Two California parents were sentenced to life in prison this week for a crime so disturbing it shocked even veteran investigators.
Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 39, and Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 49, were sentenced Monday to six years plus two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. The couple was convicted in November of first-degree murder for killing their two oldest children in 2020.
Prosecutors said the parents murdered 12-year-old Maurice and 13-year-old Maliaka, then chopped off their heads. What made the case even more horrifying was what happened next. The couple forced their two younger sons, ages 8 and 9, to look at the decapitated bodies of their brother and sister.
According to prosecutors, the boys were then locked in their rooms for days without food. The jury found both parents guilty of child abuse for putting the surviving children through what authorities described as extreme cruelty.
The jury also found true a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office confirmed. A judge later issued a 10-year protective order for the surviving children, CBS News reported.
During sentencing, Judge Lisa M. Strassner made it clear she was not moved by the parents’ claims. Brothwell told the court she did not kill her children and said she tried to save them. The judge rejected that argument, saying she saw no sign of “genuine remorse” and noted there was “silence where accountability should be,” according to NBC Los Angeles.
The bodies of the two children were not discovered right away. Authorities said they were found only after Los Angeles Fire Department crews responded to the home to investigate a reported gas leak.
In court, the children’s maternal grandmother placed the blame squarely on Taylor. She said he had “ruined so many lives,” NBC reported. She also described Brothwell as “innocent,” according to the same report.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman previously described the killings as beyond horrifying.
“This was a monstrous act of cruelty that shattered an entire family,” Hochman said after the conviction. “Two innocent children were brutally murdered, and their young brothers were left to live through unimaginable horror.”
A motion for a new trial was denied earlier. The judge said the verdict was “fully supported by the evidence,” NBC reported.
