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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Isabel Keane

LA parents who decapitated two of their children and forced the other kids to see their bodies learn sentence for ‘monstrous crimes’

California parents Natalie Sumiko Brothwell and Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr. were sentenced this week to six years in prison plus two consecutive life sentences without parole after decapitating their two children and making their siblings view their bodies - (Pima County Sheriff's Department/Law & Crime Network)

A California mother and father decapitated two of their children — and then forced their younger siblings to look at their bodies — in what prosecutors have called a “monstrous act of cruelty.”

Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 39, and his wife, Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 49, were found guilty of two felony counts of first-degree murder in November 2025 for the killings of their 12-year-old son, Maurice, and 13-year-old daughter, Maliaka, inside their Lancaster home on November 29, 2020.

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