In connection with the death penalty, Taylor Rene Parker, 29, is accused of killing Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock, 21, in October 2020 and kidnapping her stillborn daughter.
For killing a pregnant lady so she could keep her unborn child, a Texas woman was found guilty of capital murder on Monday.
Taylor Rene Parker, 29, was found guilty by a Bowie County jury in northeast Texas of killing Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock, 21, and kidnapping the daughter she had cut from her womb and later died. The jury deliberated for about an hour.
The jury, which consisted of six men and six women, reached its verdict after three weeks of testimony that was frequently gruesome.
Parker’s counsel argued that the child was never alive and wanted to dismiss an abduction allegation, which would have reduced the capital murder charge to murder.
“That is why we spent so much time in the opening statements discussing language. Jeff Harrelson claimed that you cannot kidnap someone who was not born alive in his closing arguments to the jury.
However, numerous medical professionals allegedly testified that the infant had a heartbeat at birth, according to the prosecution. They also described Parker’s acts that preceded Simmons’s murder.
What she (Parker) did, why she did it, all the pertinent circumstances, and all the unforeseen consequences have all been covered in detail. Taylor Parker’s denial, according to prosecutor Kelley Crisp, is the best evidence that the child was born alive that the state of Texas has.
A fellow prosecutor, Lauren Richards, detailed all of the con games Parker played, including the pregnancy she pretended to be before the murder.
In the past two weeks, Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards told the jury, the evidence has never been more convincing. She is a liar and a con artist, and she will be held accountable for her actions.
Reagan suffered at least five serious head injuries, each of which had compressed her skull into her brain as she recalled before the jury.
Richards calls the pain Reagan must have experienced when Taylor started slicing her abdomen from hip to hip “indescribable.” When Taylor gave birth to the infant while Reagan was still alive, she started slashing and cutting. She cannot leave her alive. It took time to occur. She just continued stabbing her. Taylor probably wouldn’t be able to travel and carry out her intentions if Reagan didn’t pass away quickly enough.
On October 12, the punishment phase will officially start. Prosecutors are requesting the death penalty even though the jury might alternatively impose a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole
