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Cochran denies aiding murder

Nikki Younk/Daily News Photo Kelly Cochran, right, testifies in her Iron County murder trial as Judge Richard J. Celello, left, looks on. Cochran denied knowing her husband planned to kill Christopher Regan of Iron River on Oct. 14, 2014, and said she delayed telling police her story because she was afraid of her husband.

CRYSTAL FALLS — Murder suspect Kelly Cochran testified Friday she lied when she told an Indiana investigator she had an active role in Christopher Regan’s 2014 death because she felt guilty their affair prompted her husband to fatally shoot Regan.

“If Chris never met me, he’d be here today,” she said on the witness stand at her Iron County trial.

Cochran claimed she also was suicidal and possibly under the influence of drugs April 30, 2016, when she talked to Detective Jeremy Ogden at a Kentucky jail.

In that interview, the 34-year-old Cochran said she knowingly aided her now-deceased husband, Jason Cochran, in killing 53-year-old Regan, an Iron River man with whom she had an affair, on Oct. 14, 2014. The Cochrans reportedly then worked together to cut up the body and hide the remains off of Pentoga Trail.

But Cochran has since reversed course on her story, claiming she didn’t know her husband was present when she invited Regan to her home that day. In addition, Jason Cochran’s abusive ways prevented her from reaching out for help, she testified.

“I had seen what he was capable of, how many times he had a gun to my head,” she said.

When asked by defense attorney Michael Scholke why the jury should believe her now after she’s changed her story several times, she responded, “I’m under oath and I have nothing to hide now.”

The first eight months after the Cochrans’ 2002 marriage were “great,” Cochran testified, but then Jason Cochran became verbally and physically abusive, monitoring her whereabouts and pointing loaded guns at her.

Although she had hoped their move from Indiana to Caspian in January 2014 would be a fresh start, she said nothing changed.

Cochran claimed the two separated in May 2014 but continued to live together. She began dating Regan, her coworker at Oldenburg in Iron River, in June 2014 and another man in September 2014.

Jason Cochran discovered his wife’s affairs by going through her phone, she said.

In September 2014, Jason Cochran’s mental health deteriorated and he began hearing voices telling him to kill his wife and seeing hallucinations, Cochran testified. These incidents prompted Jason Cochran to check into a mental health facility in Rhinelander, Wis. later that month.

When Cochran saw her husband leave for George Young Recreational Complex on Oct. 14, 2014, she invited Regan over for dinner and sex. They began to have sex on the landing between basement stairs and the kitchen when she heard a gunshot and the two fell down the stairs, she testified.

Cochran said she regained consciousness at the bottom of the stairs to see her husband with a .22 rifle standing over her with a “hollow” expression on his face. He then ordered her to make dinner upstairs while he began dismembering Regan’s body in the basement, she said.

She acknowledged she could have snuck out for help at that time but didn’t.

“I didn’t think there was a chance to get help,” she said. “He had threatened me — I expected him to kill me.”

However, Cochran testified she did stand up to Jason Cochran in refusing to carry the bags of Regan’s remains upstairs and into the back of their truck.

“I have no intentions of doing it, he can shoot me dead there,” she said.

Cochran claimed it was her idea to dump the remains off of Pentoga Trail and abandon Regan’s vehicle at the Bates Township park and ride lot because they were heavily traveled areas.

The Cochrans left Caspian for Indiana in March 2015 because Jason Cochran was upset about the police search at their home and she couldn’t find any work locally, she said.

Cochran didn’t immediately go to police after her husband’s Feb. 20, 2016 death in Indiana because she said it took awhile to realize he really was gone.

She testified she never believed the story about her husband wanting a friend to send a letter to police if something were to happen to him. Furthermore, she claimed to never have seen the carvings of “Chris is here” and “Regan” that Ogden, the detective, had put in a tree she visited frequently at an Indiana park.

Cochran said she opened up to police in late March 2016 when she realized she didn’t have to keep Regan’s death a secret any longer. However, she also admitted to taking pills before talking to Ogden and waking up in his vehicle on the way to Iron River, where they searched for Regan’s remains.

When Cochran claimed in police interviews to be a serial killer, she was lying and just wanted to appear to be a “horrible person” or “monster” capable of hurting someone, she testified. The murder pact she mentioned in one interview was something Jason Cochran proposed on their wedding night, but she never took it seriously, she added.

Scholke finished his direct examination of Cochran Friday afternoon, and Iron County Prosecutor Melissa Powell is scheduled to begin cross examination Monday.

After the jury left the courtroom Friday, Powell argued Cochran using her husband’s death to explain why she started talking to police “opens the door” to questions about how Jason Cochran died.

Cochran also faces a murder charge in Indiana’s Lake County for that incident, in which she reportedly admitted to giving Jason Cochran heroin and smothering him when he began to vomit, according to court documents.

Scholke warned many other witnesses will be necessary if Powell is allowed to reveal this information to the jury.

Judge Richard J. Celello said he would consider the issue over the weekend, but he was inclined to deny inclusion of the details of Jason Cochran’s death.

In Iron County, Cochran faces charges of homicide-open murder, a life felony; conspiracy to commit dead bodies-disinterment and mutilation, a 10-year felony; concealing the death of an individual, a five-year felony; accessory after the fact to a felony, a five-year felony; larceny in a building, a four-year felony; and lying to a peace officer-violent crime investigation, a four-year felony.

Nikki Younk can be reached at nyounk@ironmountaindailynews.com or 906-774-2772, ext. 41.

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