Tiffanie Lucas (left) with Jayden and Maurice (Law&Crime Sidebar photo via Celine Tiffanie Ann/Facebook), (right) in a Bullitt County Detention Center mug shot.
A detective who interviewed a Kentucky woman charged with murdering her two young sons, ages 6 and 9, by shooting the children in the head at their Shepherdsville home said in court Tuesday that the suspect claimed to have fired four shots in 30 seconds by accident.
Tiffanie Ann Katherine Lucas, a 32-year-old from Bullitt County, is accused of murdering Maurice “Peanut” Baker Jr. and Jayden Howard in a bedroom on Nov. 8, last Wednesday. The next day, Lucas was arraigned by video without an attorney present. A judge entered a not guilty plea on Lucas’ behalf and jailed her in the Bullitt County Detention Center on a $2 million bond.
On Tuesday, Lucas appeared to have legal representation for an in-person hearing, where Bullitt County detective Richard Beahl spoke on what the suspect allegedly told him about the shooting.
Beahl revealed that investigators learned four gunshots were fired in 30 seconds and that both victims were shot in the head, according to portions of testimony aired by local CBS affiliate WLKY. Lucas, when questioned, allegedly remarked “I’m in such a bad spot” and claimed the shooting was somehow an accident. Lucas also allegedly said “I’m so stupid” and “I would never do anything like this unless someone manipulated me,” according to local Fox affiliate WDRB’s account of the detective’s testimony.
The suspect “made statements that 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,” the detective reportedly testified.
Last week, Law&Crime reported that the Bullitt County Sheriff’s Office responded after 11 a.m. on Nov. 8 to the Bentwood Drive home, where a reporting witness found the victims in a bedroom shot and “covered in blood.” A complaint also said that “a gun was on the bed.”
After the shooting, a neighboring husband and wife saw Lucas lying down in their driveway and the man called 911 after discovering the shocking scene inside the suspect’s home, Bullitt County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Col. Alex Payne revealed to Law&Crime’s Sidebar podcast. Lucas had allegedly told the neighbors her “kids were dying.”
Hours after first responders swarmed the crime scene, Maurice and Jayden died at Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville.
Col. Payne told Jesse Weber on the Sidebar podcast that the victims “were shot in an area that would not be survivable by anyone.”
“They were alive, to the best of our knowledge, when they were transported by EMS to the hospital and passed away at the hospital,” he said.
The decades-long law enforcement officer said he’s never seen anything like this in Bullitt County before.
“I can tell you now, in my 40-plus years of being in this line of work, there are three things that I’ve seen. And it can be these things individually or can be these things in combination,” Col. Payne said. “You can have an individual who is suffering from some type of mental illness; you can have an individual who has some type of substance abuse problem; or that individual can simply be just that evil. Or it can be a combination of those things. I haven’t seen any other outliers other than those three. And so right now, I guess it’s anybody’s guess as to what which one of those she covers.”
Lucas reportedly once served a month in jail in a drug possession case.
In initial on-camera statements after the shooting, Col. Payne said that Maurice and Jayden had different fathers. It was later reported that Jayden’s father died in 2019.
On Sidebar, the chief deputy said that the “horrific” shooting has left the community and the victims’ family members “in shock.”
“It’s shocking. It’s something that you never want to confront, but unfortunately we have. However, we have a strong community here in Bullitt County, and they’re supporting the loved ones, the family of these young children,” he said.
The community held a vigil over the weekend to mourn Maurice and Jayden.
The community is holding a vigil for Jayden and Maurice. It’s happening at 5pm this Sunday at Little Flock Baptist Church in Shepherdsville.
There will be candles, speeches, and a DJ. People are encouraged to bring posters and signs to honor the boys. @WDRBNews pic.twitter.com/Krf7THYgaJ
— Reyna Katko (@ReynaKatko) November 10, 2023
There, family friend JoDee Estes said “I feel like our system failed them,” WDRB reported.
“There comes a time when you have to listen to when people try to tell the authorities instead of the authorities just putting it away or not wanting to you know, listen to the family members,” Estes reportedly said, adding later: “And the family is going to blame themselves for the rest of their lives for this and they should not have to.”
It appears the friend was referring to reporting about Durrell Howard, the victims’ older brother, telling the media that family members had called Child Protective Services about Lucas in recent years.
“I should have did more,” a heartbroken Durrell Howard reportedly told WLKY. “If it came to me snatching the boys out of the house, I should have and I will hold that on my back for the rest of my life. For both them boys.”
Watch the Law&Crime Sidebar podcast on the Tiffanie Lucas case below:
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