A judge sentenced a Kentucky mother who shot her young sons in the head last year to life terms in prison after emotional victim impact statements eviscerated her lawyer’s arguments that a “psychotic disorder” led to the murders.
Tiffanie Lucas initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but changed her plea to guilty last month with no plea deal in place, WDRB reported.
Lucas was arrested on November 8, 2023, after neighbor = found 6-year-old Maurice Baker Jr. and 9-year-old Jayden Howard with gunshots to the head inside their home, as CrimeOnline reported. The boys were rushed to the hospital but died from their wounds.
She initially tried to claim the shooting “was an accident” and that she was “manipulated through Facebook, through the internet or through Wi-Fi … into doing what she did,” Law&Crime reported.
A trial was set to begin next month, but the guilty plea changed that, leaving Judge Rodney Burress to decide the sentence on Friday. Prosecutors argued for the maximum sentence, while the defense argued for a 38 year sentence, saying she was in the midst of an episode caused by opioid withdrawal and “powerful delusions.”
She abstained from use,” said Richard Lawniczak. “And, in trying to get clean, this was the side effect.”
But family members of both boys had pointed things to say.
“I will never forgive you,” Bobbie Baker, Maurice Baker’s aunt, according to WHAS. “I will be there at every parole hearing.”
“My heart is in pieces, and you know that you have always had a place to drop them off,” Jayden’s grandmother, Regina Rowan, said, WLKY reported. “You took (Jayden) from me. And I hurt every day, every second of the day, I hurt. I want you to suffer just like I’m suffering right now.”
Accordng to Court TV, applause rang through the courtroom when the sentence was pronounced.
Lucas will be eligible for parole in 20 years, but Bullitt County Commonwealth’s Attorney Bailey Taylor said that “the chances of her being paroled after 20 years are somewhere between slim and none.”
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[Featured image: Tiffanie Lucas/Bullitt County Detention Center]
