A woman from Texas has been found guilty of premeditated murder for slaughtering another woman in order to steal her unborn child.
Taylor Rene Parker, 29, was found guilty on Monday of murdering Regan Michelle Simmons-Hancock, 21, along with her unborn child on October 9, 2020 in New Boston, according to NBC News.
Parker pled not guilty to premeditated murder and abduction previously.
A jury of six men and six women debated for approximately one hour before declaring Parker guilty of murdering Simmons-Hancock and stealing her daughter, who had been removed from her womb.
Taylor Rene Parker was found guilty of the October 2020 murder of a 21-year-old woman and the abduction of the daughter cut from her womb who later died. https://t.co/4WQdluMINi
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 4, 2022
Tried To Refute Kidnapping
Parker slashed and cut Simmons-Hancock more than one hundred times and crushed her head with a hammer before removing Simmons-Hancock’s unborn child with a scalpel.
Parker then departed as Simmons-Hancock lay dying in her house alongside her three-year-old daughter.
Parker removed the still-alive infant she extracted from Simmons-Hancock’s womb and drove away. She was later stopped by police, who sent the infant to a local hospital, where it ultimately died.
Texas Woman Taylor Rene Parker 29, Allegedly Stabbed Mom-to-Be 100 Times, Then Tried to Steal Baby from Womb, allegedly killing her pregnant friend and then removing the child from the victim's womb and trying to pass the child off as her own.🤬 and😭 "When will the lunacy stop!" pic.twitter.com/MhQ1vXHZKL
— Sumner (@renmusb1) September 13, 2022
Throughout the trial, Parker’s defense attorneys maintained that Simmons-Hancock’s baby was always dead and was not capable of being abducted.
Without the charge of kidnapping, Parker would have been charged with murder rather than capital murder.
“This is why we devoted so much time to definitions in opening remarks.” In his final arguments, defense counsel Jeff Harrleson told the jury it is impossible to abduct an unborn child.
During the trial, many medical specialists testified the infant had a heartbeat when it was born to refute the prosecution’s assertion. This was also mentioned in the closing arguments of the prosecution.
The jury agreed with the prosecution and found Parker guilty of capital murder.
Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp informed the jury at the outset of the trial that Parker “is an actress of the first order. The lies and deceit persist; the depths of dishonesty are astounding.”
“You must comprehend the scam to learn what transpired on October 9 This began months and months in advance, beyond the point of no return, and resulted in a murder.”
Crisp was alluding to charges that Parker posed as pregnant for roughly 10 months, using a disguise to make her stomach appear larger and supplying her partner with bogus ultrasounds.
She also hosted a gender-reveal event and made numerous social media posts regarding her alleged pregnancy. Crisp stated that she did all of this while searching for a pregnant woman whose child she could abduct.
As Planned
At trial, witnesses testified that Parker was unable to conceive as a result of a hysterectomy and proposed $100,000 for a surrogate. She also informed her partner on the day she murdered Simmons-Hancock that she was inducing labor.
Parker faces either the death penalty or life without parole in jail. The commencement of sentencing is scheduled for October 12.
Parker’s case is oddly similar to that of Lisa Montgomery, who was executed in January 2021 for the murder of Bobbie Joe Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant at the moment of her death.
Like Parker, Montgomery told her friends and family that she was expecting, despite having been sterilized before. After murdering Stinnett, Montgomery delivered her unborn child and fled with the infant.
This article appeared in NewsHouse and has been published here with permission.
