Woman convicted of killing expectant mother, taking victim's unborn baby
A woman from Texas is set to face severe punishment for ending the life of an expectant mother to steal the victim's unborn baby.
In a report by the New York Post, 29-year-old Taylor Rene Parker was found guilty by prosecutors early this month for the crime she committed in October 2020 against Reagan Micelle Simmons-Hancock and her infant daughter, who also died.
Parker invaded Simmons-Hancock's home in New Boston and attacked the victim by bashing her skull with a hammer before slicing open her womb with a scalpel to take her baby, all while the young mother was still alive.
Parker then ultimately killed her by cutting and stabbing her more than 100 times. Simmons-Hancock's three-year-old daughter was at home at the time.
According to the news outlet, Parker underwent hysterectomy or a surgical procedure to remove her uterus in the past, which meant she could no longer conceive a child after the operation. Because of this, however, she faced the risk of losing her boyfriend. In hopes of keeping her significant other in her life, Parker researched intensively on how to fake a pregnancy, watching numerous videos on YouTube about delivering and caring for babies.
She particularly focused on searches about delivering babies preterm at 35 weeks, which is also the same number of weeks Simmons-Hancock was pregnant at the time of her murder.
In a separate report by the news outlet, prosecutor Kelley Crisp detailed that Parker had put up a facade that she was pregnant for almost 10 months through faking ultrasounds, posting about her "pregnancy" on social media, and even staging a gender-reveal party all while looking for a possible victim.
In a statement, Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards told the jury: "In the past two weeks, the evidence has never been more clear. She’s a liar, a manipulator, and now she’s gonna be held accountable for it."
She continued, "The pain Reagan must have felt when Taylor started cutting her abdomen, hip to hip … indescribable. 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."
Following Parker's conviction, the jurors will deliberate whether to sentence her to death or life imprisonment without parole in another trial scheduled on Oct. 12.