In an update to the Taylor Rene Parker conviction from last month, she has been sentenced to death for the 2020 murder of Reagan Michelle Simmons and her baby.
Needless to say, the verdict looked as though it would go that way—especially after a jury sat through a trial that was going to be hard for the defense.
Taylor Rene Parker Sentenced to Death for the Murder of Reagan Michelle Simmons and Baby in 2020
As a brief refresher, Parker lied to her boyfriend, family, and friends that she was pregnant and followed through with not only a gender reveal party but also said that she was heading to Oklahoma to pre-register to have her labor induced on October 9, 2020.
In reality, she went to New Boston, Texas where she killed Simmons who was 34 weeks along in her pregnancy, cut the actual expectant mother open, and stole the baby. Police were alerted of the murder by Simmons’ mother who found her. Authorities arrived and observed that Simmons’ abdomen had been cut open and the baby was missing.
State troopers stopped a vehicle and happened upon Parker who had the baby with her. She had tucked the umbilical cord into her pants as if she’d just given birth. Taylor Rene Parker said that this was the case and was escorted to the hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma.
Hospital staff said that she didn’t give birth to the baby who later died. Parker confessed to what happened and charged her with the murder of Reagan Michelle Simmons and of the baby saying she couldn’t “provide necessary care to the child.”
The Bowie County jury that found her guilty in October 2022 had the choice between life without parole or death. The state pushed for death saying that Parker wouldn’t change her ways while the defense said that their client had previous, unaddressed trauma.
Parker was given the death penalty and is now one of seven women on Texas’ death row. Reagan Michelle Simmons’ mother, Jessica Brooks told KSLA:
“We are just so thankful justice has been served today, for not only our family, our friends, the prosecution team, our community.”
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