SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. (Court TV) — A courtroom erupted into applause after a judge sentenced a Kentucky woman who admitted to murdering her two young sons to two life sentences.
Tiffanie Lucas exits court after her sentencing on Nov. 22, 2024. (Court TV)
Tiffanie Lucas pleaded guilty in October to two counts of murder for killing her sons, 6-year-old Maurice Baker Jr. and 9-year-old Jayden Howard. The boys were shot to death inside the family’s home on Nov. 8, 2023.
Regina Roland, Jayden’s grandmother, was the first family member to address the court at Friday’s sentencing and did not hold back as she demanded justice for the children. “I want you to suffer just like I’m suffering now,” she said. “You have ripped our lives apart. And you know that you could have gave them kids to us and we would have took care of them. But you have been selfish. My heart is in pieces.”
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Lucas had entered her plea of guilty with no promise of a lighter sentence, and on Friday her attorney, Richard Lawniczak, pleaded for the judge to sentence her to 35 years in prison, citing delusions and a psychotic break he said led to the murders. Lawniczak told the judge the delusions were a side effect of Lucas withdrawing from an opioid addiction, and that the psychosis had led her to believe that God was speaking to her and that scripture was written in the bark of a tree.
Tiffanie Lucas sits in court ahead of a hearing on April 15, 2024. (Court TV)
Lawniczak played a series of videos in court, showing Lucas taking the boys to Waffle House the day before the murders and begging neighbors for help immediately after the shootings.
Judge Rodney Burress declined to offer any leniency, sentencing Lucas to life in prison for each murder. “A mother is more than the giving of life,” Burress said. “It is providing food, clothing, shelter, more importantly, love and security. I cannot imagine the sheer horror these children must have experienced seeing their mother with a gun. The sheer horror the second child had as he heard the discharge of that weapon with the first child, and maybe even both of them seeing their mother pull the trigger, taking their life.”
Bobbie Baker, Maurice Jr.’s aunt, pledged to haunt Lucas at any potential parole hearing should she ever become eligible. “I often see these court shows where the defendants are forgiven by the victim’s family. But not today, not by me. I will never forgive you. … B***h, I’ll be there every parole hearing. Do you hear me? I’ll be there at every parole hearing.”
