In a harrowing case that has shocked California, a couple has been found guilty of the brutal murder and decapitation of their two eldest children. The parents, who also subjected their two younger children to the horror of witnessing their siblings’ bodies, subsequently confined them in their rooms without food for several days.

On Tuesday, a jury in Los Angeles County convicted 39-year-old Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr. and 48-year-old Natalie Sumiko Brothwell on two counts each of first-degree murder with special circumstances. The victims were their 12-year-old son, Maurice Taylor Jr., and 13-year-old daughter, Maliaka Taylor.

In addition to the murder charges, the couple faced convictions for two counts of felony child abuse in conditions that could inflict significant bodily harm or result in death, according to officials.

“This crime represented a heinous betrayal of parental responsibility, devastating an entire family,” said Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman in a statement. “The violent deaths of these innocent children and the trauma inflicted on their younger siblings are beyond comprehension. The jury’s decision ensures justice for the victims and underscores a crucial message: such malevolent acts will be met with full accountability.”

As previously reported by Law&Crime, prosecutors revealed that on November 29, 2020, Taylor gruesomely stabbed and decapitated his two eldest children in separate rooms within their home. Investigators stated that he left the bodies in the house for five days, repeatedly forcing his younger sons, aged 8 and 9, to view the mutilated remains of their siblings.

The two surviving children were then locked in their rooms where they were kept without food for several days.

Taylor had been working as a personal trainer, with several of his clients taking his classes over Zoom, The Los Angeles Times reported. Those clients became worried about a possible gas leak in the home when he did not contact them regarding a scheduled training session. The clients requested a welfare check.

Police who responded to the home came across a grisly scene.

After finding the children’s bodies, which were described as having “lacerations and stab wounds,” police placed Taylor under arrest. They had to forcibly remove him from the home by strapping him to a stretcher.

Brothwell was in the house when police arrived, but she wasn’t arrested until nearly a year after the kids’ bodies were discovered.

“This prosecution would not have been possible but for the tremendous efforts of Deputy District Attorneys Alexander Lara and Kirsten Brown of the Sex Crimes Division, who along with investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Lancaster Station, pieced this gruesome case together and presented it compellingly to the jury,” Hochman said.

The defendants are scheduled to return to court for their sentencing hearings on Jan. 13. Both face a maximum possible sentence of life without parole in a state correctional facility.