A Kentucky woman accused of fatally shooting her two young children plans to use an insanity defense at trial, court documents revealed.
Tiffanie Lucas, 32, is accused of shooting her sons Maurice Baker Jr., 6, affectionately known as “Peanut,” and his half-brother Jayden Howard, 9, inside their Shepherdsville home in November 2023.
Police said the mother initially claimed the shooting was an accident and that she was manipulated into doing it.
A motion filed in Bullitt Circuit Court on Sept. 11 obtained by People He said a defense attorney for Lucas plans to “assert a defense of insanity at the time of the alleged crime.”
“(The defense intends) to present at trial expert evidence relating to mental illness, mental defect or other mental condition that bears on the issue of guilt and the issue of punishment,” the filing states.
Tiffanie Lucas (pictured), 32, intends to plead insanity at trial over the November 2023 shooting of her two young sons.
Maurice Baker Jr. (right), 6, affectionately known as ‘Peanut,’ and his half-brother Jayden Howard (left), 9, were killed inside their Shepherdsville home in November 2023.
Lucas is charged with two counts of capital murder and the stepmother of one of the two boys has said the family will not accept anything less than the death penalty.
The double shooting occurred on Nov. 8 and the children’s bodies were discovered when the Bullitt County Sheriff’s Office received reports of gunshot wounds at Lucas’ Shepherdsville home.
As Lucas’ neighbor pulled into his driveway, he saw the 32-year-old man walking down the stairs of his porch before collapsing.
She told him her “children were dying.” When the neighbor entered her home, he discovered the children’s bodies in a bedroom and a gun on the bed.
The neighbor then called 911 and stayed with the children until EMS arrived and rushed them to Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville.
They were taken into surgery but eventually succumbed to their injuries.
Police recovered Ring camera footage from a nearby home on the day of the shooting.
In the video, four gunshots are heard before Lucas can be seen walking outside and yelling for help.
Lucas told detectives he had left the gun in the bedroom and that someone had given it to him. He admitted that no one else had been in the house that day.
Bullitt County Detective Richard Beahl said that when questioned by police, Lucas said, “I’m in a really bad situation” and blamed the shooting on an accident.
Police said the mother initially claimed the shooting was an accident and that she was manipulated into doing it.
The boys’ bodies were discovered when a neighbor entered their home and found them in a bedroom with a gun on the bed.
The stepmother of one of the two boys has said the family will not accept anything less than the death penalty for Lucas.
“I’m very stupid,” she added. “I would never do something like that unless someone manipulated me.”
Beahl testified that Lucas “made statements that she was being manipulated through Facebook, the Internet or Wi-Fi… into doing what she did.”
On Facebook, Lucas, 32, posted heavily edited photos of herself and her two children.
‘I love my babies every day of the year, I will always use any excuse to celebrate them and show them how special they are,’ she wrote on Valentine’s Day 2022.
In another post, she proclaimed: “I love my kings differently and that’s why Jayden and Peanut are different kinds of kids. They are GOD SENT and every mistake I’ve made or any harm I’ve caused, I’m so focused on correcting them and loving them deeper and deeper.”
She continued: ‘I can’t guarantee many things in life BUT I can guarantee the mother I will always be, the love I will always share and the best I can give and do will be PROMISED to you my love, Jayden and Peanut.’
