LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Family members gave emotional testimony Friday morning ahead of sentencing for the Bullitt County mom charged with killing her two sons in 2023.
Last month, Tiffanie Lucas pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in the deaths of 6-year-old Maurice and 9-year-old Jayden. She did not take a plea deal, meaning the judge would ultimately decide her sentence.
After hearing closing arguments from attorneys and victim impact statements from the young boys’ family members, Judge Rodney Burress sentenced Lucas to life in prison on both counts.
“I will never forgive you,” Bobbie Baker, the children’s aunt said during victim impact statements. “I will be there at every parole hearing.”
Jayden’s grandmother, Regina Roland, said Lucas could have given the boys to the family.
Lucas was arrested on Nov. 8, 2023 after police responded to a shooting at a home in the 200 block of Bentwood Drive.
Officers found her collapsed in a neighbor’s yard and the two boys were found with gunshot wounds in a bedroom.
Police bodycam video showed Lucas crying face down in the driveway after the fatal shooting. While the officer keeps asking Lucas questions, she doesn't reply.
Later, when brought into the sheriff's office for questioning, more body-worn camera video shows Lucas saying she shot herself in the ear, however, officers couldn't find the wound.
During closing arguments, Lucas' defense, Richard Lawniczak, insisted she suffered from a "psychotic disorder," causing an outburst of laughter and protest from the murdered boys' family in the courtroom, which Judge Rodney Burress quickly reigned in.
"No one could've imagined Tiffanie could have hurt those children," Lawniczak said after the room calmed down.
The defense also played video taken the day before the fatal shooting.
In the first clip, recorded from a doorbell camera on the morning of Nov. 7, 2023, Lucas tells a neighbor she needs them in an apparent mental health episode, the defense insisted. A clip from that afternoon shows Lucas and her two boys entering a Waffle House.
According to police, Lucas initially told police someone had given her a firearm, which she left in the bedroom, indicating the shooting may have been an accident. However, she said no one else had been inside the home.
Lucas’s murder trial was expected to begin in December.