Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., 34, and Horacio Joaquin Taylor, 28, stood emotionless in a Riverside courtroom on November 18, 2025, as the jury delivered the verdict that shook even seasoned prosecutors: guilty on all counts in the December 2020 murders of their own 12-year-old son Maurice Jr. and 13-year-old daughter Malaka. The couple, who claimed to be guided by “QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories,” were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances (multiple victims and murder by torture), plus four counts of felony child abuse against their two surviving children (then ages 7 and 9). Prosecutors called it “the most depraved case in Riverside County history.” The children’s severed heads were found in the parents’ bedroom. Their bodies, stabbed dozens of times, were discovered in separate rooms. The surviving siblings, now 12 and 14, were forced to live in the blood-soaked house for four days before authorities arrived.

The horror began on December 5, 2020, when a welfare check turned into a house of nightmares at the family’s modest home in Lancaster, 70 miles north of Los Angeles. Deputies, responding to a tip from a concerned relative, forced entry and found the two youngest children, a boy and girl, alive but traumatized, covered in blood and surrounded by occult drawings, knives, and a Bible open to passages about child sacrifice. The parents were arrested at a nearby motel after an hours-long standoff, during which Maurice Sr. allegedly told negotiators, “The kids are with God now. We freed them from the serpent seed.”

Prosecutors painted a chilling picture of the months leading up to the killings. Court documents and survivor testimony revealed the Taylors had spiraled into a QAnon-fueled delusion that their children were “possessed by serpent DNA” and needed to be “purified” to save the world. The surviving boy, now testifying via closed-circuit video at age 12, told the jury in a voice barely above a whisper: “Daddy said we were going to heaven. Then he made us watch while he hurt Maurice and Malaka. He said it was God’s work.” The girl, now 14, added: “Mommy told us if we screamed, the demons would win.”

Evidence was overwhelming. Blood-spatter analysis showed the children were killed in their sleep, then decapitated with a machete found wrapped in a blanket bearing the QAnon slogan “Where We Go One We Go All.” The parents’ phones contained hundreds of hours of videos in which they ranted about “adrenochrome harvesting,” “lizard people,” and “saving the children from the cabal.” One clip, played in court, showed Horacio Taylor holding a knife to Maurice Jr.’s throat while saying, “The storm is here.” The surviving children were locked in closets for days at a time, fed only bread and water, and forced to recite QAnon prayers.

Defense attorneys attempted an insanity plea, arguing the couple suffered from “shared psychotic disorder” induced by online radicalization. But the jury rejected it after just four hours of deliberation, finding both parents fully understood the wrongfulness of their actions. “This wasn’t mental illness,” lead prosecutor Lisa DiMaria told reporters outside court. “This was evil wearing a conspiracy costume.”

Sentencing is set for January 17, 2026. Both parents face the death penalty, though California’s first such case since the state reinstated capital punishment in 2023 after Governor Newsom’s moratorium was overturned. The two surviving children, now living with a maternal aunt in Arizona under new identities, submitted victim impact statements read in court by a guardian. The boy wrote: “I still hear the screaming at night. I miss my brother and sister every day. I hope they’re in heaven and not scared anymore.” The girl’s note was shorter: “I hate them. I never want to see them again.”

Outside the courthouse, a crowd of 200 gathered in silence holding candles and photos of Maurice Jr. and Malaka in happier times, their cheer uniforms and Little League jerseys. A makeshift memorial of teddy bears and flowers lined the steps. One sign read simply: “QAnon killed my grandchildren.”

Riverside County DA Mike Hestrin, visibly shaken, called the case “the darkest day of my career.” He vowed to seek the maximum penalty: “There is no rehabilitation for this level of depravity. Only justice.”

As the parents were led away in handcuffs, Maurice Sr. turned to cameras and shouted, “You’ll all see when the storm comes!” Horacio remained silent, staring at the floor.

The surviving children, through their guardian, released a statement: “We just want to be normal kids again. Thank you for remembering Maurice and Malaka.”

In a nation numbed by mass shootings and political violence, the Taylor case stands apart: a crime so intimate, so unthinkable, it forces even the most jaded to confront pure evil wearing the mask of a loving family.

And somewhere in Arizona tonight, two children who survived hell are trying to sleep without nightmares, wondering why the people who were supposed to protect them became the monsters instead.

Justice was served today. But healing? That may never come.