Deadly Home Invasion Survivor Testifies At Taymor McIntyre's Capital Murder Trial
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - A teenager who survived a deadly home invasion involving rapper Tay-K, said he faced down a masked and hesitant gunman that night for as long as two minutes.
It was only when the shooter grabbed the gun with two hands, Zachary Beloate testified, that he knew he was about to pull the trigger.
The testimony came during the third day of a capital murder trial against Taymor "Tay K" McIntyre.
Beloate, who was 17 at the time, said he never heard the shot that was fired that killed his roommate that night, 21-year-old Ethan Walker. After the seven assailants left the house, Beloate said left his room to find Walker laying in the hallway.
"And I seen Ethan gasping for air, and I said, 'You going to be ok?'," he testified. "Then I went to grab a gun and go out the front door."
He later found out Walker was dying, when he could hear medical staff in the hospital emergency department saying they were going to lose him.
McIntyre is one of seven defendants accused in the 2016 crime. The others have all reached deals with prosecutors or been found guilty.
Jurors watched a nearly three-hour video Wednesday of the day Mansfield police investigators interrogated McIntyre, who was 16 at the time.
After initially denying knowing anything about the crime, he slowly began to admit to some elements, including that his job that night was to find drugs in the house to steal.
His defense team has keyed on that for the first few days of the trial, pointing out that others were responsible for planning the crime, and firing the fatal shots.
Though he was initially held in juvenile detention following that interview, he was released months later, and cut off a GPS ankle monitor and went on the run.
Eventually a fugitive task force tracked him to New Jersey. An officer testified that after arresting McIntyre, he claimed to have swallowed a bottle of pills, and then later that he was hearing voices, in order to try to stay out of jail.
McIntyre is facing life in prison if he is convicted.