Texas Woman Convicted Of Murdering Pregnant Woman & Cutting Unborn Baby From Her Womb
Texas woman, Taylor Rene Parker, is facing the death penalty after being convicted of murdering a 21-year-old woman and cutting her unborn baby from her womb.
Taylor Rene Parker was found guilty of the murder of Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock and kidnapping her daughter.
Parker violently beat Simmons-Hancock in the head five times in October 2020 before cutting her from "hip to hip".
Ms Simmons-Hancock was said to have still been alive when Parker cut her baby out of her womb.
Assistant district attorney Lauren Richards said: "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. "The pain Reagan must have felt when Taylor started cutting her abdomen, hip to hip... indescribable."
The victim was left to die in front of her 3-year-old daughter while Parker drove alone with the baby on her lap. Parker, a 29-year-old mother of two, stuffed the placenta in her own trousers in an attempt to fake giving birth.
The court heard how Parker had faked being pregnant for ten months, despite previously having a hysterectomy, because she was scared of losing her boyfriend.
She even held a gender reveal party and put numerous posts on social media talking about her fake pregnancy.
On the day she carried out the brutal murder, Parker told her boyfriend that she was due to be induced.
Richards described Parker as a "liar" and a "manipulator" at the trial at Bowie County in northeast Texas.
The jury of six men and six women took just one hour to reach a guilty verdict.
Parker's legal team attempted to have the kidnapping charge against her dropped in an effort to have a capital murder charge lowered to murder by claiming that the baby could not have been abducted as it was never alive.
Defence attorney Jeff Harrelson said: "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."
Prosecutors called upon medical professionals who testified that the baby's heart was beating when she was born,
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Parker, but jurors could vote for a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
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