Taylor Parker, the woman who murdered her pregnant friend and extracted her unborn baby, will not be facing execution for many years to come. In the meantime, she is currently spending her days in a tiny, isolated cell at the Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas. As reported by The U.S. Sun, Parker, who is now 33, was found guilty of capital murder in 2022 and sentenced to death, but her execution is stalled by a lengthy appeals process.
On October 9, 2020, Parker reportedly drove to the home of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock in New Boston, Texas. Reagan was 34 weeks pregnant at the time. According to trial testimony, Parker attacked her friend with a hammer and stabbed her more than 100 times before using a scalpel to remove the baby from Reagan’s womb. PEOPLE highlighted that at 9:36 AM that same morning, Parker called 911 while sobbing.
She claimed she had just given birth in her car. Per reports, she begged the 911 dispatcher, “I need an ambulance, ’cause I started having my baby!” She was subsequently pulled over by a state trooper for erratic driving. When the officer approached the vehicle, Parker revealed she was holding the fetus with the umbilical cord still attached. She pleaded with the officer, saying, “Can you just put me in your car and drive us, so we’re not sitting, please? I’m begging you.”
Once her claims unraveled, she was caught in a long legal process
According to The U.S. Sun, the infant, whom Parker named Braxlynn Sage, was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a hospital in Oklahoma. With testing, medical professionals quickly determined that Parker had not given birth, exposing the 10 months of lies she had constructed to convince others, including her ex-boyfriend Wade Griffin, that she was pregnant. She had even gone so far as to host a gender reveal party and wear a fake baby bump.
During her interrogation, footage of which is featured in the Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct, Parker offered shifting and contradictory accounts of the incident. PEOPLE noted that she claimed at one point that she and Reagan had a physical confrontation and that Reagan had allowed her to take the baby.
“She was shaking me and I was already out of my f—ing mind,” Parker said in the footage. “I knew something bad was gonna happen… It was like when I shoved her down, everything changed.” Later, she reportedly admitted to the act of removing the child, telling investigators, “I remember taking her out, I know that. That was the only way to get her out… I had to cut her out.”
Since her conviction, Parker has remained on death row. As The U.S. Sun reported, life in the Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit is stark. She is confined to a 6ft by 14ft cell for 22 hours a day, which contains only a bed, a sink, a toilet, and a small barred window. The outlet also notes that she is the youngest of seven women awaiting execution at the unit.
While she has access to limited privileges like recreation time, showers, and potential work programs, reports indicate that she must eat all her meals inside her cell. The food consists of standard prison fare, delivered through a slot in the door.
Parker’s legal team has reportedly attempted to challenge her conviction through various appeals, arguing that she was denied a fair trial and that the prosecution used prejudicial material regarding her appearance. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has rejected these claims, upholding both the conviction and the death sentence. Despite these setbacks, Parker reportedly remains in post-conviction proceedings.
In a 2025 interview with The New Yorker, Parker claimed to have found religion behind bars, describing a moment during her trial when she confronted autopsy photos and felt as though “Jesus hit me straight on, flesh to flesh.” She stated, “I stand firm on the belief you do not deserve to have something you took from another. That’s part of the acknowledgment and acceptance process on the road to redemption.”
For now, Parker remains in her cell, awaiting the outcome of ongoing constitutional challenges. The Sun reports that Texas law requires all state and federal appeals to be exhausted before an execution can be scheduled, so justice in this case will be a slow, methodical process that spans years.
Other female inmates on death row are appealing their cases, too. In Tennessee, Christa Pike is trying a different strategy by claiming the execution process violates her constitutional rights.
Published: Jun 19, 2026 12:40 pm