The stepmother to one of two boys who were allegedly killed by their birth mother, says the family will accept nothing less than the death penalty for Tiffanie Ann Lucas.
Lucas, 32, allegedly shot dead both of her two young boys inside their Shepherdsville, Kentucky home last month.
Maurice Baker Jr., 6 – affectionately known as ‘Peanut’ – and his half-brother Jayden Howard, 9, were both killed whilst in a bedroom.
Lucas was charged with two counts of capital murder and is currently being held on a $2 million bond after entering a not guilty plea earlier this week.
Michelle Rice who was a stepmother to Maurice says Lucas should be put to death.
Tiffanie Ann Lucas, 32, has been charged with two counts of capital murder and is currently being held on a $2 million bond after entering a not guilty plea
Michelle Rice who was a stepmother to one of the boys, Maurice, says Lucas should be put to death
Jayden Howard, 9, left, and Maurice Baker Jr., 6 – affectionately known as ‘Peanut’ – were both killed whilst in a bedroom at their Shepherdsville, Kentucky home last month
‘If it goes to trial it’s going to be a long process unless she somehow takes a deal for life in prison, but we want the death penalty. That’s what we want. She deserves to die,’ a tearful Rice told Law & Crime during a lengthy interview.
‘They were sweet little boys and they didn’t deserve it. She deserves the death penalty for this because there’s no reason behind them not being able to be here and celebrate Christmas today with us and to go to school and live their life now.’
Capital punishment is legal in the state of Kentucky, but rarely used.
The double shooting occurred on November 8 with the boy’s bodies discovered when Bullitt County Sheriff’s Office received reports of a gunshot injuries at Lucas’s home in Shepherdsville.
When Lucas’s neighbor pulled into his driveway, he saw the 32-year-old walking down the stairs of his porch before collapsing.
She told him that her ‘kids were dying.’ When the neighbor entered her home, he discovered the boys’ bodies in a bedroom. A gun lay on the bed.
Tiffanie Lucas, 32, was charged with two counts of murder in the shooting death of her two children
A neighbor found the children in a bedroom covered in blood and a gun was on the bed in the Shepherdsville home last month
The boys’ bloodied bodies were discovered by a neighbor in a bedroom along with a gun
The neighbor then called 911 and stayed with the boys until EMS arrived and rushed them to Norton’s Children’s Hospital in Louisville.
They were taken into surgery but ultimately succumbed to their injuries.
Police recovered Ring camera footage from a nearby home on the day of the shooting.
In the video, four shots ring out before Lucas could be seen walking outside and shouting for help.
Lucas told detectives that she left the gun in the bedroom and that someone had given it to her. She admitted that no one else had been to the house that day.
On Facebook, Lucas would often post heavily edited photos of herself and her two boys.
‘I love my babies everyday 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 different and that’s why Jayden & Peanut are different types of children. They are GOD SENT & every wrong I have ever done or any hurt I have ever caused I am so focused on correcting and loving them longer and deeper.’
She continued: ‘I can not guarantee a lot of things in life BUT I can guarantee the mother I will always be, the love I will always share, and the best I can ever give and do will be PROMISED to you my love, Jayden & Peanut!’
Lucas claims she was ‘manipulated’ through the internet or Wi-Fi into committing the murders
On Facebook , Lucas would often post heavily edited photos of herself and her two boys
Stepmom Michelle Rice says Lucas’s smiling pictures were nothing but an act
Lucas reportedly once served a month in jail in a drug possession case
But Rice said that the smiling pictures were nothing more than an act designed to fool others that she was ‘normal’.
‘A lot of people see the social media side of her but it’s not really how she was off camera. In her personal relationships you would see her the crazy side of her,’ Rice explained.
‘She did things because she wanted people to see her as a certain way but that’s not really how she was. That’s just how she wanted to be seen on social media.
‘Nobody knew of her drug issues. She never had a job. She never worked. Things like that. The boys were taken from her previously when they were smaller because of drugs.’
Lucas also once served a month in jail in a drug possession case. Family members claim they reached out to Child Protective Services on several occasions but to no avail.
Rice believes drug abuse played a role in the boy’s deaths and that she is likely fully aware of what she is alleged to have done.
‘Nobody can manipulate you to do such a horrific thing,’ Rice said. ‘She was competent. She was very aware of what she did. She knows what she did.
‘She allegedly said this was an accident and that someone gave her a gun – that she was in a bad spot and that she was manipulated. These are simply excuses and just something to say cuz to me there’s no accident. You can’t accidentally do that to two of your baby boys.
‘She was competent she knew exactly what she did and I believe that’s what she wanted,’ Rice went on.
Rice believes drug abuse played a role in the boy’s deaths and that she is likely fully aware of what she is alleged to have done
Maurice and Jayden were half-brothers. Jayden’s father died in 2019
‘They were the sweetest little boys. They were so polite. They were happy. They both loved playing video games and stuff like that,’ Rice said of the two youngsters
Rice told how things were ‘never normal’ with Lucas and that she would frequently display erratic behavior.
‘It was never normal with Tiffany. Nothing was normal. She kept him [Maurice] from so many of the things we used to try to do for him including birthday parties.
‘Sometimes she just wouldn’t answer the door or say “I’m not allowing him to come out of the house” for whatever reason.
‘I mean there’s no reason. He had a room here. He has family here. He has a father – he has me, he has his little brother here. She didn’t want him to have a relationship with his little brother,’ Rice said.
‘She just she really like tried to take as much away from Maurice as she could. She was very very selfish.’
In one bizarre instance, Rice recalled how Lucas would withhold the children’s Christmas presents until months afterwards.
‘At Christmas she would purposely keep him and he wouldn’t get his present till Valentine’s Day – so when we did get him, we would try to keep him for as long as we could.’
Maurice’s stepmother said she believes drug abuse may have played a role in the murders
On social media Lucas wrote several posts celebrating her sons
In 2022, she wrote: ‘I will always use any excuse to celebrate them and show them how special they are’
Speaking of the boys themselves, Rice said she was struggling to comprehend what had happened just weeks ago.
‘It’s a big change on all of us and so unexpected. I really can’t put into words you know how much it’s affected us.
‘They were the sweetest little boys. They were so polite. They were happy. They both loved playing video games and stuff like that. Little Reese loved playing soccer and loved riding his bike. They were great little boys,’ Rice recalled.
‘I don’t understand how someone could do something like that. It’s so hard for me sometimes to explain or talk about cuz it’s just so not understandable.
‘We talk about it all the time. I don’t think it’ll ever change.’