Latharian Merritt, the man accused of pulling the trigger during the 2016 botched robbery that also implicated “The Race” rapper Tay-K, met his fate on Thursday (May 24) after a jury took three hours to decide his future.
According to the Star-Telegram, the 24-year-old Long Beach, California native will serve out the rest of his days in prison after being handed a life sentence for capital murder. The death penalty was waived before the start of the trial.
[apple_news_ad type=”standard”]
On July 26, 2016, Merrit and six other individuals (including Tay-K) were arrested after Ethan Walker, the father of a 3-year-old daughter, was killed during a home invasion on the 1500 block of Aspen Court in Mansfield, Texas.
The arrest prompted national attention after when the then 16-year-old Tay K (born Taymor Travon McIntyre in Long Beach) cut off his ankle monitors and led police on a nationwide manhunt before being captured on June 30, 2017, by U.S Marshals in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Taymor Travon McIntyre a.k.a. Tay-K
During his fugitive freedom, he recorded his breakout record, “The Race,” where he taunted his would-be captors.
During hearings on Wednesday (May 23), a witness to the crime testified Tay-K was angry that Merritt “popped someone and we only got a little cash and a watch” after the robbery.
Zach Beloate, 19, who was also shot during the fatal robbery and said to be the gang’s initial target, testified the bullet entered his shoulder and exited through his chest.
Merritt’s attorney, Tim Moore, had argued that Merritt didn’t go into the robbery with murderous intentions, citing how Walker was shot once (in the stomach) and an onlooking girl was never threatened with gun violence.
“My finger must have been on the trigger, but I don’t remember pulling the trigger,” Moore said during the trial, directly quoting Merritt’s recount of the incident from a videotaped Mansfield police interview that was shown to the jury.
“I’m sorry I was in that situation,” Merritt told Walker’s family.
The remaining adult co-defendants — Jalen Bell, Sean Robinson, Ariana Bharrat and Megan Holt — are currently awaiting their trials in Tarrant County jail.
Jalen Bell
Megan Holt
Sean Robinson
Ariana Bharrat
[apple_news_ad type=”standard”]
As part of a plea bargain arrangement, Holt was promised a 20-year-sentence by the prosecution in exchange for her testimony in the Merritt and upcoming trials of the aforementioned defendants.
Tay-K’s manager, Ezra Averill, recently took to social media to affirm his controversial client would not be facing the death penalty in his upcoming capital murder trial, which, as of press time, still has no set date.
McIntyre also faces additional capital murder charges stemming from an April 2017 incident where 23-year-old Mark Anthony Saldivar was killed.
A bunch of no-good, lousy ass n466ers. N466ers i say!
Do the crime, do the time…….waste of life.
Are you aware there’s a white girl on there? And she got a plea bargain ?
So we really gone pull the race card fuck you Trailer trash cracker you clearly seen some ignorant ass crackers too bitch
i, on god wz bout to cry cuz i aint see the associate part and saw ‘tay-k & life imprisonment” straight thought it wz k47 gettin it. personally i dont give a fuq for the others. i juss need tay-k off the high end of the capital bullshit, cuz he barely did shiit. If its a wite dude they juss gonna get parole. How fuqing amusing.
What a Retard
Go houston
i know u is, cuz i cant be a retard if im ‘quick’ to care for someone.
“I was gonna cry” lol you’re a loser, posting anout crying over a bunch of scumbags you dont even know. You should get life in prison for being such a snowflake.
there is legit a white person on trial connected to this. she got 20 years? do you read or just look at headlines and give your dumb opinion?
Where I’m from, we hang the negros.
Who the fuck let these savages out the fuckin cotton fields anyways
We let ourselves out after beating your dads ass and slapping the shit out your momma. You don’t have the balls to step to a black man anyways. Keep typing though. It’s funny to read but we all know you white folks are scared to death. You can’t even protect your own kids at school
Shut yo snow skinned bitch ass u white can’t even keep urselves from shooting up schools an endagring urselves now u wanna talkabout us in the fields well mostof yall ancestors is prolly burning in hell RN and so will u
Too bad god, heaven, he’ll, angels, and demons don’t exist. You black bitches just keep raising your crime statistics. Your worthless and should be euthanized.
I SPEAK OF THE BEHALF OF BLACK PEOPLE
WHERE WE FROM WE BURN AND SKIN WHITE PEOPLE
There’s a white gurl in there too! And in the videos ! You bunch of racists acting like only blacks commit crime. It’s the human race which is fucked up not blacks!!!there are criminals in every race .
Y’all coutin tay k out y’all would be lookin crazy if he get out or get like 10
Instead of making this about skin color, how about we address the issue of the defendents’ behavior? Robbery, eluding the police, cutting off the ankle bracelet, and murder are crimes no matter your age or skin color. How did these defendents get down this path to begin with?
Respectfully
the staff at http://www.inmatestorage.com
People need to read. The trigger puller got the life sentence. The robbery suspects haven’t been sentenced yet but will get much less. So Tay-K will be back out soon to make more wack music for you millenials.
Pretty sure if they took the death penalty off the table that that means when he gets convicted, there won’t be any short enough sentences to get back out to drop wack shit. Also, in many instances like these, everyone involved gets a murder charge even if they didn’t pull the trigger, especially in a state like Texas where they like to pile them on laps to do the death penalty.
Hatin piece of shiit along wi your likes
Hate this poor dude had to die for this shit, but at least we won’t be subjected to another wack ass rapper.
Thanks for that. His music was as useless as he is.
His music is not wack its fire
you obviously never listened to rap before
#FREETAYK
What dumb ass is hashtagging free this little boy.. Yall no damn where he aint getting out..Never.. Quit glorifying stupid shit..
Yo vagina smells like fish
#Disgraceland brought me here
And most of the black community actually bumps this guys music, and revere him and something noble to look up to.
It’s not even the insanely high crime rates of that community, it’s the fact that they roll their eyes at a guy who values education, and have nothing but love for the local murdering, robbing felon.
Yet it’s racism that is holding them down, yes?
I have no idea why that replied to you when I was replying to someone else further down the page.
yalllll on sum weird shit Rosa on sumthing else