A Bowie County jury sentenced a Texas woman to death earlier this week after finding her guilty of murdering a pregnant woman and cutting out her unborn child last month.
The jury deliberated for just over an hour before delivering the sentence. They determined first that the defendant was a continuing threat to society due to the likelihood of her committing violent acts again and second that there were no mitigating circumstances that might favor a life sentence over capital punishment.
The same jurors — six men and six women — had already found 29-year-old Taylor Rene Parker guilty of capital murder for the killing of 21-year-old Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock on October 3.
Simmons-Hancock’s body was found on October 9, 2020, at her home in New Boston, located about 160 miles northeast of Dallas. Her 3-year-old daughter was present at the time her mother was slain.
Parker was alleged to have killed Simmons-Hancock while attempting to take her unborn child, who also died. The victim was stabbed and cut over a hundred times, and her skull had been crushed by a hammer before a scalpel was used to remove her unborn child, as reported by The Dallas Express.
Parker was pulled over by a state trooper for speeding and driving erratically that same morning. She was found with Simmons-Hancock’s child and claimed she had only just given birth.
The baby, Braxlynn Sage Hancock, was then taken to a hospital in Oklahoma, where she was later pronounced dead.
During Parker’s trial last month, investigators testified how she had researched extensively how to fake a pregnancy and remove an unborn baby from the womb.
Prosecutor Kelley Crisp told the jury that Parker had disguised herself to look pregnant for nearly 10 months in an attempt to keep her boyfriend. She faked ultrasounds, hosted a gender-reveal party, and posted about her fake pregnancy on social media while searching for a possible victim.
The penalty phase of the trial lasted almost a month, with graphic and emotional testimonies and statements shared by attorneys and the victim’s family members alike.
Speaking of the brutal yet “personal nature of the crime,” Crisp assured the jury that Parker “[is] going to send herself to death row.”
Parker’s attorney, Jeff Harrelson, sought to emphasize the “layers” and “shades of gray” in people’s lives, pointing out that Parker’s friends and family let her down by not confronting her about the fake pregnancy.
In a statement to the court, Jessica Brooks, Simmons-Hancock’s mother, called Parker an “evil piece of flesh demon.”