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Woman Guilty of Capital Murder After Cutting Out Baby

Woman Guilty of Capital Murder After Cutting Out Baby
Bowie County Courthouse | Image by Bowie County

A Texas woman was found guilty of capital murder on Monday for killing a woman and trying to take her unborn baby, according to police.

Taylor Rene Parker, 29, was found guilty by a Bowie County jury in Northeast Texas for the murder of Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock, 21, and the abduction of her unborn daughter cut from her womb. The baby, named Braxlynn Sage Hancock, also died later.

After three weeks of grisly testimony, the jury deliberated for about an hour before finding Parker guilty.

On October 9, 2020, at 10:20 a.m., New Boston Police responded to a call about a deceased person inside a residence in the 200 block of Austin Street, according to a news release from the New Boston police department.

A preliminary investigation found that an unborn child had been removed from Simmons-Hancock’s body.

A female suspect later identified as Parker was arrested and taken into custody by authorities in Oklahoma. Parker was booked in the Bowie County jail on capital murder and kidnapping charges.

At the time of her arraignment, Parker’s bail was set at $5 million.

Parker’s attorneys argued that the baby was never alive and moved to dismiss a kidnapping charge, which would have lowered the capital murder charge to murder.

“That’s why in opening statements, we spent so much time on definitions. You can’t kidnap a person who has not been born alive,” said Jeff Harrelson in his final argument to the jury.

Several medical professionals testified for the prosecution that the infant had a heartbeat when born. Prosecutors also recounted the actions of Parker leading up to the incident.

“We have methodically laid out what she (Parker) did, why she did it, all the moving parts, and all the collateral damage. The best evidence the state of Texas has that that baby was born alive is that Taylor Parker said it wasn’t,” said prosecutor Kelley Crisp.

Prosecutor Lauren Richards recounted the ruse Parker performed for different people, including faking a pregnancy.

“In the past two weeks, the evidence has never been more clear,” assistant district attorney Lauren Richards told the jury. “She’s a liar, a manipulator, and now she’s gonna be held accountable for it.”

Richards reminded the jury of how Simmons-Hancock was beaten in the head with a hammer over 100 times, at least five times with such force that the blows compressed her skull into her brain.

“The pain Reagan must have felt when Taylor started cutting her abdomen, hip to hip … indescribable,” Richards said. “When Taylor had the baby, and Reagan was still alive, that’s when Taylor started slashing and cutting. She can’t leave her alive. It was no quick death. She just kept cutting her. I guess Reagan would not die fast enough for Taylor to get out of there and get on with her plans.”

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. However, jurors could opt for a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

The punishment phase of the trial is set to begin on October 12.

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6 Comments

  1. Ajax

    She MUST be killed in a similar way by cutting her dirty body into pieces. I wish we have a law that allows the execution of a killer in a similar way as the victim was killed.

    Reply
    • Good grief

      Yea I can see that going pretty wrong. You know how many innocent people would be slashed open and they’d only say oops wait, now we caught the right person or the actual killer is still on the loose! Sounds great, but we’re talking about humans! You do know what humans are capable of right?

      Reply
      • Jimmy

        I agree that you don’t want to put someone to death if there is a chance of him being innocent but if you know for a fact that they did the crime then let God have mercy on their butt cuz Texas is going to send them on to hell

        Reply
      • C-Lei

        “You do know what humans are capable of right?”

        I don’t know how you can ask such an ignorant question after reading about this case.

        Reply
    • LoWa

      I have to agree! The only way to stop all the senseless crime we’re seeing, is to make the punishments fit the crimes. The convicted killers should die in the same manner they killed their victims.

      Reply
  2. Mel

    Let me get this straight. Defense is saying it wasn’t a baby because it hadn’t been born yet. The woman cut the baby out of the other woman, thus now the baby is BORN. There is no other way this is. So sick that they would actually dishonor that baby’s life.

    Reply

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