The mother of a toddler who died nearly three years ago in Bowling Green will find out later this month whether she will be imprisoned or placed on probation.

Tiffany Sampson, 30, of Greenbrier, Tenn., faces five years in prison on two counts of second-degree criminal abuse, but she appeared in Warren Circuit Court on Friday with her attorney, Matt Baker of Bowling Green, to argue against incarceration.

Sampson had pleaded guilty to the charges, which stemmed from the death of 19-month-old Adrian Louis Maldonado on Aug. 24, 2012, at the Bowling Green home of Robert Dishman.

On Friday, Sampson testified that she cooperated with authorities throughout the investigation. She lost custody of her other three children the day after the investigation began and has not visited them since December of 2013 as she undergoes counseling.

“I’ve never been in trouble a day in my life,” Sampson said. “I’m not 100 percent sure what probation entails, but I’m willing to cooperate 100 percent with anything I’m asked to do.”

Sampson told Warren Circuit Judge Steve Wilson that probation would put her “on the right direction” toward being able to see and interact with her children, who live in Tennessee with their father. 

Through tears, Sampson said it was “rough” to see pictures of her friends’ children going back to school when she does not know what her own children are doing.

In addition to Sampson, Baker called three other witnesses – Sampson’s sister-in-law, a longtime friend and a fellow student at the University of Phoenix’s Nashville campus – to testify about their knowledge of Sampson’s relationships with their own children.

“She is wonderful around children and has more patience than me as a mother,” said Christina Bartlett, who attends the University of Phoenix with Sampson and has allowed Sampson to care for her daughter and son. “I would hate to see her children miss out on their mother.”

Baker submitted 15 letters from some of Sampson’s friends, co-workers, neighbors, supervisors and ex-boyfriends supporting her bid for probation.

“I submit to you that she’s been punished enough,” Baker said. “I truly fail to see the point of putting this person in jail after everything that’s transpired and everything she’s been through.”

Warren County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Kim Geoghegan argued that probation would unduly depreciate the serious nature of the offenses against Sampson.

Geoghegan showed pictures of a Pack and Play Crib that Adrian was placed in by Sampson and Dishman on the occasions when she visited him in Bowling Green.

The pair would cover the top of the crib with gates secured by bungee cords, Geoghegan said, likening it to placing the child in a cage.

This happened on five separate visits to Bowling Green, and additional bungee cords were used after Dishman found Adrian got his head stuck in one of the gates, Geoghegan said.

“There are people who wouldn’t treat animals the way this child was treated,” Geoghegan said.

Adrian’s death was ruled a homicide by the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office, which issued a report detailing multiple blunt force injuries on the child’s head, chest and arms.

Darius Arabadjief, the pathologist who prepared the state medical examiner’s report, said the circumstances of Adrian’s injuries, particularly the bruises on his head, were inconsistent with information provided to authorities by the child’s mother and her boyfriend.

Findings consistent with compressional asphyxia of the neck and/or chest also were noted in the report.

On the night Adrian died, Sampson had brought him to Dishman’s house around 6 p.m., Aug. 24, 2012. Adrian was placed into the crib, with Sampson and Dishman putting the gates on top of it before Sampson went grocery shopping. She returned about an hour later, had dinner with Dishman and the two talked for a while until they found Adrian unresponsive in the crib.

They took the child to a hospital around 8 p.m. that night.

Wilson said he would review the case file and the letters submitted on Sampson’s behalf, and ordered Sampson to return to court Aug. 24 to learn whether she will be placed on probation or imprisoned for five years.

Dishman, 40, of Bowling Green, entered an Alford plea to two counts of second-degree criminal abuse and is scheduled to be sentenced Monday.

— Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter at twitter.com/jstorydailynews or visit bgdailynews.com.