BULLITT COUNTY, Ky. (TCN) — A judge sentenced a 33-year-old woman to life in prison for killing her young sons in her what defense attorney argued was a “psychotic episode” from drug withdrawal.
WDRB-TV reports Tiffanie Lucas received the sentence Friday, Nov. 22, about a month after she pleaded guilty to two counts of murder for the deaths of 6-year-old Maurice Baker Jr. and 9-year-old Jayden Howard. Lucas will not be allowed to appeal because she entered the plea.
Bullitt County Commonwealth Attorney Bailey Taylor said following the sentencing announcement, “Tiffanie Lucas not only murdered Jayden and Maurice but she forever scarred the lives of their family and friends — both adults and children.”
On Nov. 8, 2023, Bullitt County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a shooting call on Bentwood Drive and found the two boys critically injured with gunshot wounds. Medics transported them to Norton’s Children Hospital, where they both died from their injuries. Investigators arrested Lucas the same day.
According to WHAS-TV, Lucas attempted to shoot herself in the head, but the gun jammed.
WDRB reports an investigator asked if she “meant to hurt her children,” and Lucas “indicated that it was an accident.”
Lucas reportedly called herself “so stupid” and said she was “in such a bad spot.”
The detective, Richard Beahl, said at the time of Lucas’ arrest that she was convinced she was “being manipulated through Facebook, through the internet or through Wi-Fi — through Facebook and through her Wi-Fi — being manipulated into doing what she did.”
One of her attorneys, Richard Lawniczak, told the judge at her sentencing that Lucas’ “psychotic episode was brought on by opioid withdrawal,” adding, “She abstained from use, and, in trying to get clean, this was the side effect.”
Her other attorney, Jonathon Villavicencio, said, “I understand that this is a hard thing for many people to accept or understand, but no one is more devastated by their deaths than Tiffanie Lucas.”
WAVE-TV reports Maurice Baker Jr.’s father, Maurice Baker Sr., spoke at the sentencing hearing about how he tried to fight for custody, but Lucas ignored him.
Baker Sr. said, “I didn’t just lose Maurice on Nov. 8. I lost my son the day he was born. Ever since he was born, she held my son over my head. I begged her so many times.”
Baker Sr. planned a birthday party for their son, but Lucas “never let him come.”
WHAS reports the boy’s aunt, Bobbie Baker, told Lucas, “I will never forgive you. I will be there at every parole hearing.”
