An American couple have been sentenced to life in prison without parole for decapitating two of their children. Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr. and Natalie Sumiko Brothwell were sentenced on Monday in Los Angeles for the killings, which were described by prosecutors as “a monstrous act of cruelty”. 

The couple’s 13-year-old daughter, Maliaka T and and 12-year-old son, Maurice T, were fatally stabbed and decapitated in the family home in 2020. The couple then forced their 8 and 9-year-old sons to view their siblings’ bodies and remain confined in their bedrooms without food for several days. Their bodies were discovered after crews from the Los Angeles County Fire Department responded to a gas leak in the area, according to local media reports.

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, after an arrest warrant was issued.

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

The couple were found guilty 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.

LA County DA Nathan J. Hochman said at the time of their conviction: “This was 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. 

“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.”

Witnesses inside the courtroom described how it fell silent as a judge described the crime as “monstrous,” as she sentenced the couple to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

Despite an emotional statement from Brothwell in court in which she maintained her innocence and said she “did not murder my children” and had tried to save them, the judge said she found no evidence of “genuine remorse” from the defendants and that there was instead “silence where accountability should be.”

Ellen, a close family friend, said outside the courthouse: “How do you put into words that two children were beheaded?

“This stays with all of us. This is never going to wash off.”