AUSTIN, Texas–A Bowie County woman who murdered a mother to steal her unborn baby in 2020 was denied a new trial Thursday by the Lone Star State’s highest criminal court in a unanimous decision.
Taylor Rene Parker, who has also used the surnames Morton and Wacasey, was sentenced to death for the Oct. 9, 2020, killings of Reagan Hancock and her infant daughter, Braxylnn Sage Hancock, by a jury following a weeks-long trial in the fall of 2022.
Kelley Crisp, First Assistant District Attorney and lead prosecutor on the case, said Friday, “The Court of Criminal Appeals decision in Taylor Parker’s case is confirmation of what every one of us in Bowie County already knew–that the verdicts handed down by this jury were just and right.”
“The Court rightly concluded that baby Braxlynn Sage was alive after she was violently extracted from her mother Reagan Hancock and she was thus an ‘individual’ under Texas law for the purposes of the kidnapping statute,” Crisp said. “The horror and sadness of this case will never be forgotten by any of us who worked on the investigation and prosecution.”
Crisp added, “Most importantly, this decision brings the Brooks and the Hancock families another step closer to the State of Texas administering the ultimate punishment to an offender who engaged in criminal behavior so depraved and heinous that a death sentence was the only acceptable outcome.”
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said there was plenty of evidence presented at trial to support the state’s theory that the baby was alive when Parker left Hancock’s home, rejecting her argument that the baby had not been alive when she was taken from her mother’s body via a crude C-section, and thus could not be kidnapped.
To meet the elements required for capital murder in Parker’s case, the state had to prove that Parker killed Hancock while in the course of committing another felony, the kidnapping or attempted kidnapping of Braxlynn.
The court noted that Parker “does not contest that the evidence is sufficient to show that she committed the murder of Reagan.”
“Appellant only contends that the State failed to prove that Braxlynn was ‘born and is alive’ for purposes of kidnapping or attempted kidnapping,” the court said.
Citing the testimony of a first responder, doctors and a jailhouse informant, the court said there was ample evidence to support the jury’s finding that Braxlynn was born alive but later stopped breathing as Parker drove with her toward the Oklahoma border where she planned to claim at a McCurtain County hospital that she had given birth in her car.
The court noted that medical personnel testified that they were able to get the baby’s heart beating again for a short while, indicating that Braxlynn had not been without circulation for a significant length of time. They also pointed to the testimony of a fellow inmate who testified that Parker told her she held baby Braxlynn to Hancock’s cheek before leaving and said, “Tell momma bye.”
The court also found Parker’s argument unpersuasive that she was denied a fair shot at justice because 202nd District Judge John Tidwell declined to move the trial to another county. Parker claimed that media coverage, including in TXK Today, had painted an unfair picture of her ahead of the trial, prejudicing the potential jury pool against her.
The court said there was no testimony that what was published was inaccurate or that the material had been viewed by the majority of Bowie County citizens.
The court was likewise not moved by Parker’s arguments that there was too much testimony about her lengthy history of lying, from saying her mother had tried to have her killed by the Mexican Mafia, to claiming to be the heiress to the Morton Salt fortune, to exaggerating her accomplishments.
Parker had been married and had children – who were no longer in her custody – before she faked a pregnancy during her relationship with a Bowie County man who lived in Simms, Texas. Following the birth of her second child, Parker had a hysterectomy, meaning she was unable to have more children.
Parker created elaborate stories, false identities and went to great lengths to convince Wade Griffin that she was pregnant. Parker wore a fake pregnancy belly, held a gender reveal party and bought sonogram pictures off the internet as part of her scheme.
The state theorized that Parker would go to any length to keep her relationship with Griffin. The night before Parker had told Griffin she was going to have an induced birth at a hospital in Mount Pleasant, Texas, a fire mysteriously erupted at Griffin’s residence and the following day a bomb threat was called into the hospital, giving Parker the excuse she needed for Griffin to believe the planned birth had to be delayed.
The jury also heard evidence of Parker’s hunt for a pregnant woman, and how she ultimately settled on Hancock, who was just weeks away from delivering a healthy child.
The court said that evidence was necessary to show the amount of planning and preparation that went into the crime and not meant to smear Parker in the jury’s eyes.
Parker is currently being held at the O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas. She may appeal her conviction to a federal court.
An execution date has not been set.