Taylor Parker Death Row: Conviction Stands After 2022 Capital Murder Case
Taylor Parker death row now centers on a 2022 capital murder conviction in the deaths of Reagan Simmons-Hancock and her unborn baby, after a Texas case that began with a claimed childbirth in October 2020. Parker, now 33, remains held at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas, while her appeals have run out and habeas corpus review is the next legal step.
Texas case of Reagan Simmons-Hancock
The case turned on a claim Parker made at age 27 after a state trooper pulled her over on the way to the hospital in October 2020. Parker said she had given birth, but doctors determined she had not recently delivered a baby. Parker had already undergone a hysterectomy after the birth of her second child more than five years earlier.
The baby Parker said was hers was pronounced dead at the hospital. The infant was actually the child of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock, who had hired Parker to photograph her wedding in 2019. Prosecutors said Parker attacked and killed Simmons-Hancock in her home and forcibly removed the baby from her womb.
October 2022 conviction
Parker was arrested on Oct. 9, 2020, and a Texas jury convicted her in October 2022 of capital murder in Simmons-Hancock's death and the kidnapping and murder of her unborn baby. Prosecutors also accused Parker of cruelty in court when she wore a face covering with sunflowers.
KTAL reported in 2022 that Parker continued to lie while in jail and allegedly tried to frame a mentally fragile inmate by writing false confession letters. That detail complicated the courtroom image around a case already defined by a conviction for the killing of a pregnant woman and the child she was carrying.
Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit
Parker, 33 years old, is the youngest of seven women currently on death row in Texas and is held at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas, about 40 miles from Waco. Yolanda Saldívar, who is serving a life sentence, is also housed at the same facility.
Parker appealed her conviction and argued that her kidnapping conviction was invalid because Braxlynn was not legally born and alive at the time of the crime. A court rejected that argument after a paramedic testified that Braxlynn's heartbeat was restored before her death.
Habeas corpus review
Parker was denied a new trial in 2025, and the Supreme Court declined to hear her case in May 2026. She has exhausted her direct appeals, and no execution date will be set until Parker moves through habeas corpus review.
