A Lancaster, California, couple was convicted of stabbing and decapitating their two kids in November 2020. Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 39, and Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 48, pleaded not guilty to the crime but were found guilty on two felony counts of first-degree murder.
According to Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s press release, they were also found guilty on two counts of child abuse. The couple stabbed their two kids, Maliaka, 13, and son Maurice Jr., 12, on Nov. 29, 2020, in their Lancaster home in an unimaginable, brutal scene.
After that, the parents forced their younger sons, who were 8 and 9 years old, to act on the decapitated bodies of their brother and sister. The child abuse did not end here, as they confined the two kids to their bedroom. They often kept them there without any food for a long time. So far, there has been no further update on the two siblings.
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The crime made the parents eligible for capital punishment, but the prosecutors did not seek it in this case. After the murder, the kids’ bodies were discovered when there was a gas leak in the home. Moreover, Maurice Sr.’s personal training clients notified the authorities over the lack of involvement despite repeated attempts.
The motive for the murder was unclear. When the murder took place, the COVID-19 pandemic was going on, and the father was working from home. However, he was unavailable when his clients tried to reach out to him. Even the neighbors noticed something weird going on: “I never saw anybody come out of that house. It almost seemed like the windows were all blacked out.”
The bodies were found in different bedrooms by the LA County Sheriff’s homicide detective team. The father was arrested the next day; however, the mother was arrested the following September in Arizona. Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman described the murders as “a monstrous act of cruelty.”
They then forced their two younger sons, ages 8 and 9, to view their siblings’ bodies and remain confined in their bedrooms without food for several days.
— Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office (@LADAOffice) November 18, 2025
The press release stated, “Two innocent children were brutally murdered, and their young brothers were left to live through unimaginable horror. The jury’s verdict delivers justice for these victims and sends a powerful message: Those who commit such evil acts will be held fully accountable.”
Both parents were sentenced to spend life in state prison without parole. An additional sentence of six years and four months was added to their jail time. Such cases of child abuse and murder are on the rise in the country. Earlier, a mother was found guilty of suffocating her son to death. She had repeatedly tried to smother him with pillows as he told his grandmother about it as a warning.
