KELLY COCHRAN

A former Caspian woman found guilty in the 2014 murder of Christopher Regan has been denied a chance to appeal her conviction in the Michigan Supreme Court.

The state’s highest court Tuesday turned away Kelly Cochran’s application to challenge the Michigan Court of Appeals’ earlier decision to uphold her February 2017 conviction in Iron County Trial Court for the death of Regan, with whom she claimed she was having an affair.

The supreme court stated in an order it was not persuaded Cochran’s request should be reviewed.

Kelly Cochran admitted to investigators in April 2016 she lured the 53-year-old Regan to her Caspian home Oct. 14, 2014, so her then-husband, Jason Cochran, could fatally shoot him with a rifle.

Investigators believe she became upset with Regan when she realized he was not interested in a long-term relationship.

Iron County Prosecutor Melissa Powell also claimed during trial the Cochrans had a pact requiring them to kill anyone with whom they had affairs.

After killing Regan, the Cochrans dismembered his body with a saw in their basement and discarded the remains off Pentoga Trail in Crystal Falls Township, according to Kelly Cochran’s April 2016 statement to police.

She also was found guilty of conspiracy to mutilate a dead body, concealing the death of an individual, larceny in a building and lying to a peace officer.

According to the Court of Appeals judgment, Cochran argued the trial court admitted evidence in error, such as statements Cochran made in interviews she and her husband were serial killers with a “trophy bag” of mementos from prior murders.

The decision stated while no evidence of the trophy bag’s existence had ever been found, Cochran’s claims were admissible because “no party was attempting to seriously assert that the acts encompassed by defendant’s statements had actually occurred.”

The statements were in direct opposition with Cochran’s trial testimony that her husband acted alone in killing Regan at their Caspian home and she only assisted in hiding the body out of fear for her own life.

Cochran also argued the court erred by allowing evidence she made weapons from her eyeglasses while jailed after her arrest. Cochran testified the weapons were made to hurt herself, though she reportedly had told then-Iron River Police Chief Laura Frizzo she considered stabbing a female correction officer.

Powell offered the weapons not as evidence of Cochran’s violent nature but to show her “consciousness of guilt,” the appeals court decision stated, adding “the probative value of the evidence was not outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice.”

Cochran will continue to serve a life sentence with the Michigan Department of Corrections.

She also in April 2018 pleaded guilty to killing Jason Cochran on Feb. 20, 2016, in Hobart, Ind., by giving him an overdose of heroin and then covering his face when he began to vomit, according to Indiana court documents.

She was sentenced in May 2018 to 65 years in prison for her husband’s death.

Brian Christensen can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 229, or bchristensen@ironmountaindailynews.com.