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An infertile womb raider has been sentenced to death for stabbing a heavily pregnant woman, crushing her skull with a hammer then ripping her unborn baby from her womb, killing them both, in front of the victim’s three-year-old daughter.
Taylor Rene Parker, 29, was handed the death sentence after a jury of six men and six women deliberated for an hour and 15 minutes in Bowie County, 150 miles east of Dallas, Texas, according to TXK Today.
She killed Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock, 21, and her unborn baby in New Boston on October 9, 2020 after befriending her victim because she was pregnant.
Parker, who had two children but had undergone a hysterectomy, had hunted for a victim while faking a pregnancy – including sharing fake ultrasound scans, hosting a gender reveal party and posing for photo shoots with a false bump. Prosecutors claimed she was terrified her boyfriend of 10 months would leave her.
She stabbed Michelle, who was 35 weeks pregnant, more than 100 times and crushed her skull with a hammer before removing her unborn baby Braxlynn Sage from her womb with a scalpel.
Parker then fled with the baby girl, who later died and left Michelle to die in front of her three-year-old daughter.
She was arrested when she took the dead baby to a hospital 50 miles away in Oklahoma.
Jessica Brooks, Michelle’s mom, described Parker as ‘an evil piece of flesh’ and said: ‘My baby was alive still fighting for her babies when you tore her open and ripped her baby from her stomach.’
Taylor Rene Parker, 29, pictured in her mugshot, has been sentenced to death for capital murder. She befriended 35-week pregnant Michelle Simmons-Hancock, 21, stabbed her more than 100 times, battered her head with a hammer then sliced her open and stole her unborn baby daughter, who later died
Michelle is pictured with her family. Parker stabbed and battered her, sliced open her stomach with a scalpel then fled with the baby, who later died and left Michelle to die in front of her three-year-old daughter
Michelle’s heartbroken sister yesterday gave an emotional victim impact statement before jury deliberations began.
Emily Simmons said to Parker: ‘My only biological sister. You need to understand what you took from me and my family.
‘No more celebrating her birthday. I was barely 19 when I got the call my sister was gone.
‘She will never be my maid of honor. If I visit my sister I have to go to a graveyard and see a headstone. I will never get a text or phone call from her again.’
Showing the jury a graphic crime scene photo of Michelle on the blood-soaked floor of her home, First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp told them: ‘She needs to be on death row.
‘She slashed her hundreds of times. She beat her with a hammer. You are going to say she’s not violent? She ripped her uterus out by the back. Look at what she did.
‘The circumstances in which Reagan died are horrible and there is no doubt it was torture. But a mother died fighting for her child, That’s how she left the world. A woman who died fighting.’
Michelle Simmons-Hancock, 21, pictured with her family, had befriended Parker, not knowing that her new friend had hunted her down with the intention of killing her and stealing her unborn baby in a twisted plot to pass the child off as her own
Parker murdered Jessica when she was 35 weeks pregnant after searching online how to deliver babies and falsify a pregnancy, according to prosecutors.
She told her boyfriend on the day of the murder that she would be induced to deliver the baby.
The 29-year-old put the child’s umbilical cord in her cord in a bid to make it look as if it was her baby.
Later when Parker was asked why she did it, she said: ‘I wasn’t in my right mind. I was freaking out.’
The 29-year-old, dubbed the infertile womb raider, was convicted of capital murder in October after a jury deliberated for an hour.
Parker’s attorneys argued that the baby was never alive and moved to dismiss a kidnapping charge, which would have lowered the capital murder charge to murder.
‘That’s why in opening statements we spent so much time on definitions. You can’t kidnap a person who has not been born alive,’ said Jeff Harrelson in his final argument to the jury.
Prosecutors said, however, that several medical professionals testified the infant had a heartbeat when born. They also recounted Parker’s actions leading to the day Simmons-Hancock was killed.
Pregnancy-faker-turned-murderer Parker, a mother-of-two who’d had a hysterectomy, faked a full-term pregnancy because she was terrified her boyfriend of 10 months would leave her. She had a gender reveal, faked ultrasound photos and posted pictures on social media of herself with a false bump
Parker, pictured in an undated social media photograph, will now be transferred to death row
Wade Griffin (pictured) Parker’s then-boyfriend believed that she was pregnant and having his child. He told officers that he had been planning to meet Parker at hospital to be induced on the day of the murder. Authorities explained how Parker was desperate to give her then-boyfriend Wade Griffin a child, but had not told him she had a hysterectomy
‘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 is that Taylor Parker said it wasn’t,’ said prosecutor Kelley Crisp previously.
Fellow prosecutor Lauren Richards recounted all of the masquerades Parker performed for different people, including the pregnancy she faked leading up to the killing.
She’d searched online how to deliver babies and falsify a pregnancy, according to prosecutors.
Authorities said Parker was so terrified of losing her boyfriend Wade Griffin that she faked a pregnancy for nearly 10 months.
Parker will now be transferred to death row at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas.
She is entitled to appeal her sentence.
Parker was arrested after bringing Michelle’s baby daughter, who had died after being ripped from her mother’s womb, to a hospital in Oklahoma – 50 miles from where she committed the gruesome crime
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