NEW BOSTON, Texas–After less than two hours of deliberations in a trial that began nearly a month ago, a Bowie County jury returned with a death verdict for a woman who killed a pregnant friend and kidnapped her unborn child.
Taylor Rene Parker, 29, was found guilty of capital murder in the Oct. 9, 2020, slaying of 21-year-old Reagan Hancock in September and the punishment phase of Parker’s trial began Oct. 3.
Parker was on her way to the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, where Texas houses its female death row inmates, after the trial, according to court officials. She is entitled to a court appointed lawyer to represent her on appeal of her conviction and sentence.
Parker had faked a pregnancy for months, held a gender reveal party and gone to great lengths to convince her former boyfriend that she was having their daughter. She attacked Hancock with a hammer on the morning of Oct. 9 and used a scalpel she brought with her to remove her baby from her womb.
Among the grisly crime scene photos shown to the jury was one that depicted the family kitchen. Taped to the side of the refrigerator were 3D sonogram photos of the baby the couple was expecting with large smears of blood on the surface below it. During the punishment phase, jurors heard testimony from inmates who were housed with Parker in the Bowie County jail who said she attempted to enlist them in creating a defense centered on an alternative perpetrator.
First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp and Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards are representing the state. Parker is represented by Jeff Harrelson of Texarkana and Mac Cobb of Mount Pleasant. 202nd District Judge John Tidwell presided over the trial.
