaging vital organs.
McIntyre’s brush with the law has also been amplified by achieving fame as a rapper. In 2017, while on the run, he dropped the track “The Race,” where he posed with a copy of his wanted notice. The track stalled on the US Billboard Hot 100 to No. 44, fueling public interest in the case and raising questions in the minds of McIntyre’s defense attorneys regarding jury bias. Already found guilty in 2019 in the Mansfield murder case, McIntyre’s latest trial is one of consequence with a life sentence in the balance if found guilty by the jury.
As the trial continues, the video evidence remains a bedrock of the prosecution’s case, providing an eyewitness-like description of what happened on April 23, 2017. With McIntyre watching, the courtroom scrutinizes the evidence, getting ever closer to delivering a verdict that might decide his fate.
If found guilty, he could spend the balance of his life in jail, a fate contrasting to the ephemeral freedom he formerly celebrated in his lyrics. The trial continues this week, with both teams set to present their final arguments to the jury.
