SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky woman who admitted to fatally shooting her two young sons was sentenced Friday to two consecutive life terms for their murders, which she claimed were influenced by video games, YouTube, and internet manipulation.
Tiffanie Ann Katherine Lucas, 33, pleaded guilty in October to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children, Maurice “Peanut” Baker Jr., 6, and Jayden Howard, 9. Police say the boys were found with gunshot wounds to the head at the family’s home in Shepherdsville, about 20 miles south of Louisville, on Nov. 8, 2023.
Police were called to the scene after Lucas showed up at a neighbor’s home, collapsed in the driveway, and began screaming that her children “were dying.” Body camera footage from the Bullitt County Sheriff’s Office shows officers later interrogating Lucas, who claimed that external forces, including social media and video games, had affected her children’s behavior and influenced her actions.
“I love my children. I love my boys so much,” Lucas said during her police interview. “I wouldn’t have hurt them, but I just felt like […] video games and YouTube […] messes their minds up to where people can manipulate their parents or do whatever they want.” She also alleged that she had been “manipulated through Facebook, through the internet or through Wi-Fi […] into doing what she did.”
Initially mounting an insanity defense, Lucas ultimately admitted in her interrogation to firing four shots in 30 seconds, but claimed the act “was an accident.” Authorities and prosecutors disputed that explanation, pointing to the deliberate nature of the killings and her erratic statements to police, including an insistence that a deputy in the interrogation room stop moving his fingers.
Lucas’ sentencing marks the conclusion of a case that has stunned the Shepherdsville community. Authorities have said there was no evidence to support Lucas’ claims of external manipulation.
A mother’s chilling confession leaves unanswered questions in the deaths of two young boys.