A Bowling Green man will begin serving a five-year prison sentence this month in an abuse case involving the death of a toddler.

Robert Roger Dishman, 40, was sentenced Monday in Warren Circuit Court on two counts of second-degree criminal abuse. 

Dishman entered an Alford plea to the charges, avoiding a trial that could have resulted in a second-degree manslaughter conviction.

A defendant entering an Alford plea denies wrongdoing, but acknowledges enough evidence exists for a jury to return a guilty verdict on the counts in question.

Warren Circuit Judge Steve Wilson ordered Dishman to return to court Aug. 24 where he will begin serving his sentence, according to court records.

Dishman was accused in connection with the Aug. 24, 2012, death of Adrian Louis Maldonado, 18 months, who was found unresponsive in a Pack ‘n Play crib at Dishman’s Bowling Green residence.

Adrian’s mother, 30-year-old Tiffany Sampson of Greenbrier, Tenn., brought the child to Dishman’s residence that day, leaving Adrian with Dishman for about an hour while she went grocery shopping.

According to statements from prior court hearings, Sampson returned and ate dinner with Dishman before they checked on Adrian and found him unresponsive.

The pair placed gates over the crib and secured them with bungee cords, according to authorities.

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 were noted in the report.

Sampson pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree criminal abuse and faces a possible five-year prison term.

Her attorney, Matt Baker of Bowling Green, argued that she should be placed on probation. Sampson will return to court Aug. 24 to learn whether she is imprisoned or probated.

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