Why woman put on death row after being found in a car with baby is still alive
With the release of Netflix’s newest hit true crime documentary, Maternal Instincts, focus will once again return to a harrowing case in which a woman was given the death penalty after being found in a car with a newborn baby.
Taylor Parker was pulled over by Texas State Troopers in 2020 after being spotted driving erratically and was found with a baby in her lap.
The Netflix documentary follows on from the streamer’s success in covering the case of Mackenzie Shirilla by looking at the harrowing story behind why Parker was not only arrested, but sentenced to death.
Warning: This article contains discussion of content that some readers may find distressing.
Advert
The Netflix doc looks at the fact that, despite publicly talking about her pregnancy Parker had previously had a hysterectomy and she came into possession of the baby through horrific means: cutting it out of her best friend who she had murdered.
The at-the-time 26-year-old had killed her pregnant friend, 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock, then used a scalpel to carry out a crude C-Section to remove her baby. The fetus was dead on Parker’s lap when she was pulled over by police, with the umbilical cord ‘going down into her pants’.
She was found guilty of kidnapping and murder, becoming the youngest woman on Texas’ death row.
This was four years ago however and she still has not been executed, in part because of America’s stringent laws around execution that can often lead to decades long delays whilst guilty parties continue to appeal.
She appealed this conviction in 2025, claiming that the aggravating charge of kidnapping was invalid as the child, who was later named Braxlynn, was dead when she stole it from Reagan.
Whereas first degree murder would have led to a possible sentence of 99 years in prison, the additional charge of kidnapping is what led to the death sentence.
In her appeal documents her legal team states: “Appellant (Parker) does not contest that the evidence is sufficient to show that she committed the murder of Reagan.
“Appellant only contends that the State failed to prove that Braxlynn was “born and is alive” for purposes of kidnapping or attempted kidnapping. Appellant asks this Court reform the judgment of conviction from capital murder to first-degree murder [which would reduce the sentence from the death penalty to a harsh prison sentence].”
This was however denied by the Texas appeals court, along with 24 other ‘points of error’ which includes ‘pretrial publicity, evidentiary rulings, prosecutorial conduct, and the scope of expert testimony’.
Justia, a legal platform for accessing documents about cases, summarised this decision by saying: “The court held that the evidence was sufficient for a rational juror to find the aggravating element of kidnapping or attempted kidnapping, and that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in its evidentiary or procedural rulings.”
In short, at the moment Parker is still set to be executed, but Texas’ Death Row has an average time before execution of 11.05 years and one inmate went 32 years before being executed in 2023.
The direct appeal concluding means that she has now entered the ‘habeas corpus’ phase in which she will be allowed to file appeals to the state, and eventually federal court system.
Reagan’s mother, Jessica Brooks, said after she was sentenced to death: “We are just glad justice has been served, not only for our family, our friends, the prosecution team, our community.”
Her sister, Emily Simmons, added: “I’m overwhelmed with happiness it’s over because she has been such a burden in our life for so long now that I haven’t been able to think about my sister without thinking about her.”
A timeline of Taylor Parker’s crime
2014
Mother-of-two and wedding photographer Taylor Parker decides to get her tubes tied after suffering pre-eclampsia, a dangerous condition which raises blood pressure, during her last pregnancy.
2015
Parker goes to her doctor with bleeding, who concludes she has had an ectopic pregnancy. She undergoes a hysterectomy, permanently removing her ability to conceive children.
July 2019
Parker, who is now twice divorced, meets hog trapper Wade Griffin at a local rodeo and they start a relationship. She lies to him that she is the heir to a $6 million estate.
September 2019
Jessica Brookes hires Parker as the photographer at her daughter Reagan Hancock’s wedding to longtime boyfriend Homer Hancock. Parker also previously took their engagement photos.
January 2020
Parker tells Griffin she’s pregnant, who doesn’t know about the hysterectomy. To maintain the ruse, Parker wears a fake pregnancy bump, takes maternity photos and throws a gender reveal party. She claims her due date is September.
Staffers at the hospital where Parker had her hysterectomy are ‘very confused’ about her social media updates, but are bound by privacy laws.
May 2020
Hancock tells her mum Jessica that she’s pregnant with her second child. Jessica later says that after Parker finds out Hancock is pregnant and expecting a girl, she starts to have more contact with her.
September 2020
After her ‘due date’ passes, Parker tells Griffin she will need to be induced or have a C-section.
9 October 2020
Parker watches a video on how to deliver a baby pre-term at 35 weeks, the length of Hancock’s pregnancy. She tells Griffin she is travelling to Idabel, Oklahoma to be induced. Instead, she travels to Hancock’s home, killing her and cutting her unborn child, Braxlynn Sage, from her womb. Hancock’s three-year-old daughter is later found in the house unharmed.
Parker is later pulled over by a Texas State Trooper for erratic driving. As the trooper is approaching her car, she calls 911 and asks for an ambulance, saying: “I’m starting to have my baby.”
The trooper finds Taylor covered in dried blood and holding Hancock’s dead baby, with the umbilical cord still attached.
She is taken to hospital, where it is soon determined she has not given birth. She is arrested the same day.
December 2020
Taylor is indicted by a grand jury on charges of capital murder and kidnapping.
October 2022
Parker is convicted of capital murder.
November 2022
Parker is sentenced to death. Jessica says a ‘heavy burden has been lifted’.
May 2026
The Supreme Court says it will not review Parker’s case. She remains on death row. A date of execution has not been set.
12 June 2026
Netflix documentary Maternal Instinct is released.
Maternal Instincts is available to stream on Netflix now.
Topics: True Crime, Netflix, TV and Film, Crime, Documentaries
Michael Slavin