Tay-K Wants Court To Pause Murder Conviction's Appeal

BY Gabriel Bras Nevares
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Tay K Pause Murder Conviction Appeal
Image via Tay-K's Instagram
Tay-K's legal team reportedly wants to reexamine the validity of a search warrant before moving forward with their appeal.

Tay-K recently released some new music from behind bars, and he and his legal team just launched a key effort in their appeal saga regarding his murder conviction. This specific update connects to the San Antonio shooting of photographer Mark Saldivar in 2017, which a court convicted him of murder for.

According to court documents reportedly obtained by Complex, the rapper's legal team asked the court to temporarily pause their appeal. They reportedly took issue with a search warrant for an iPhone that police found in a car allegedly tied to Saldivar's murder. He had filed a motion to suppress those findings during his trial, arguing there was no probable cause. But the court denied that motion.

Now, Tay's legal team wants an appeals court to order the previous trial court to provide a more detailed explanation about their decision and "findings of fact and conclusions of law." Then, they will decide on how to use this information in their appeal.

"The need for detailed findings of fact and conclusions of law is essential to this case," the present motion reportedly read. "Although the trial court made some off hand comments about the existence of probable cause, Counsel respectfully submits these remarks are insufficient for full and fair appellate review of [Tay-K's] suppression claims. Without concise, written findings of fact and conclusions of law, it is impossible to adequately brief the suppression issues raised by this appeal."

When Did Tay-K Go To Jail?

Per the Texas-based MC's legal team, this motion should not delay the deliverance of a brief laying their case out in a broad sense. That's due on July 1, and the lawyers just want their client to have more time with the specifics of the appeal rather than that brief.

But they also proposed an alternative if the court doesn't order this revision, which is a two-week delay to adequately complete their brief. Their appeal for Tay-K's murder conviction in San Antonio emerged a month after he received an 80-year prison sentence for it. They claim one of the witnesses (and Tay's alleged murder accomplice) was not trustworthy during the trial.

Tay-K's serving another prison sentence of 55 years (running concurrently to the San Antonio sentence) for a 2016 home invasion that led to the death of Ethan Walker. Tay was arrested on June 30, 2017, the same day his music video for the breakout hit "The Race" dropped. His appeal attempts failed, and he is reportedly not eligible for parole until 2049.

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.

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