A Johnson County man has been sentenced to more than 65 years in prison for the February 2025 murders of his mother and aunt.
Luke Anthony Howard, 35, entered guilty pleas in May on two counts of intentional second-degree murder for the killings of Valerie Howard, 63, and Joyce Austin, 71.
Valerie Howard was Luke’s mother, and Austin was his aunt.
On Tuesday, Luke Howard was sentenced to 783 months, or 65 years and 3 months, in the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Court documents say the three lived together and that Austin was in the process of evicting Luke Howard when he killed the women.
Lenexa Police discovered the women dead inside the home they shared with Luke, in the 15400 block of West 90th Street, after responding for a welfare check before 5 a.m. on February 12, 2025.
Court documents say the women were killed on February 11, 2025.
Liberty, Missouri police arrested Luke Howard later that morning at a Walgreens store in that city after he was seen wearing bloody clothes and told employees that he needed to turn himself in.
After being extradited to Johnson County on March 28, 2025, he was charged with two counts of intentional and premeditated first-degree murder.
The Johnson County District Attorney’s Office had informed the court that they were considering pursuing the death penalty in the case.
Luke Howard was represented by lawyers from the Death Penalty Defense Unit of the Kansas State Board of Indigents’ Defense Services, which provides legal representation and resources for low-income individuals facing capital murder charges.
The plea deal removed the possibility of the death penalty.
