Taylor Parker trial: Killer’s mother takes the stand a second day
By TRACY GLADNEY
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NEW BOSTON, Texas (KTBS) — Tuesday was the second day on the stand for the mother of a convicted killer who told jurors she believed her daughter when she said she was sick and denied being manipulated.
Shona Prior’s testimony before a New Boston jury is part of the ongoing penalty phase of her daughter’s, Taylor Parker, capital murder trial. Prior briefly testified Monday afternoon after the state rested its case.
Jurors soon will decide if Parker gets the death penalty or a life sentence in the October 2020 death of Reagan Hancock, 21, and her unborn baby.
As the defense continued Tuesday morning, attorney Jeff Harrelson had the jury listen to lengthy jail phone calls between Parker and her mother, her daughter and her brother. Prior, who has custody of Parker’s daughter, Emersyn, said the only way she would let her speak with Emersyn was if Parker kept the conversation on a positive note.
Parker spoke with her brother, Zachary, on Thanksgiving, saying, “Keep your head up high and I am praying for you, and I love you.”
Further, the defense played conversations between Parker and her daughter, indicating she was an attentive mother who kept up with Emersyn’s art classes and volleyball.
On cross-examination, prosecuting attorney Kelley Crisp questioned Prior about illnesses Parker claimed to have despite medical testimony to the contrary. Crisp said it appeared Parker manipulated Prior; however, Prior disagreed, saying she was with Parker at the hospital when she showed symptoms of a stroke and possibly have MS.
Crisp told Prior that the medical records revealed Parker was faking symptoms. For example, Parker would move her tongue in her mouth to pretend to have slurred speech associated with a stroke.
The symptoms would come and go as Parker was released from the hospital, Crisp said, adding that Parker would lie to her mother about the test results and not tell her mother doctors could not find anything wrong with her.
“I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree,” Crisp told Prior about her belief in Parker’s illnesses.
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