NEW BOSTON, Texas — A Texas jury sentenced a lady to demise Wednesday for killing a pregnant lady she knew to take her unborn daughter.
Jurors returned with the sentence for Taylor Parker, 29, after deliberating for simply over an hour, the Texarkana Gazette reported. The identical Bowie County jury convicted Parker on Oct. 3 of capital homicide within the 2020 slaying of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock, whose child was reduce from her womb and didn’t survive.
In an announcement to the court docket, Simmons-Hancock’s mom addressed Parker as an “evil piece of flesh demon.”
“My child was alive nonetheless preventing for her infants once you tore her open and ripped her child from her abdomen,” Jessica Brooks mentioned.
Simmons-Hancock’s physique was discovered Oct. 9, 2020, at her dwelling in New Boston, a metropolis of about 4,600 those that’s 160 miles northeast of Dallas. Her 3-year-old daughter was at dwelling when her mom was killed.
Later that morning, Parker claimed she’d simply given beginning after being pulled over by a state trooper for rushing and driving erratically. The infant, Braxlynn Sage Hancock, was taken to a hospital in Oklahoma, the place she was pronounced useless.
Prosecutors have mentioned that in an try to hold her boyfriend, Parker made herself look pregnant, faked ultrasounds and even had a gender-reveal social gathering.
Homer Hancock, Simmons-Hancock’s husband, testified that Parker and his spouse had been “considerably pals,” and that Parker had taken their engagement and wedding ceremony pictures.
In closing statements, prosecutor Kelley Crisp confirmed jurors a criminal offense scene photograph of Simmons-Hancock soaked in blood on the ground. She instructed jurors that Parker wanted to be sentenced to demise as a result of she’s a hazard. She mentioned that along with having her child ripped from her womb, Simmons-Hancock was “slashed” tons of of instances and crushed.
Parker’s lawyer, Jeff Harrelson, instructed jurors in closing statements that “phrases can be utilized to dehumanize,” and mentioned that there are “layers” and “shades of grey” to folks’s lives.
“She is a human,” he mentioned.
Harrelson additionally mentioned Parker was let down by her family and friends, who didn’t confront her in regards to the pretend being pregnant.
“There was no security internet when everybody noticed the wheels had been off,” he mentioned.
