Day three of a Texas trial against a woman accused of killing a mother and her baby ended with testimonies Wednesday of alleged scams and lies.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Taylor Rene Parker, 29, (pictured left), also known as Taylor Waycasey and Taylor Morton, was indicted by a grand jury last year for capital murder in connection with the death of the unborn baby girl, Braxlynn Sage Hancock.
Parker was already facing a capital murder charge in connection with the death of an acquaintance, Reagan Hancock (pictured right), 21, as well as a kidnapping charge. Hancock was found dead in her home in October 2020, after Parker allegedly fled with the baby.
Authorities later pulled Parker over at a traffic stop, with the baby in the vehicle with her. Parker reportedly told a state trooper the baby was hers, and both were transported to a hospital in Oklahoma, where the baby was pronounced dead.
During testimony Wednesday in a Bowie County courtroom, the jury heard about an alleged scheme Parker tried to pull off with a real estate company in December 2019, prior to the murder and kidnapping.
According to real estate agent Rusty Lowe, who took the stand Wednesday, Parker said she was the Blackburn syrup heir while trying to purchase a $4.7 million home for her and her boyfriend, Wade Griffin. She would have needed at least $200,000 to put down on the home in “earnest payment,” he testified, which she said she would get to him.
At the time, Parker’s income was two part-time office jobs.
Lowe added that Parker and Griffin acted “oddly urgent” with their interest in the home, NBC 6 reports. He also said the pair showed up to view the property in a car that “kind of didn’t match the situation.”
“Still, we always give people the benefit of the doubt, but we have to vet that,” Lowe said.
Lowe testified that he worked with Parker for four months while trying to verify the earnest payment funds, which ultimately never panned out. In April 2020, Parker allegedly told Lowe that the deal was off and that her mother “made the whole thing up,” the outlet reports.
Earlier this week, during opening statements on Monday, Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp told the jury that Parker not only wanted a baby but also took desperate measure measures to keep her boyfriend from leaving.
Crisp added Parker used a fake belly disguise to make herself look pregnant while going to fraudulent ultrasounds and posting about her pregnancy on social media. She even had a gender-reveal party, according to the prosecutor, NBC DFW reports.
“How did we get here?” Crisp asked the jury on Monday.
“How did it get this far? She is an actress, an actress of the highest order. The lies and fraud go on and on; the layers of fraud are staggering. You are going to have to understand the fraud to understand what happened on Oct. 9. This started months and months ahead of time until it passed the point of no return, and it ended up in homicide.”
The prosecution added Tuesday that Parker had her tubes tied and couldn’t have babies. She also allegedly “stalked OB clinics” in both Louisiana and Texas, Fox 33 reports. Prior to the murder, Parker allegedly watched YouTube videos on how to perform a C-section.
The trial is expected to last around a month. Parker is facing the death penalty if convicted.
Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: Taylor Parker/Facebook; Reagan Hancock/Facebook]
