A California father has been charged with murder after his 12 year old son and 13 year old daughter were found dead at the family’s home in Lancaster, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Fire personnel responded to the home around 7:50 a.m. on a Friday after clients of the father, a personal trainer who had been working with them over Zoom, reportedly could not reach him and contacted authorities, according to local reports. Deputies from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Lancaster Station then arrived. A sheriff’s spokesperson said both children had “laceration and stab wounds.”
Maurice, 34, who worked at a physical therapy center in Santa Monica, was arrested that same day on suspicion of murder, The L.A. Times reported. On Tuesday, Dec. 8, prosecutors charged him with two felony counts of murder and two counts of child abuse under circumstances likely to cause great bodily harm or death, according to the district attorney’s office and CBS Los Angeles.
He is being held on $4.2 million bail ahead of an arraignment in Lancaster on Dec. 21. If convicted as charged, he faces up to 57 years and four months to life in state prison. A plea and any response from his attorney had not been reported at the time of publication. A charge is an allegation, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
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