SAN ANTONIO – The trial for Taymor McIntyre, the rapper known as Tay-K, began Tuesday in Bexar County for capital murder, years after a series of delays.
A hearing with the prosecution, defense and judge — without a present jury — began the court proceedings on Tuesday afternoon.
Below is a timeline of events from Tuesday’s court proceedings.
1:23 p.m. - Taymor McIntyre — dressed in a suit jacket, white shirt, blue tie and black vest — walked into the courtroom for the hearing with his defense team of attorneys Gerry Goldstein and John Hunter.
1:35 p.m. - The hearing began with the prosecution, defense and Judge Stephanie Boyd. The judge requested that no audio be made available during the hearing portion of KSAT’s coverage.
1:47 p.m. - The judge allowed audio to return to KSAT’s livestream coverage.
1:52 p.m. - Jurors entered the courtroom.
1:54 p.m. - Judge Boyd asked McIntyre for a plea.
“Not guilty, you honor,” McIntyre said.
The prosecution, led by prosecutor Jason Garrahan, began its opening statements.
2:02 p.m. - Garrahan said the victim, Mark Anthony Saldivar, was a photographer who believed he was getting a chance to work with McIntyre, an “up-and-coming rapper.”
“But instead, (on) that particular day, he (McIntyre) chose to take a life (sic) of an individual: Mark Saldivar,” Garrahan said to the jury. “That’s what we will bring to you, and the evidence will show, that Taymor McIntyre committed capital murder on April 23, 2017.”
2:03 p.m. - The first of McIntyre’s two attorneys, John Hunter, began their opening statements on behalf of the defense.
2:12 p.m. - McIntyre’s second defense attorney, Gerry Goldstein, continued the defense’s opening statements.
2:32 p.m. - The defense’s opening statements concluded. The state called a witness, Ashley Buentello, to the stand.
2:43 p.m. - During Buentello’s testimony about the alleged confrontation she said she witnessed between McIntyre and Saldivar near North Loop 410 and North McCullough Avenue, the defense objected to her statements twice. Judge Boyd sustained those objections, which caused the defense to call for a mistrial.
The judge denied the defense’s request for a mistrial.
2:48 p.m. - Buentello said she saw Saldivar roll over in the parking lot of a nearby Chick-fil-A restaurant. She also said the victim had a bump on his forehead.
2:55 p.m. - Buentello was excused from the stand. A second witness, Paul Caballero, was called to testify.
3:02 p.m. - According to Caballero, on April 23, 2017, a woman told him that the vehicle’s gas cap, located on the passenger side, was open. Upon learning the news, Caballero told the prosecution that he got out of the vehicle at a red light to put the gas cap back in its correct position.
After getting back in the passenger side of the vehicle, Caballero described a front-seat “passenger” in a vehicle behind him with a gun.
“I saw the passenger of that vehicle fighting with someone in the back,” Caballero told the court.
3:15 p.m. - Caballero told the court he saw one person exit the vehicle behind him.
“He was asking for help, yelling for help, and proceeded to jump on the hood of the car (behind the vehicle Caballero was in),” Caballero said.
3:23 p.m. - Caballero said they saw a person lying in the drive-thru at the Chick-fil-A restaurant. Caballero, along with two people from the vehicle he was in, approached the person. Others in the parking lot also approached the victim.
3:24 p.m. - Caballero told the prosecution that the victim had a bag of marijuana on his side and what appeared to be more marijuana “shoved in his mouth.”
3:36 p.m. - A short break was called in the courtroom. A hearing without the presence of the jury was held at approximately 3:41 p.m.
4:02 p.m. - Jury returns to the courtroom.
4:07 p.m. - Caballero was excused from the stand. A third witness, Ernest Reyes, was asked to testify.
4:21 p.m. - After one of its objections was sustained by Judge Boyd, McIntyre’s defense team requested another call for a mistrial, which she denied.
4:22 p.m. - Reyes said he drove the vehicle with Buentello, Caballero and others inside. He said he drove slowly in the area so he could identify the names of streets while a relative called San Antonio police.
“As soon as I got into the shopping mall parking lot, I just continued straight (to the) back,” Reyes said.
4:26 p.m. - After circling the parking lot, Reyes told the court he saw the victim on the ground outside of the Chick-fil-A restaurant.
“I did pull over and then my family members ran to give him (the victim) aid to see if he needed help,” Reyes said.
Reyes told the court that the victim on the ground is the same person who was yelling for help moments earlier and who jumped on the hood of a car.
4:28 p.m. - The judge asked the jury to exit the courtroom.
4:29 p.m. - After jurors leave, the defense asked the judge about “dying declaration” and its potential relevance during witness testimony. In response, Judge Boyd told both the prosecution and the defense to “make your objections, and I will make my ruling. And my ruling will be my ruling.”
Both sides used this time to look up specific laws regarding dying declarations that may or may not pertain to Tuesday’s proceedings.
4:41 p.m. - Jurors returned to the courtroom. Reyes resumed his testimony.
4:55 p.m. - Reyes was excused from testimony. The state’s next witness called to the stand is Elaine Rogers.
4:59 p.m. - Rogers told the prosecution she was at a bus stop near North Loop 410 and North McCullough Avenue when the events of April 23, 2017, “went down.”
Rogers identified herself as the woman who notified Caballero about that vehicle’s gas cap being open.
5 p.m. - According to Rogers, a second vehicle captured her attention.
“The front passenger was turned around and was fighting somebody in the backseat. I didn’t know who it was,” Rogers told the court. “Then, the passenger in the backseat jumped out (of the vehicle) and screamed, ‘Help!’ and was yanked back in the car. That really got my attention. It’s like, ‘Wait a minute. Somebody needs help here.‘”
5:06 p.m. - Rogers said the vehicle where the victim was on the hood of the car turned into a parking lot where the Chick-fil-A is and heard “two gunshots.” However, she told the court she did not witness the shooting herself.
5:12 p.m. - Rogers was excused from the stand. The state called, LaSonya Robinson, to the stand. Robinson is a paralegal/custodian of records for the San Antonio Police Department.
Robinson’s job includes the upkeep of 911 call records made to the department.
5:17 p.m. - Robinson told the court that there were three 911 audio calls that correspond to the April 23, 2017, incident on the North Side.
5:22 p.m. - The 911 calls were played in the courtroom. These 911 calls can be seen and heard in the video below.
5:27 p.m. - Robinson was excused from the stand. The state rested its case for the day.
5:28 p.m. - The court adjourned for the day. Judge Boyd said court proceedings will restart no later than 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Background
McIntyre, who gained notoriety for his viral song “The Race” while on the run from authorities, was arrested in 2017 at age 17 for two separate murders — one in Tarrant County and another in San Antonio.
McIntyre, now 24, is already serving a 55-year sentence for murder out of Tarrant County.
While on the run, he was allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Mark Anthony Saldivar on April 23, 2017. It occurred outside a Chick-fil-A near North Star Mall in San Antonio.
If he is found guilty, McIntyre would automatically be sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years.
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