{"id":161221,"date":"2026-02-03T02:13:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T02:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/161221\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T02:13:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T02:13:06","slug":"l-a-couple-who-decapitated-two-of-their-kids-are-sentenced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/161221\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. couple who decapitated two of their kids are sentenced"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>An L.A. County couple decapitated their two eldest children in what prosecutors called a \u201cmonstrous\u201d act of violence that left their community stunned. On Monday, the pair were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n<p>Lancaster residents Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 39, and his wife, Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 49, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/lacounty.gov\/2025\/11\/18\/jury-convicts-lancaster-mother-and-father-of-murdering-their-two-children-and-abusing-two-others\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">were found guilty<\/a> of two felony counts of first-degree murder in November.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor and Brothwell were each sentenced to six years in prison plus two consecutive terms of life without parole, according to Venusse D. Dunn, a spokesperson for the district attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>The couple\u2019s two surviving children were placed under a 10-year protective order by the court.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor was a personal trainer in Santa Monica, and his <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2020-12-04\/two-dead-in-lancaster\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">clients described him as \u201cmellow\u201d<\/a> and \u201creliable\u201d shortly after his arrest in December 2020.<\/p>\n<p>When he didn\u2019t dial in to Zoom meetings with his clients, they became concerned and called authorities. <\/p>\n<p>Deputies arrived and found the children\u2019s bodies in separate bedrooms in the home, Lt. Brandon Dean said. The two children were identified by sheriff\u2019s officials as a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl.<\/p>\n<p>At trial, a jury found the parents guilty of stabbing and decapitating the children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey then forced their two younger sons, ages 8 and 9, to view their siblings\u2019 bodies and remain confined in their bedrooms without food for several days,\u201d the district attorney\u2019s office said. <\/p>\n<p>The crime <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2020-12-09\/lancaster-father-charged-decapitations-son-daughter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">shocked the community in Lancaster<\/a> and those who knew the family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was a monstrous act of cruelty that shattered an entire family,\u201d Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said. \u201cTwo innocent children were brutally murdered, and their young brothers were left to live through unimaginable horror.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An L.A. County couple decapitated their two eldest children in what prosecutors called a \u201cmonstrous\u201d act of violence&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1871,2789,7,9,8,8533,179,7359,78275,78277,1637,11053,346,8948,2901,78276,64548,36465],"class_list":["post-161221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-act","tag-body","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-client","tag-community","tag-district-attorney","tag-eld-child","tag-l-a-pair","tag-life","tag-november","tag-office","tag-parole","tag-prison","tag-separate-bedroom","tag-sibling","tag-taylor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}