A Morgantown woman accused of cutting a baby boy from his mother’s womb and murdering the young Bowling Green woman sat Tuesday afternoon in a courtroom packed with the victim’s friends and relatives.

Kathy Coy, 33, is charged with kidnapping a minor and murder in the death of Jamie Stice, 21, who was found Thursday with her throat cut and her wrists bound and slit in a wooded area off U.S. 68-Ky. 80, according to Kentucky State Police Detective Chad Winn’s court testimony during a preliminary hearing. Stice had been disemboweled.

— Click here for photos of Coy’s court appearance.

“Your honor, the defense objects to the proceeding at this time, at this hearing,” said Jim Gibson, Coy’s court-appointed attorney. “It is our concern that there are significant mental health issues associated with Ms. Coy.”

Gibson said he questioned Coy’s competency and her ability to assist in her own defense.

Warren District Court Judge Sam Potter proceeded with the hearing and found that there was enough probable cause to send the case against Coy to a grand jury.

Coy is a twice divorced mother of two teenagers.

Woman reportedly asks children to help commit crime

Coy told detectives that she had suffered a miscarriage a few months ago but withheld that information from her family while pretending to still be pregnant, Winn said.

In recent weeks, Coy disclosed the miscarriage to her daughter and asked for the 13-year-old girl’s help in kidnapping a baby, Winn said in court. Coy also asked her 14-year-old son if he would help her commit a murder. Both children refused.

Ultimately, Coy stands accused of using a stun gun on Stice, driving her to a wooded area where she used a drywall knife to carve Stice’s baby boy from the mother-to-be, removing Stice’s ovaries, most of her uterus and the placenta.

Coy met Stice on the social networking website Facebook a few weeks ago. Stice’s mother, Jeannie Stice, said last week that Coy struck up a conversation with Jamie Stice, telling her that she was also pregnant, a relative of one of Stice’s friends and employed by an organization that could help Stice obtain assistance with baby clothes and money. Jeannie Stice believes that Coy had planned all along to take the baby, she said last week.

Police say Coy took baby to a friend’s house

On April 13, Coy showed up at a friend’s Butler County home announcing she had just given birth.

Coy, who is deaf but reads lips, sat in court and at times cried. At other times she appeared emotionless as she watched Winn detail the police account of the series of events.

Winn testified that Coy wasn’t wearing any pants when she arrived in Shelly Lindsey’s driveway April 13. She was sitting on the placenta and other female organs inside her car while holding the baby in her arms, Winn said.

Coy was honking the horn. Lindsey came out and called for an ambulance when Coy said she had just given birth. Coy got out of the car with the baby boy in her arms and his mother’s reproductive organs still attached, Winn said.

Coy asked her friend to snap a picture of the baby and send it to her “husband” Shannon Coy, who was working out of town. He received the text message with the picture, Winn said.

Thurman Coy of Roundhill told the Daily News on Monday that Kathy Coy is no longer married to his son, Shannon Coy.

Butler County Emergency Medical Service personnel arrived at Lindsey’s home and took Coy and the newborn to The Medical Center at Bowling Green, where Coy was examined by Dr. Sara Mangold. Medical personnel were suspicious and notified the Bowling Green Police Department, which in turn called Kentucky State Police, Winn said.

Mangold told detectives that Coy could not have given birth to the baby she brought in with her. The doctor also told detectives that it was unlikely that a woman would survive having her organs cut from her body in that manner, Winn said.

Coy told KSP detectives that she was the baby’s mother. Then she changed her story and told detectives that she bought the baby from someone named “Ashley.” While detectives were talking with Coy, other KSP detectives traveled to Coy’s home in Morgantown and Lindsey’s home to look for the mother of the infant. Police also secured the car that Coy said she had given birth in.

Coy is friends with two pregnant women

Coy was taken to KSP Post 3 on Nashville Road for questioning. During questioning, Coy agreed to take detectives to a location in the Plano community where she said she bought the infant from “Ashley.” While she was with investigators in Plano, other detectives were busy scouring her Facebook page, looking through her friend list. Police found among Coy’s friends two pregnant women who had passed the 30-week mark in their pregnancies. Police checked the welfare of the first woman, who was alive and well. The second woman was Jamie Stice, Winn said.

When police arrived at Stice’s home, which she shares with her mother, Jeannie Stice told police that she hadn’t seen her daughter for hours but told police that Jamie had gone with Coy on April 13 to get some baby clothes.

After learning this information, detectives questioned Coy about Jamie Stice while in Plano. Detectives drove Coy back to Post 3. He said Coy eventually admitted there was no other person named “Ashley,” but she also told detectives that Ashley killed Stice. Coy said that she was Ashley and that detectives would never find the body. Winn placed Coy under arrest.

Coy eventually agreed to take detectives to Stice’s body, where the young woman was found face down in a remote wooded area.

Coy could face the death penalty. Her case will be presented to a grand jury within 60 days, Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron said.

Stice’s baby, Isaiah Allen Stice Reynolds, is listed in good condition at The Medical Center.

Jeannie Stice and the baby’s father, James Reynolds, declined to comment after the hearing.