A Texas woman accused of murdering her friend in order to steal her unborn child and pass it off as her own stabbed the expectant mother 100 times and crushed her skull with a hammer before cutting open her womb, according to court testimony.
The disturbing details were revealed in court Monday as trial started for 29-year-old Taylor Rene Parker, charged with capital murder and kidnapping in the deaths of Regan Michelle Simmons-Hancock, 21, and her infant daughter. Parker has pleaded not guilty.
According to the prosecution, Parker committed the crime in October 2020 not because she wanted a baby but because she wanted to keep her boyfriend. She was unable to conceive due to a hysterectomy.
Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp told jurors that Parker is "an actress of the highest order," who carried out a fake pregnancy, ordered a fake belly off the internet, faked ultrasounds and even threw a gender reveal party to uphold her charade, The Texarkana Gazette reported.
"The lies and fraud go on and on; the layers of fraud are staggering," Crisp said. "This started months and months ahead of time until it passed the point of no return and it ended up in homicide."
Simmons-Hancock was nearly eight months pregnant when she was attacked at her home in New Boston, Texas. According to People, authorities revealed in court that 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.
After the killing, Crisp said that Parker "stuffed Reagan's placenta down her pants to make it look like she had given birth on the side of road." Parker drove off with the baby in her lap and was pulled over by a state trooper who sent the pair to the hospital. The child later died.
Parker later admitted to police that she got into a physical altercation with Simmons-Hancock and used a small scalpel to remove the unborn baby, WOAI-TV reported. That same scalpel was later found during an autopsy, lodged in in Simmons-Hancock's neck.
If found guilty of capital murder, Parker could be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Trial is expected to last several weeks.
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