California Parents Sentenced for Horrific Crime: Decapitation of Two Children and Forcing Siblings to Witness

A California couple received multiple life sentences on Monday for the horrific murders of their teenage children, a 13-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son. They also forced their younger children to witness the aftermath of the grisly crime.

Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., aged 39, and Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, aged 49, were convicted in November on two felony counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances. The tragic killings of their daughter, Maliaka, and son, Maurice, occurred within their Lancaster home on November 29, 2020.

After the murders, the couple compelled their two younger sons, aged 8 and 9, to look at their siblings’ decapitated bodies, keeping them isolated in their rooms without food for several days.

On Tuesday, November 18, 2025, Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 39, was found guilty of two felony counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances and two counts of child abuse. (Source: Youtube/Law&Crime Network)

Firefighters discovered the bodies of Maliaka and Maurice five days post-mortem while investigating a potential gas leak, as reported by FOX11 Los Angeles.

Officials with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office told the Los Angeles Times Taylor and Brothwell received the maximum sentence of two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, plus six years in state prison.

Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 48, was convicted of two felony counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances and two felony counts of child abuse on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (Pima County Sheriff’s Office)

The two younger children were placed under a 10-year protective order, according to a report from KTLA.

Following the couple’s conviction, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman called the killings a “monstrous act of cruelty.”

Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman called the killings “monstrous.” (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

“Two innocent children were brutally murdered, and their young brothers were left to live through unimaginable horror,” Hochman wrote in a statement.

Lancaster, Calif., is about 70 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.