Taylor Rene Parker, 29, was convicted of capital murder Monday and now faces the death penalty after she brutally killed Reagan Simmons Hancock, 21, to steal the pregnant woman’s baby.
A jury in Texas has found a woman guilty of capital murder for killing an expectant mother in an attempt to steal her unborn baby.
Several media outlets reported on Monday that Taylor Rene Parker, 29, was found guilty of stabbing Reagan Simmons Hancock, 21, in October 2020 and stealing the victim’s unborn baby, according to the Bowie County District Attorney’s office. The baby girl also passed away after the brutal attack.
A request for comment from PEOPLE was not immediately answered by the D.A.’s office.
Parker’s attorney, Jeff Harrelson, argued during the three-week trial that the kidnapping charge should be dropped, which would reduce Parker’s capital murder charge to murder, according to the Associated Press.
People contacted Harrelson for comment, but they did not receive a response right away.
In his closing argument, Harrelson told the 12-person jury, made up of six women and six men, “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.”
Still, prosecutors noted that medical experts confirmed the baby girl had a heartbeat, with Assistant District Attorney Kelly Crisp adding of Parker, “We have methodically laid out what she 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…”
Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards said, according to Fox News Digital, “In the past two weeks, the evidence has never been more clear. She’s a liar, a manipulator, and now she’s gonna be held accountable for it.”
Richards continued by describing the pregnant woman’s scary final seconds on earth as Taylor tore her child from her stomach.
Simmons Hancock was about seven and a half months along in her pregnancy when the baby was removed.
A Texas State Trooper in De Kalb stopped Parker for speeding shortly after the assault.
She allegedly told the officer that the baby was not breathing and that she had given birth by the side of the road.
When Parker refused to be examined by doctors while being transported by ambulance to McCurtain Memorial Hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma, the hospital staff became suspicious of her.
The hospital declared the baby dead.
Parker was later arrested after Simmons Hancock was found dead in her New Boston home around.
