Prosecutors asked a Texas jury to sentence a woman to death for killing a pregnant woman and stealing her unborn daughter from her womb.

The appeal came as the penalty phase of Taylor Parker's capital murder trial began for the October 2020 murder of Reagan Simmons-Hancock and the theft of her unborn baby. The Bowie County jury previously found Parker guilty of capital murder.

Prosecutor Kelley Crisp told jurors that the evidence would show Parker, 29, faked a pregnancy and repeatedly lied before killing Simmons-Hancock, 21, at the woman's New Boston home on October 3, 2020, to get the infant she claimed to have been carrying.

Parker disguised herself to make her look pregnant for nearly 10 months, faked ultrasounds, had a gender-reveal party and posted about her fake pregnancy on social media while searching for a possible victim. Crisp also told the jury that Parker acted not because she wanted a baby but to keep from losing her boyfriend. The child died on October 9 in a hospital in nearby Idabel, Oklahoma.

Parker's attorneys hope to persuade the jury to spare Parker's life and let her serve life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Defence attorney Jeff Harrelson said they would show that Parker was mentally ill.