A 33-year-old mother from Kentucky will likely spend the rest of her life in prison after a judge handed down the maximum sentence for the shooting deaths of her two biracial sons in November 2023.
Tiffanie Lucas, who initially claimed she was “manipulated through Facebook” when she shot each of her young children twice in the head before confessing she was solely responsible, was ordered by Bullitt Circuit Court Judge Rodney D. Burress to serve two life sentences.
The tragic shooting claimed the lives of Maurice “Peanut” Baker Jr., 6, and Jayden Howard, 9, who were half-brothers with different fathers.
Despite the double-life sentence, Lucas will be eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 20 years behind bars, according to Kentucky’s sentencing guidelines. However, prosecutors said the likelihood of her release after two decades would be “slim to none,” emphasizing that two young children were shot to death in cold blood in their suburban Louisville home, Fox affiliate WDRB reported.
During the emotional hearing, several family members of the victims took the stand to deliver impact statements, condemning Lucas for her actions and describing her behavior as manipulative and controlling after she used the children as leverage to exert power over the younger boy’s father.
Maurice Baker Sr. recounted how he struggled to maintain a bond with his son because Lucas “held my son over my head,” despite his repeated pleas to be a part of the boy’s life, according to WAVE, the NBC affiliate in Louisville.
“So many birthdays he missed,” Baker Sr. said. “I had a party planned, and she never let him come. I begged her. The last time I texted her I asked her, please can I just talk to my son? She ignored me.”
In another intense moment, as Baker Sr. recounted his struggles to be part of his son’s life, he locked eyes with Lucas and addressed her directly, saying, “You know what you are” — his voice filled with anguish. The courtroom fell silent as Baker chronicled the emotional toll the custody battle had taken on him before his son was taken from him in an unspeakable tragedy just one year ago.
Jayden’s grandmother, Regina Rowan, spoke next, confronting Lucas over her vindictiveness while highlighting the pain she had caused, according to CBS affiliate WLKY.
“My heart is in pieces, and you know that you have always had a place to drop them off. You took him from me. And I hurt every day, every second of the day, I hurt,” Rowan told Lucas. “I want you to suffer just like I’m suffering right now.”
In a bid for leniency, Lucas’ defense attorney reportedly presented footage from a neighbor’s doorbell camera, seeking to emphasize her declining mental state and paint a picture of her behavioral struggles.
“I need to have good people around me. I need family. I need help,” she cries in the footage, which was filmed just one day before she shot her kids point-blank.
Judge Burress also addressed the court before sending Lucas away.
“I cannot imagine the sheer horror these children must have experienced seeing their mother with a gun,” he said in footage provided by WLKY. “The sheer horror that second child had as he heard the discharge of that weapon for the first child. And maybe even both of them seeing their mother pull the trigger, taking their lives.”
Lucas was indicted for shooting both children in a bedroom of their Shepherdsville, Kentucky, home on Nov. 8, 2023.
Police said the evidence showed she fired four shots within 30 seconds. After being taken into custody, she pleaded not guilty, claiming the shooting “was an accident” and that she had been coerced through Facebook and the internet, saying she “would never do anything like this unless someone manipulated me.”
The following year, in September, Lucas’s defense team announced that their trial strategy would be to argue an insanity defense, claiming the defendant snapped at the time of the shootings.
But then, last month, she unexpectedly changed her plea to guilty, confessing to committing the murders in a final act of malice and control, family members said.
On the morning of the killings, neighbors discovered Lucas lying in their driveway, sobbing and screaming that her “kids were dying.”
The man of the house rushed next door, where he found the brothers covered in their own blood, the murder weapon lying next to them. The man hurried back home and called the police.
The victims were later pronounced dead at Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville, and Lucas was subsequently charged with two counts of murder.
During the preliminary hearing, the detective who questioned Lucas at the crime scene testified that Lucas showed no remorse for her dead children while casually complaining that she had put herself “in such a bad spot” and pointing out that she felt “so stupid” because she allowed herself to be manipulated into killing her own children, suggesting someone else was involved.
However, she changed her story in October when she pleaded guilty, at which time she appeared before Burress in an orange jumpsuit and placed the blame solely on herself. After being sworn in, Lucas submitted an “open plea,” indicating that she agreed to confess to two murders without a plea deal or sentencing recommendation from the Bullitt County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office.
Under questioning by Burress, she confirmed the scene of the murders as her home address.
The judge informed Lucas that by pleading guilty, she was waiving her right to a jury trial as well as her right to appeal. She acknowledged her understanding and then admitted that she was pleading guilty to the crime.
Previous reports described Lucas as a single mother raising two boys on her own; Police officials confirmed that one boy’s father was deceased, while the other boy’s father was not present in his life due to ongoing emotional abuse by Lucas.
