Woman who stole murder victim’s unborn child faces death penalty
Parker was caught speeding by police shortly after the attack, telling the officer she had given birth and the baby was not breathing
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Prosecutors in Texas asked for the death sentence from the jury on Wednesday for a woman who killed a pregnant woman and stole her unborn daughter from her womb.
The appeal came as the sentencing phase of Taylor Rene Parker’s capital murder trial began on Wednesday for the murder of Reagan Simmons-Hancock and the theft of her unborn baby in 2020.
It was reported that the Bowie County jury in Texas found Parker guilty of capital murder after three weeks of testimony.
Prosecutor Kelley Crisp said 29-year-old Parker faked a pregnancy and lied to 21-year-old Simmons-Hancock and then killed her at the woman’s New Boston home on 9 October two years ago — all to get the infant she was carrying.
Simmons-Hancock was about seven-and-a-half months pregnant.
Defence attorney Jeff Harrelson said that Parker was mentally ill.
Parker was caught speeding by police shortly after the attack, telling the officer she had given birth by the side of the road and the baby was not breathing.
Investigators testified on the day of the killing that she had watched numerous videos on delivering and caring for babies, including one on the physical exam of an infant delivered at 35 weeks.
Parker’s attorneys hope to persuade the jury to spare Parker’s life and let her serve life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Defence attorney Jeff Harrelson said they would show that Parker was mentally ill. During the three-week trial, Mr Harrelson also argued that the kidnapping charge should be dismissed. This move would reduce Parker’s capital murder charge to murder.
He told the jurors: “You can’t kidnap a person who has not been born alive.”
However, prosecutors mentioned that medical experts had confirmed that the unborn girl had a heartbeat.
Assistant district attorney Kelly Crisp said: “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 baby was born alive.”