A Lancaster mother and father who murdered their two eldest children and abused their two younger children were each sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 39, and Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 49, were sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole, plus an additional six years in state prison, following their November 2025 convictions. The court also placed the couple’s two surviving children under a 10-year protective order.

Prosecutors said the crimes occurred on Nov. 29, 2020, when Taylor and Brothwell fatally stabbed their 13-year-old daughter, Maliaka, and 12-year-old son, Maurice Jr., inside the family’s home in the 45000 block of Century Circle in Lancaster.

After the killings, the parents forced their two younger sons, who were 8 and 9 years old at the time, to view their siblings’ bodies, then confined them to a room without food for several days, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Los Angeles County Fire Department crews were dispatched to the home days later following reports of a gas leak and a foul odor from neighbors. The children were found deceased in separate bedrooms, having suffered what investigators described as sharp-force trauma.

Taylor was arrested on Dec. 4, 2020, and charged days later with murder and child abuse. Brothwell was arrested nearly a year later, on Sept. 28, 2021, at a residence in Tucson, Arizona, following the issuance of an arrest warrant.

At the conclusion of their trial, a jury found both defendants guilty of two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances – including multiple murders – and two counts of felony child abuse likely to cause great bodily injury or death.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman described the case as “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 said in a statement. “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.”

The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorneys Alexander Lara and Kirsten Brown, with assistance from investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Lancaster Station.

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