‘BLOODLETTING’

Texas Woman Found Guilty of Killing Mother to Cut Baby From Her Womb

“Y’all decide the boundaries of today,” a prosecutor told the jury, which deliberated for roughly an hour. “What will we tolerate? Is it open season on expectant mothers?”

A Texas woman was convicted of capital murder Monday, after a jury determined in less than an hour that she was guilty of killing a pregnant woman and then cutting her unborn baby, who also died, out of her belly. Taylor Rene Parker, 29, showed no emotion in court as the verdict was returned, according to the Texarkana Gazette. Her conviction follows three weeks of often brutal testimony, with a portion of the trial hanging on whether baby Braxlynn Hancock was alive after being cut out of Reagan Hancock’s womb. Parker’s defense attorney argued that Braxlynn had never been alive, moving to dismiss a kidnapping charge, which would have reduced the charge of capital murder to murder. “Y’all decide the boundaries of today,” a prosecutor told the jury during closing arguments. “What will we tolerate? Is it open season on expectant mothers?” The prosecution went on to lay out, in gruesome detail, how Parker—“in a frenzy to find a baby”—performed a “bloodletting” on 21-year-old Hancock, beating her in the head before slicing into her abdomen. “When Taylor had the baby and Reagan was still alive, that’s when Taylor started slashing and cutting,” another prosecutor said. “She can’t leave her alive. It was no quick death.”