A truly horrific case out of Los Angeles County came to a close on Tuesday, after a jury convicted a father and mother of an unspeakable crime: first-degree murder in the stabbing and decapitation of their 13-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son in 2020, as well as child abuse for forcing their two younger boys to view their slain siblings, and starving them for days.
Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 39, and Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 48, ended a five-year saga that horrified the community, where the family lived in a quiet Lancaster neighborhood. Taylor and Brothwell face life in prison without parole plus more than six additional years, with sentencing set for January 2026.
“This was a monstrous act of cruelty that shattered an entire family,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said in a statement. “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.”
Prosecutors proved that on November 29, 2020, Taylor and Brothwell fatally stabbed and decapitated 13-year-old Maliaka Taylor and 12-year-old Maurice Taylor Jr. inside the family’s home, according to court documents and trial testimony. The couple then forced their surviving sons, then ages 8 and 9, to look at the gruesome scene (the decapitated bodies of their brother and sister) before locking them in separate bedrooms without food for several days. The latter led to convictions on two counts each of child abuse likely to cause great bodily injury or death.
The case unfolded after Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies and the fire department were called to the residence five days after the murders, after receiving a tip about a possible gas leak, and then subsequently discovering the bodies of the two children. More specifically, they discovered Taylor inside with the children’s mutilated bodies (Maliaka in one bedroom and Maurice Jr. in another) and arrested him on the spot after he resisted. Brothwell fled shortly after Taylor’s arrest and was named a person of interest; she was on the run for nearly 10 months before her arrest in September 2021 while in Tucson, Arizona. She was extradited to California the following month.
Statements from the surviving brothers, who were found malnourished and confined, pointed to both parents in the killings and abuse, per the prosecutors.
The couple was each charged with two counts of murder under special circumstances and separate counts of child abuse. Taylor once sought to represent himself for “spiritual reasons,” briefly delaying the proceedings for a mental health evaluation. He was later declared mentally fit to stand trial.
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Deputy District Attorneys Alexander Lara and Kirsten Brown of the Sex Crimes Division, alongside investigators from the Sheriff’s Lancaster Station, handled the prosecution. “This prosecution would not have been possible but for the tremendous efforts of Lara and Brown, who pieced this gruesome case together and presented it compellingly to the jury,” Hochman said, praising his staff.
Neither Taylor nor Brothwell testified, and their defense attorneys argued mental health issues, though the jury clearly rejected their defense. The surviving children, now teenagers, were placed in protective custody and have received counseling, authorities said.
