In a letter shared on Instagram, Tay-K thanked his fans for their support and expressed his desire to become a positive role model and not promote violence.
"I’m sitting here thinking about all my fans. I love and miss y’all,” he wrote in the handwritten letter. “I know there’s a lot that I haven’t directly spoke on and there R many things my fans know but I’m not sure everybody else does. I’ve been here for 5 ½ years now and I feel indebted to y’all for going so crazy behind me. It’s still crazy to me that I never had a chance to live outside as an adult. I’ve been locked up and in and out of the 'justice' and CPS system 4 my whole life."
The 22-year-old rapper, born Taymor Travon McIntyre, is currently serving a 55-year sentence for murder and robbery charges at San Antonio’s Bexar County Adult Detention Center. In 2019, he was found guilty of the murder of 21-year-old Ethan Walker. He was accused alongside six others of breaking into a home in Mansfield, Texas, and brutally attacking Walker and his friend Zachary Beloate. The robbery ended in the fatal shooting of Walker.
"Not sure if y’all know but I got sentenced as an adult to 55 years in prison for a crime where I wasn’t even the shooter," wrote Tay-K. "I wasn’t even alleged to have a gun. I was never even suspected to have pulled a trigger or hurt anyone. I was young and didn’t have no positive figures around."
Since coming to prison, he said he’s had some time to reflect and wants to lead by example. "I love my fans and I don’t want any 1 to think I’m promoting or really recommending violence,” he continued. “That’s why I really dedicated a lot of my time in here to using the success of my music to have a positive impact on other young artists, even if it is something small like taking a phone call or writing a letter to keep them positively inspired, regardless of my situation. The movement is Eternal.”
Tay-K was tried as an adult but was a teenager at the time of Walker’s murder. He is also awaiting trial for the murder of 23-year-old Mark Anthony Saldivar, whom he allegedly shot and killed while on the run from authorities amid his then-ongoing capital murder trial.
