A mother and father from the High Desert have been found guilty of murdering two of their children and abusing two others.
Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 39, and Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 48, were convicted Tuesday of two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances and two counts of felony child abuse, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman. The special circumstances refer to multiple murders in the same case.
The gruesome event unfolded on Nov. 29, 2020, the DA’s Office says, when Taylor and Brothwell fatally stabbed two of their young children, Maliaka, 13, and Maurice Jr., 12, in their Lancaster home on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. After the murders, the parents forced their two younger children, who were 8 and 9 at the time, to view the bodies and then confined them to a room, starving them for several days.
Authorities respond to a Lancaster home where two people were found fatally stabbed on Dec. 4, 2020. (Don Luis Meza)
The deceased children were found in separate bedrooms days after the murders with what investigators called “some type of sharp trauma” from “either a stabbing or slicing device” after Los Angeles County Fire Department crews were dispatched to the home, located in the 45000 block of Century Circle, for reports of a gas leak after neighbors reported a foul odor.
A nearby resident told KTLA after the discovery that he remembered hearing screams from the Taylor home and noticed the smell, but didn’t do anything about either.
“It’s been going through my head,” the unnamed neighbor said at the time. “Is there something I could have done? Should I maybe have reported it earlier?”
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Taylor Sr. was arrested on Dec. 4, 2020, shortly after Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris told the L.A. Times that Maliaka and Maurice Jr. had been “decapitated” in a “pretty brutal” incident. The former personal trainer was charged with murder and child abuse four days later.
Brothwell, meanwhile, was arrested on Sept. 28, 2021, at her residence in Tucson, Arizona, a day after authorities issued a warrant for her arrest.
Parris, speaking to the Times, surmised that the disturbing turn of events was related to the then-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“The social fabric of the country and the world has been shredded, and we are starting to see the aftermath. What I’m seeing is more and more people feeling desperate, and that can only have one result,” he said at the time.
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Speaking on the conviction in a statement released Tuesday, Hochman did not mince words, calling the case “a monstrous act of cruelty that shattered an entire family.”
“Two innocent children were brutally murdered, and their young brothers were left to live through unimaginable horror,” Hochman stated. “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.”
Taylor and Brothwell face a maximum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole in addition to a consecutive six-year, four-month sentence. Their sentencing date is set for Jan. 16, 2026.
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