A Lancaster couple who stabbed and beheaded their son and daughter and then displayed the remains to their two surviving children were found guilty of murder in an Antelope Valley courthouse Wednesday.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury found personal trainer Maurice Jewel Taylor, 39, and Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 48, guilty of two felony counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances and two felony counts of child abuse.
When sentenced on January 13, the couple faced life in prison without the possibility of parole, with consecutive terms of six years and four months.
“This was a horrific act of cruelty that devastated an entire family,” Los Angeles County police said. Atty. Nathan J. Hochman said in a statement. “Two innocent children were brutally murdered and their younger brother suffered unimaginable horror.”
Calls to the defendants’ attorneys were not immediately returned.
The crime occurred on November 29, 2020, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Court documents show Taylor and Broswell stabbed and beheaded their 13-year-old daughter, Maliaka, and 12-year-old son, Maurice, at their Lancaster home in Century Circle.
According to prosecutors, Taylor and Broswell then forced their two remaining sons, who were 8 and 9 at the time, to view the bodies, then confined them to a bedroom and denied them food.
Taylor’s clients, who have been training with him via Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic, contacted authorities concerned about a possible gas leak after Taylor missed workout sessions and didn’t respond to them.
“I know they didn’t go out of town. They didn’t have money to travel,” One customer told The Times 2020.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s homicide detectives discovered the decapitated children in separate bedrooms on Friday after investigating the scene.
Taylor was arrested on December 4, 2020, and charged four days later. At the time, Broswell was viewed only as a person of interest.
She was arrested and charged in September 2021 at her home in Arizona.
“The jury’s verdict provides justice for these victims and sends a powerful message: Those who commit such evil acts will be held fully accountable,” Hochman said.
The district attorney’s office declined to provide an update on the status of the surviving siblings.
Times staff writers Richard Winton and Matt Hamilton contributed to this report.
