John Jefferson
Left: Tiffanie Lucas, Jayden and Maurice (Celine Tiffanie Ann/Facebook). Tiffanie Lucas (Bullitt County Detention Center).
A 33-year-old woman in Kentucky may spend the rest of her life behind bars for killing her two sons last year, shooting both boys in the head inside of their family home and then claiming she was “manipulated through Facebook” into committing the horrific act.
Bullitt Circuit Court Judge Rodney D. Burress on Friday ordered Tiffanie Lucas to serve two life sentences, one each for the slayings of Maurice “Peanut” Baker Jr., 6, and Jayden Howard, 9.
Prior to Burress handing down the sentence, several family members delivered victim impact statements to the court.
Maurice Baker Sr. told the court that since the day Maurice Jr. was born, Lucas “held my son over my head” no matter how many times he begged to be with the boy, Louisville, Kentucky NBC affiliate WAVE reported.
“So many birthdays he missed,” Baker 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.”
After saying that he’d made multiple attempts to get custody of his son, Baker reportedly looked directly at Lucas, telling her, “You know what you are.”
Regina Rowan, Jayden’s grandmother, also addressed the court. She too used her time on the stand to speak directly to Lucas, per Louisville 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 the convicted murderer. “I want you to suffer just like I’m suffering right now.”
In an attempt to show her deteriorating mental state at the time, Lucas’ defense attorney reportedly played a video from a neighbor’s doorbell camera.
“I need to have good people around me. I need family. I need help,” she reportedly says in the footage filmed just one day before the murders.
Burress also spoke briefly before formally handing down the sentence.
“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 will be eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 20 years, but prosecutors told Louisville Fox affiliate WDRB that the chances of her being released after only two decades are “slim to none.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, Lucas was accused of firing four shots in 30 seconds, claiming the shooting “was an accident,” and stating that she was “manipulated through Facebook, through the internet or through Wi-Fi […] into doing what she did.”
The Bullitt County Sheriff’s Office said that a neighboring husband and wife saw Lucas lying down in their driveway on the morning of the slayings and the man called 911 after discovering the shocking scene inside the suspect’s home. Lucas had allegedly told the neighbors her “kids were dying.”
After Lucas’ arrest, a detective testified that she said “I’m in such a bad spot” when she was questioned about the crimes, said “I’m so stupid,” and claimed she “would never do anything like this unless someone manipulated me.”
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