A jury took less than two hours of deliberating before sentencing Parker to death,TXK Todayreported.
“The circumstances in which Reagan died are horrible and there is no doubt it was torture,” First Bowie County Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp said during closing statements, theTexarkana Gazettereported. “But a mother died fighting for her child, That’s how she left the world. A woman who died fighting.”
Parker’s attorney Jeff Harrelson, who described Parker as a “woman, daughter, sister and mother,” said she had no help from family or friends “when everyone saw the wheels were off,” the Gazette reported.
Taylor Rene Parker, Regan Michelle Simmons-Hancock.AP/Shutterstock; Facebook
Simmons-Hancock was approximately seven-and-a-half months pregnant when her daughter who she planned to name Braxlynn Sage Hancock was taken from her womb.
Parker was later arrestedafter Simmons-Hancock was found dead in her New Boston home.
Prosecutors said Parker lied about being pregnant for nearly 10 months to keep her boyfriend around. She faked ultrasounds, had a gender-reveal party and even posted about her fake pregnancy on social media.
After the attack, Parker left Simmons-Hancock’s 3-year-old daughter alone with her dying mom.
In a victim’s impact statement, Simmons-Hancock’s younger sister Emily Simmons told Parker she stole her only biological sister from her.
“You need to understand what you took from me and my family,” she said, according to the Gazette. “No more celebrating her birthday. I was barely 19 when I got the call, my sister was gone…If I visit my sister, I have to go to a graveyard and see a headstone. I will never get a text or phone call from her again.”
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In a statement to the court, Simmons-Hancock’s mother Jessica Brooks called Parker an “evil piece of flesh demon.”
Harrelson provided a statement to PEOPLE after the sentencing.
“Based on the strong defense case we put on at sentencing, we are disappointed in the verdict, but we respect the jury’s findings after a long factually and emotionally difficult trial,” he said.
source: people.com
