Jurors watch interrogation videos after arrest of Taylor Parker

NEW BOSTON, Texas – As the Taylor Parker fetal abduction and murder trial continued Wednesday, jurors watched videos taken after her arrest that prosecutors said showed disparity in her stories. 

A Texas Ranger who conducted those interviews, a doctor who treated the victim and a DNA expert took the stand throughout the day.

Parker is on trial for two counts of first-degree murder in the death of Reagan  Hancock, 21, and her unborn baby. Parker has pleaded not guilty. If convicted of capital murder, Parker faces the death penalty.

Parker was arrested in Idabel, Okla., on Oct. 9, 2020 shortly after Hancock's bloody body was found inside her home. Videos that Ranger Joshua Mason took of his interrogation of Parker that day and on Oct. 14, 2020 after she was moved to Bowie County, Texas, were shown to the jury. 

Mason testified most of Parker's stories were unbelievable. There would be long hesitations by Parker after questions, and her details were not fluid from one interview to the next, Mason said. 

The video showed Mason asking Parker if she had ever been diagnosed with a mental illness. Parker responded she dealt with bouts of depression after her stroke in 2015. Mason told jurors Parker did not suffer a stroke, but she did have records of treatment with a counselor, just not a psychiatrist and did not have a "diagnosis" of mental illness.

Mason testified that Parker's description of the what took place between she and Hancock went from a fight, to a conversation then a fight. She also accused Hancock of pulling a knife on her; however, Mason said a knife was not found. 

Parker also told Mason in one of the interviews that Hancock knew she was dying and begged Parker to take out the baby. Parker said Hancock helped to cut open her abdomen. 

Also, in the video, Parker claimed she used a scalpel blade to cut the baby from Hancock. When Mason questioned Parker where the scalpel blade was, she said she had laid it on the floor. Mason told her the blade was found in Hancock’s neck. Parker denied having left it there, although she continued to say she acted alone that day.

Parker claimed Hancock's baby was not breathing despite having been told at the hospital in Idabel that she was breathing, had a pulse and was in stable condition.

Mason said there was evidence that would have helped the investigation, such as Parker’s footwear, shirt and jacket seen on an EZ Mart camera, the scalpel handle, a knife, Reagan’s cell phone and a burner phone. But none of it was found.

Parker denied when questioned by Mason that she made a bomb threat to the hospital where she was supposed to have her baby. And she also denied having set her then-boyfriend Wade Griffin’s home on fire.

Also on the stand Wednesday was Dr. James Seales, who was Hancock's OB-GYN. He told jurors Hancock was eight months pregnant at the time of her death. She had no complications from her pregnancy and the fetus did not have abnormalities. 

Seales said he had seen Hancock's autopsy report and was surprised that her baby had been removed by an untrained person without any injuries. 

The last person called by the state was Ashley Motter, a forensic scientist for DPS Garland crime lab who interpreted the DNA analysis and compiled a 32-page extensive report, the largest she's ever generated in her career.

To summarize, the majority of the blood DNA located and swabbed in the Hancock home and in the car Parker drove to Idabel with the Hancock's baby was Hancock's. The next, smaller DNA blood evidence came from her biological baby, who was already named Braxlynn Sage. There was no DNA blood evidence belonging to Parker.

There was some speculation at day's end the prosecution was nearing the completion of its case. But that didn't happen. 

Not called to the stand so far are Wade Griffin (Parker's then-boyfriend), nor Parker's mother, Shona Kay Prior. 

The judge asked for a private conference with the defense and prosecution attorneys when court adjourned to discuss the upcoming schedule.