Two California parents from hell were sentenced to life behind bars Monday on charges they chopped off the heads of their two elder kids and forced their younger siblings to stare at their lifeless bodies.
A judge threw the book at gruesome couple Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 39, and Natalie Sumiko Brothwell, 49 — dishing out sentences of six years plus two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr. was convicted with his wife of decapitating two of their children and then making their two younger sons view their siblings’ headless bodies.Law&Crime Network
Mugshot of Natalie Sumiko Brothwell.Pima County Sheriff’s Department
The pair was convicted in November of first-degree murder for the grisly 2020 slayings of 12-year-old Maurice and 13-year-old Maliaka. They also found the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders to be true, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
A 10-year protective order for the surviving victims was also issued, CBS News reported.
An undated family photo of the children.KABC
The jury also found the twisted parents guilty of child abuse for forcing their 8 and 9-year-old boys to stare at the dead, decapitated bodies of their brother and sister. The parents imprisoned them in their rooms without food for multiple days, prosecutors alleged.
Brothwell contended in court that she did not murder her children and tried to save them. Judge Lisa M. Strassner rebuked her, saying she found no evidence of “genuine remorse” from the parents and that there was “silence where accountability should be,” according to NBC Los Angeles.
The dead children weren’t found until crews from the Los Angeles Fire Department arrived at the residence to investigate a gas leak, authorities said.
Overhead view of law enforcement and emergency vehicles on the street where the family lived.KABC
The victims’ maternal grandmother pinned the blame on Taylor, remarking in a court that he had “ruined so many lives,” according to NBC. She said Brothwell was “innocent,” the report said.
LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman previously expressed his horror at the brutal filicide.
“This was a monstrous act of cruelty that shattered an entire family,” Hochman said in a statement after their conviction. “Two innocent children were brutally murdered, and their young brothers were left to live through unimaginable horror.”
A motion for a new trial was previously denied by the judge in the parents’ case, who said the verdict was “fully supported by the evidence,” according to NBC.
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