Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr. and Natalie Brothwell forced their younger sons to view their siblings’ bodies and confined them without food.
November 19, 2025 – LANCASTER, CA – A Lancaster father and mother of four have been convicted of 
murdering their teenage son and daughter and abusing their two younger boys in 2020.
“This was a monstrous act of cruelty that shattered an entire family,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said. “Two innocent children were brutally murdered, and their young brothers were left to live through unimaginable horror. 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.”
A jury found Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr. (39) and Natalie Sumiko Brothwell (48) guilty of two felony counts of first-degree murder with special circumstance that each defendant was convicted of more than one murder in the same case and two felony counts of child abuse under circumstances or conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death in case MA080335.
During the trial, prosecutors proved that on Nov. 29, 2020, the defendants fatally stabbed and decapitated their 13-year-old daughter, Maliaka T., and 12-year-old son, Maurice T., inside the family’s Lancaster home. They then forced their two younger sons, ages 8 and 9, to view their siblings’ bodies and remain confined in their bedrooms without food for several days.
Taylor and Brothwell face a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole plus a consecutive sentence of six years and four months in state prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2026, in Department A18 of the Antelope Valley Courthouse.
District Attorney Hochman stated: “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.”
Source: Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
