Texas Woman Sentenced To Death For Killing Friend To Steal Her Unborn Baby

A Texas jury sentenced a woman to death on Wednesday for killing a pregnant friend and taking her unborn daughter out of her womb.

Taylor Parker, 29, has been sentenced to death after jurors' deliberation, which lasted just an hour and 15 minutes, the Texarkana Gazette reported. The same Bowie County Texas jury sentenced Parker on Oct. 3 for the capital murder of the 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock and theft of her unborn baby, who was cut from her womb and did not survive.

Parker has been pulled over for speeding and driving recklessly after the attack; she told the highway patrolman that she had just given birth. Braxlynn Sage Hancock, the baby, was transported to a hospital in Oklahoma, where she was pronounced dead.

Simmons-Hancock's body was found on Oct. 9, 2020, inside her house in New Boston, Texas. Her three-year-old daughter was also reportedly at home when her mother was killed.

According to prosecutor Kelley Crisp, the evidence showed that Parker made herself look pregnant to keep her boyfriend. She reportedly killed Simmons-Hancock to have the infant she claimed to have been carrying.

Homer Hancock, Simmons-Hancock's husband, claimed that Parker and his wife were "somewhat friends." He also said that Parker had taken their engagement and wedding pictures.

Simmons-Hancock's mother, Jessica Brooks, labeled Parker as an "evil piece of flesh demon," ABC News reported. "My baby was alive still fighting for her babies when you tore her open and ripped her baby from her stomach," she said.

Simmons-Hancock was also "slashed" and beaten several times. In Crisp's statement, she told jurors that Parker needed to be sentenced to death since she posed a danger to society.

The attorneys previously told the jury that Simmons-Hancock was stabbed and cut around a hundred times using a scalpel to remove the unborn child, KSLA reported. Witnesses also testified that Parker was incapable of carrying a child after having a hysterectomy; Parker was willing to pay them $100,000 to be a surrogate mother.

Meanwhile, Parker's attorney, Jeff Harrelson, included in his closing statement that "words can be used to dehumanize" and claimed that there are "layers" and "shades of gray" to people's lives.

Harrelson also claimed that Parker was abandoned by her friends and family as they did not address or confront her about the fake pregnancy.