The third and final defendant charged in connection with the death of a Bowling Green woman who was found severely malnourished pleaded guilty on Tuesday.

Tiffany McCoy, 39, pleaded guilty in Warren Circuit Court to a count of first-degree wanton endangerment.

The charge stemmed from allegations that arose after police discovered the body of Jazzmyne Rose Fikes, 44, on May 14, 2023, in the home on Gary Avenue where she resided with McCoy and two men, Alexander and Lonnie Leonard.

According to court records, Fikes suffered from multiple sclerosis and was bedridden.

When the Bowling Green Police Department was called to the home, Fikes was unresponsive and in a state of cardiac arrest.

According to prior court testimony, Fikes weighed just 52 pounds and was found with an exposed spine and bedsore on her back with maggots in them and wearing an adult diaper that had not been changed.

When officials attempted to move Fikes’ body, they found it was stuck to the mattress, and authorities found a cigarette butt stuck to her back alongside multiple bedsores.

An autopsy determined sepsis to be the most likely cause of death, according to prior testimony from BGPD Detective Justin Cossel.

McCoy was charged originally with first-degree manslaughter and knowingly abusing/neglecting an adult.

McCoy, represented by attorney Renae Tuck of the Department of Public Advocacy, reached a plea agreement in which she admitted guilt to a less serious charge of first-degree wanton endangerment.

“She participated in acts that put the victim at risk of serious physical injury or death,” Tuck said in court to explain what made McCoy guilty of the wanton endangerment charge.

Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Kori Beck Bumgarner said in court Tuesday that further investigation of the matter, involving interviews with McCoy, enabled a clearer picture to develop of McCoy’s involvement.

“She was incarcerated on some of the days leading up to the victim’s death,” Bumgarner said in court. “She had contributed to the situation, but the first-degree manslaughter charge was no longer appropriate.”

McCoy also pleaded guilty to an unrelated count of first-degree promoting contraband, stemming from an allegation that she brought a small amount of methamphetamine into Warren County Regional Jail.

The plea agreement enabled McCoy to be placed on probation for five years, and she was sentenced to that term on Tuesday.

McCoy faces a seven-year prison term if she violates the terms of her probation, which also call for her to participate in a community re-entry program in Louisiana, where she now lives.

The BGPD investigation into Fikes’ death determined that Lonnie Leonard has been listed in paperwork as a paid caregiver for her, but that he split his earnings with his brother, Lonnie Leonard, who had been in a dating relationship with Fikes.

Cossel testified that police learned that Fikes had last been seen by a doctor nearly two years before she died.

The two brothers pleaded guilty last year to charges of second-degree manslaughter and exploitation of an adult, and each received 20-year prison sentences.