Next year before fetal abduction case goes to trial
NEW BOSTON, Texas — The case of a woman accused of murdering a pregnant friend and taking her unborn baby is likely to go to trial sometime in 2022, the presiding judge on the case said Friday.
Taylor Rene Parker, aka Taylor Morton and Taylor Waycasey, appeared Friday before 202nd District Judge John Tidwell for arraignment on a new charge of capital murder involving the unborn baby and a pretrial hearing on an existing capital murder charge in the mother’s death and a charge of kidnapping.
Texarkana lawyer Jeff Harrelson entered a plea of not guilty Friday to the capital murder charge involving the baby, Braxlynn Sage Hancock. Harrelson entered not guilty pleas on Parker’s behalf to the initial capital murder and kidnapping charges at a prior hearing.
The state is seeking the death penalty.
First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp said the state’s plan is to first try Parker on the capital murder charge involving the death of the mother, Reagan Michelle Simmons Hancock, and asked Tidwell to schedule a date for jury selection.
“The ball rolls faster if we can get a trial date,” Crisp said, noting that the crime lab prioritizes the processing of evidence based on “order of importance determined by the trial date.”
Tidwell said he expects to begin jury selection in the case in the middle of 2022, between the months of May and October of next year. Tidwell directed the lawyers to confer about potential dates and contact his office with the possibilities.
At Parker’s last hearing, Crisp asked Tidwell to revoke Taylor’s existing $5 million bail so that she has no chance of being released before her case is tried. Crisp noted that if Harrelson’s objects, she will be required to put on evidence to show that Parker is likely to be convicted and sentenced to death. Harrelson withdrew an objection he voiced at the last hearing on the bail issue and Tidwell ordered that Parker will be held without bail.
Parker is scheduled to return to court April 9 for her next pretrial hearing.
Parker, 28, allegedly attacked 21-year-old Reagan Hancock the morning of Oct. 9 at her home in New Boston, according to a probable cause affidavit. A Texas state trooper pulled Parker over in DeKalb, Texas, not far from the Oklahoma bor
der, just after 9:30 a.m. Parker was allegedly performing CPR on the infant girl in her lap and the umbilical cord appeared to be coming from her pants.
An ambulance transported Parker and the baby to McCurtain Memorial Hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma, where the baby was pronounced dead and doctors determined Parker had not given birth.
The Texas trooper first made contact with
Parker at 9:37 a.m. Oct. 9. Approximately 10:20 a.m. the same morning, Hancock’s mother discovered her daughter’s body in the living room of the home Hancock shared with her husband and 3-year-old daughter in New Boston.
When LifeNet personnel turned Hancock over, a large cut across her abdomen was revealed and it was determined the baby had been removed.
A small scalpel was found lodged in Hancock’s neck during an autopsy by a Dallas medical examiner which had not been visible to investigators at the crime scene.
Parker and Reagan Hancock were friends. Reagan Hancock posted a sonogram photo on a social media site with an early November due date in the months before her murder. The happy post included a name for the baby, Braxlynn Sage Hancock.
Parker allegedly convinced her boyfriend she was pregnant and often made social media posts supporting her claim. The boyfriend reported that he expected to meet Parker at a hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma, at noon Oct. 9 for a planned, induced labor and delivery.