Maurice Taylor and Natalie Brothwell: LA couple pleads not guilty to beheading their 2 kids
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Two California parents have pleaded not guilty to charges in relation to the murder of two of their children. Back in 2020, the decapitated bodies of the two kids were discovered along with their surviving siblings in the house of the two suspects -- Maurice Taylor Sr., 35, and Natalie Brothwell, 45.
Taylor and Brothwell are facing murder charges for the murders of son Maurice Jr., 12, and daughter Maliaka, 13. They are also facing child abuse charges for their surviving two sons. The two kids, aged 8 and 9, were kept locked up in a room with food. The couple pleaded not guilty on Wednesday, February 2.
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How did the children die?
The headless bodies of two children were discovered by Los Angeles County firefighters on November 29, 2020. Taylor was subsequently arrested. According to prosecutors, the two boys were forced to live in view of their siblings' remains for as many as five days. Maurice Taylor Sr, a 34-year-old dad, was arrested on suspicion of the murder of his two teenage children after police responded to his clients' reports about a possible gas leak at the home, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
It was not known when the alleged murders were carried out. Taylor who is a personal trainer had failed to show up for fitness sessions he had been running over Zoom and as a result, one of his clients contacted authorities as far back as Tuesday, December 1. One of them reported a possible gas leak in the house causing the LA fire department to enter the home and find the bodies of Taylor's children in separate bedrooms with lacerations and stab wounds. The bodies of the children were reportedly discovered nearly five days after the slayings.
In December 2020, Taylor had told a court that he wished to represent himself in his trial. A mental competency exam was subsequently ordered by an LA County judge. Taylor claimed that there were religious reasons for wanting to represent himself. “I’ve taken criminal justice classes, and I know my rights,” Taylor said in court. “I’ve been seriously abused in prison. There’s a hit out for me right now that I have proof for. I literally have proof on that, and there’s a lot of foul play going on, and I would prefer to represent myself because I think that that’s the best way to go in this matter.” The criminal proceedings were reinstated later.
Initially, Brothwell was not considered a suspect by authorities. However, she was arrested in September 2021 and slapped with the same charges as Taylor. At the time of her arrest, Brothwell was reportedly living in Arizona. Both Taylor and Brothwell are behind bars at present with bail set at $4.2 million. They are due back in court on February 15.
In a recent incident, eight-week-old Amina-Faye Johnson was found dead by her parents at her Southwark home in South London in 2019. The parents, Naomi Johnson, 23, and Benjamin O'Shea, 26, had called 999 on April 26, 2019, saying that their baby was found unresponsive. Paramedics who arrived at the scene put in their best efforts to save the infant. Amina was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after.
The baby's death had been listed as Sudden Unexplained Death along with Johnson and O'Shea claiming that the infant had died because of manhandling by the paramedics. Post mortem reports, however, revealed a different result. According to the result, Amina had suffered over 60 fractured bones, which included 41 injuries to her ribs and 24 fractures on her limb bones. The infant had even suffered a small brain hemorrhage.
This month, the couple has been found guilty of causing or allowing a child to suffer serious physical harm and of cruelty to a person under the age of 16. The latter conviction is related to a second child. Naomi Johnson has been handed seven years and two months in jail while Benjamin O'Shea was sentenced to eight years and eight months in jail.