This week, a 29-year-old Texas woman is being tried in court for 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.
The opening arguments were offered on Monday inside the New Boston courtroom where Taylor Rene Parker is standing trial.
Parker was arrested in Oklahoma in 2020 and pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping after Reagan Simmons Hancock, 21, was found dead in her New Boston home around 10:20 a.m. on Oct. 9, 2020, after police received a 911 call.
Simmons Hancock was approximately seven-and-a-half months pregnant when the child was taken from her womb.
Taylor Rene Parker was speeding and pulled over by a Texas State Trooper in De Kalb after the alleged attack.
She allegedly told the officer she had given birth by the side of the road, and that the baby was not breathing.
Parker and the baby were both rushed by ambulance to McCurtain Memorial Hospital in Idabel, Okla. Hospital staff were suspicious of Parker when she refused to be checked out by doctors.
The baby died at the hospital.
KTAL-TV and the Texarkana Gazette were present for Monday’s proceedings.
Authorities revealed in court Simmons Hancock was stabbed and cut more than 100 times and had her skull crushed with a hammer before a scalpel was used to remove her unborn baby.
Parker was also charged with non-capital murder in connection with the death of the baby.
Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp told jurors Parker is “an actress of the highest order” who lied about being pregnant for nearly 10 months to keep her boyfriend around.
Crisp said Parker disguised herself to appear pregnant, faked ultrasounds, had a gender-reveal party and even posted about her fake pregnancy on social media.
“The lies and fraud go on and on; the layers of fraud are staggering,” Crisp said, according to both outlets. “You are going to have to understand the fraud to understand what happened on Oct. 9. This started months and months ahead of time until it passed the point of no return, and it ended up in homicide.”
After the attack, Parker left Simmons Hancock’s 3-year-old daughter alone with her dying mom.
Crisp told jurors Parker’s scheme even involved a bomb threat to a hospital, delaying her scheduled induction.
“Taylor Parker didn’t want any more children,” Crisp told the jury. “She killed Reagan and ripped her baby out to keep her boyfriend.”
After the killing, Crisp said that Parker “stuffed Reagan’s placenta down her pants to make it look like she had given birth on side of the road.”
One of her lawyers, Jeff Harrelson, urged the jury to consider all of the facts presented during the trial.
“It’s a complicated case, factually and emotionally,” Harrelson said. “The law is the lens and filter you must view these facts through. Sometimes it’s not black and white but a shade of grey.”
The trial should last a month. Parker faces the death penalty if convicted.