Lancaster parents sentenced to life in prison for decapitating their two children

The courtroom fell silent as a judge described the crime as "monstrous," sentencing a Lancaster couple to spend the rest of their lives in prison for killing their two of four children and forcing their surviving sons to witness the aftermath.

Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 39, and Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 49, were sentenced on Monday to consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2020 decapitation murders of their 12-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The judge ordered the sentences to run back to back, citing the extreme cruelty of the killings and the lasting trauma inflicted on the couple’s two younger sons, who prosecutors said were forced to view their siblings’ remains.

“This was a monstrous act of cruelty that shattered an entire family,” said Nathan Hochman, the Los Angeles County district attorney. “Two innocent children were brutally murdered, and their young brothers were left to live through unimaginable horror.”

NO EVIDENCE OF REMORSE

While Brothwell maintained her innocence during the sentencing hearing, the judge said the evidence overwhelmingly supported the jury’s verdict and that there was no evidence of remorse from either parent.

The couple was convicted in November 2025 of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of child abuse under circumstances likely to cause great bodily injury or death.

Prosecutors said the parents killed their children inside their Lancaster home on November 29, 2020, then confined their two younger sons, ages 8 and 9 at the time, forcing them to look at their siblings’ decapitated bodies and leaving them without food for days.

“They then forced their two younger sons to view their siblings’ bodies and remain confined in their bedrooms without food,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement.

DEPUTIES FIND CHILDREN DEAD IN BEDROOMS

Authorities were alerted after Taylor, a personal trainer who had been conducting sessions online during the COVID-19 pandemic, abruptly stopped logging into scheduled Zoom meetings. Concerned clients contacted law enforcement.

When deputies arrived at the home, they found the children’s bodies in separate bedrooms, each bearing what investigators described as sharp-force trauma from a stabbing or slicing instrument.

Taylor was arrested days later. Brothwell was taken into custody nearly a year later in Tucson, Arizona, following the issuance of an arrest warrant.

The court has placed the two surviving children under a 10-year protective order. They are now in the care of others, officials said.

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