Jury reaches verdict in Taylor Parker murder trial

NEW BOSTON, Texas (KSLA) - The jury has reached a verdict in the murder trial of a woman accused of killing an expectant mother and cutting her unborn child, Braxlyn, out of her body.

On Monday, Oct. 3, closing arguments in the trial of Taylor Parker wrapped up, and the jury began its deliberations. The trial has been underway for several weeks. Just before noon, the jury returned a guilty verdict after less than an hour of deliberations. They found Parker guilty of capital murder.

With Hancock’s family members sitting on the front row of a full courtroom, the jury spent less than hour before convicting Parker of capital murder and kidnapping.

“We all hoped that it was coming to that. We were not sure, but we hoped that it was coming to that,” said Jamie Mason, Hancock’s aunt.

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Mason was in the courtroom when the verdict was read. Speaking for the family, she praised the job the attorneys did in prosecuting this three-week-long case.

“I know sentencing doesn’t start until Oct. 12. Just pray for the family, because it is still hard time until we know for sure what she is going to get,” Mason said.

During the Oct. 12 sentencing, the judge will have two options: life in prison without parole, or the death sentence.

“In my opinion, she deserves death, the same thing she done to my niece and the baby girl,” Mason said. “That’s my opinion. People may look at it bad, but a life for a life for me.”

On Oct. 9, 2020, Parker went to Hancock’s New Boston, Texas, home, killed her and then cut her unborn child out of her body. While holding the newborn in her lap, Parker was stopped by the police and claimed the baby was hers. Police later arrested Parker at a McCurtain County, Okla., hospital. Throughout the trial, prosecutors said Parker pretended to be pregnant for 10 months, all in an effort to keep her boyfriend.

In closing arguments, prosecutors described Parker as a liar, a manipulator and an actress during her months of claiming to be pregnant.

The state is seeking the death sentence.

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