Bowling Green (Morgantown) Kentucky Woman Kathy Coy, Who Cut Out A Baby From Jamie Sice's Womb And Killing, Draws Life Imprisonment Without Parole.

Coy gets life without parole
Morgantown woman killed Stice, took unborn baby in ‘true display of evil’
By DEBORAH HIGHLAND

A Morgantown woman who admitted killing a pregnant woman and taking her unborn son from her womb was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Kathy Coy, 34, pleaded guilty Feb. 17 in Warren Circuit Court to kidnapping and murdering 21-year-old Jamie Stice, cutting Stice’s unborn son from her womb and kidnapping the infant, who she tried to pass off as her own, in April. The baby boy survived and is healthy.

“We often exaggerate and loosely call many things evil in this world when they are simply bad or disagreeable,” Warren Circuit Court Judge John Grise said before handing down Coy’s sentence. “Here, however, I believe is a true display of evil at work. In my 30 years of law, I’ve never seen a crime this horrendous, and to the family, though this sentence will not fully heal all the wounds left by this horrible crime, my hope and prayer for the family and friends of Jamie Stice is that the finality of this legal judgment and the grace of God will restore some peace to your lives.”

Stice’s first cousin, Carolyn Miracle of Munfordville, addressed Coy today during a victim impact statement made during court. Coy, who is severely hearing impaired but reads lips, closed her eyes during much of Miracle’s statement, shutting out the family’s final words to her. Coy also chose not to wear headphones that would have assisted her in hearing what was said in court.

“There is no amount of time that you could give Kathy Coy that would be enough,” Miracle said in her statement. “Nothing can fill the void of Jamie’s presence, nothing.

“But I find comfort in knowing that this court doesn’t have the final say about what will happen to Kathy Coy. There is a higher court that she must answer to as well, a court that will give sufficient punishment for Kathy, a court that we all must stand before someday and judge who has a final say in all our lives, the great court in the sky where God is the judge, and he will give Jamie the justice that she deserves,” Miracle said.

Miracle described her cousin as a young woman who loved life and was looking forward to becoming a new mother. “She was robbed of that,” Miracle said. “She was violated and robbed of her motherhood.”

Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron read a lengthy statement from Jamie’s mother, Jeannie Stice, who was too emotionally overcome to speak on the stand.

“Jamie was everything to me,” Cohron said, reading from Jeannie Stice’s statement. “Jamie and I have been through thick and thin together. It just hurts so bad. ... My world is lost without her in it. ...”

As Cohron read the statement, Coy again either looked away or closed her eyes, then opened them to glare at Kentucky State Police Detective Chad Winn, who was the lead investigator on the case. Coy had asked before the hearing that Winn not be allowed in the courtroom during her sentencing. Winn sat at the prosecutor’s table with Cohron, directly across from Coy.

“One of her requests was that I not be here,” Winn said after the hearing. “She’s evil, just pure evil.”

Just before asking Grise to give Coy a life sentence, Cohron explained that there is truly no justice in a case of this nature.

“Quite simply, this is one of the rare cases that I simply do not believe justice can be done,” Cohron said. “The nature of the offense is something that just is unimaginable. ... This is just, I believe, a mechanism to allow the family maybe to take a breath and move on.”

Immediately after the sentencing, Jeannie Stice said she was “just glad it’s over.”