Woman sliced friend from 'hip to hip' to steal the baby from her womb

Taylor Rene Parker was accused of killing a woman to steal her unborn baby. Photo / AP

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

A Texan woman is facing the death penalty after murdering her pregnant friend and cutting the unborn baby from her womb in an attempt to steal it.

Taylor Rene Parker beat Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock, who was 34 weeks pregnant, about the head before slicing through her abdomen from "hip to hip", a court in Bowie County heard.

Simmons-Hancock, 21, is believed to have still been alive after having the baby cut from her womb, the jury was told. She later died in a pool of blood in front of her 3-year-old daughter.

The baby removed from Simmons-Hancock's womb also later died.

"It was no quick death," Lauren Richards, the assistant district attorney, said of the attack in October 2020.

"She just kept cutting her. I guess Reagan would not die fast enough for Taylor to get out of there and get on with her plans.

"The pain Reagan must have felt when Taylor started cutting her abdomen, hip to hip ... indescribable."

The court heard that Parker, 29, and already a mother of two, could not conceive again after a hysterectomy. She obsessively researched how to fake a pregnancy and watched videos on delivering babies preterm at 35 weeks.

Prosecutors alleged that she disguised herself to look pregnant, faked ultrasounds, posted about her "pregnancy" on social media and even had a gender reveal for her pretend baby in the months before the murder, as part of a plot not to lose her boyfriend.

On the day she attacked Simmons-Hancock, she told the man that she was being induced, the prosecution said.

Parker was described by Richards as a "liar" and "manipulator" who would be held accountable. The jury took one hour to reach a guilty verdict.

The defendant was also facing a kidnapping charge, which her legal team tried to dismiss in an effort to have a capital murder charge lowered to murder. They claimed that the baby could not have been abducted as it was never alive.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, but jurors could vote for a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.