Mother accused of killing her sons pleads “insanity”

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – A mother accused of killing her two sons in Shepherdsville is citing insanity as a defense in her case.

Tiffanie Lucas was arrested in November 2023 when police found her sons, 6-year-old Maurice Baker Jr. and 9-year-old Jayden Howard, shot to death in their Brentwood Drive home.

Lucas's attorney filed a motion in her case informing the court that he will argue that Lucas was insane at the time of the murders. Her competency to stand trial is not being questioned.

She has pleaded not guilty in the past. Her trial date is set for December 17.

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According to court records, Lucas has been charged with drug offenses before, with the most recent incident occurring in 2018.

Neighbors told WHAS11 News at the time of the murders that they saw the boys playing in the front yard the day before they were killed.

Lucas later told police that someone had given her a gun, which she left in the bedroom, suggesting the shooting may have been an accident. She said no one else was in the house.

Bullitt County Sheriff's Detective Richard Beahl testified that Lucas told police she was “in such a bad situation” and she would “never do something like that unless someone manipulated her” and that what happened was “an accident.”

Michelle Rice, Maurice Baker Jr.'s stepmother, and Bobbie Baker, his aunt, took issue with the idea that Lucas was out of control.

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“How can you accidentally shoot a child twice, and then his brother? How do you do that? This isn't an accident,” Bobbie said.

Lucas' defense asked the detective if the sheriff's office had attempted to detect drugs in her system; Beahl responded “no.” Later, the defense requested that police evidence be preserved and reviewed, and that request was granted.

“We don't accept that,” Rice said. “It's not mental illness, she knew what she was doing.”