A California mother and father were convicted on Tuesday of stabbing and decapitating their 13-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son, then forcing their two younger children to look at the bodies, authorities said.
Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 48, and Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 39, were found guilty of murdering their 13-year-old daughter, Maliaka, and 12-year-old son, Maurice, inside the family’s Lancaster home on Nov. 29, 2020, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.
“This was a monstrous act of cruelty that shattered an entire family,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said in a news release on Tuesday. “Two innocent children were brutally murdered, and their young brothers were left to live through unimaginable horror.”
Firefighters discovered the bodies five days later while responding to a possible gas leak, FOX11 Los Angeles reported. Brothwell, Taylor, and the couple’s other two sons, then aged 8 and 9, were also inside the home.
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Prosecutors said that after Brothwell and Taylor committed the murders, they forced the younger boys to view their siblings’ decapitated bodies and then confined them to their bedrooms without food for days.
Prosecutors have not shared an update on the status of the two surviving siblings.
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Brothwell and Taylor were each convicted of two felony counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances and two felony counts of child abuse.
The two are facing life in prison without the possibility of parole, along with a consecutive sentence of six years and four months. They are scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 13.
“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,” Hochman said.
