Applause broke out in a Kentucky courtroom on Friday after a mother received two life sentences for fatally shooting her two sons.
Tiffanie Lucas pleaded guilty to two counts of murder last month. Her sons, 6-year-old Maurice Baker Jr. and 9-year-old Jayden Howard, were found dead from gunshot wounds to the head in their family home in November of 2023.
Bullitt Circuit Court Judge Rodney Burress shared strong remarks before handing down the sentence.
"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."
Several family members addressed the court at the proceeding.
"I want you to suffer just like I'm suffering now," Regina Roland, Jayden's grandmother, 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."
Maurice Baker Sr. said Lucas often refused to let him see his son.
"So many birthdays he missed," Maurice 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."
Bobbie Baker, Maurice Jr.'s aunt, said she will "never forgive" Lucas for her actions, adding that if Lucas ever becomes eligible for parole, she will attend the parole hearing.
"B----, I'll be there every parole hearing. Do you hear me? I'll be there at every parole hearing," Baker said.
Lucas will be eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 20 years.
Lucas entered her guilty plea last month with no promise of a lesser sentence. Her attorney, Richard Lawniczak, asked the judge to sentence her to 35 years in prison. Lawniczak claimed Lucas was experiencing delusions and a psychotic break at the time of the killings, which was a side effect of an opioid addiction withdrawal. He showed a video from a neighbor's doorbell camera in court. In the footage, Lucas appeared to ask the neighbor for help.
"I need to have good people around me. I need family. I need help," Lucas reportedly said in the video.
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