Overview
- An L.A. County jury found Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 39, and Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 48, guilty of two counts of first-degree murder with a multiple-murder special circumstance.
- Jurors also convicted both of two counts of child abuse after prosecutors proved they forced their younger sons to view the victims and confined them without food for several days.
- The killings occurred on Nov. 29, 2020, and the victims were identified as Maliaka Taylor, 13, and Maurice Taylor Jr., 12, who were stabbed and decapitated inside the Lancaster home.
- Authorities discovered the bodies days later after a possible gas leak call; firefighters alerted sheriff’s deputies, and Taylor’s remote training clients had raised concerns when he went silent.
- Taylor was arrested Dec. 4, 2020, and Brothwell was arrested in September 2021 in Tucson; proceedings paused at one point over Taylor’s competency and later resumed, with sentencing exposure including life without parole plus six years four months.