A Hobart, Indiana woman serving life in prison for her role in the murder of her boyfriend now stands trial in the murder of her husband, the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana reported.
Kelly Marie Cochran, 35, was convicted of the 2014 murder of her boyfriend, “the only good thing” she had in her life, and dismembering his body with her husband before hiding the remains in the woods in northern Michigan, the paper reports, citing court records.
She now faces new murder charges in the death of her husband Jason Cochran. The newspaper described Cochran’s death as a “revenge killing” after Kelly Cochran was allegedly forced into participating in her boyfriend’s killing.
Cochran gave her husband a fatal heroin overdose and covered his neck, nose and mouth with his hands until he was dead in Hobart, Indiana, on Feb. 20, 2106, the Post-Tribune reported.
While on trial in Michigan for, she testified that she and her husband were deeply in love at the beginning of their marriage but it deteriorated into verbal abuse and threats, according to the newspaper.
Cochran said she began using drugs to deal with the tumultuous marriage.
She and her husband moved to Michigan in 2014 where things worsened between the two and Kelly Cochran began having affairs, she reportedly told the courtroom.
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Christopher Regan was one of Cochran’s lovers and the two grew very close, she said.
According to the Post-Tribune, prosecutors argued the Cochrans had a pact formed on their wedding night that if either of them ever cheated on the other, they would kill whoever the extramarital lover was. Kelly Cochran told the court she thought that was only a joke—but according to prosecutors, it wasn’t, the paper reported.
Citing court records, the newspaper reports Cochran enticed Regan with a sexual tryst and invited him to her home in Iron River, Michigan—but Jason Cochran was there as well.
An animated reenactment of the killing was shown at the trial, which showed Kelly Cochran and Regan together before Jason Cochran appeared and shot Regan in the head, the paper reported. Kelly Cochran and Regan then fell down a flight of stairs due to the shooting, according to the Post-Tribune.
Kelly Cochran then got a cord for an electric saw for her husband who cut up Regan’s body, put the pieces in garbage bags and disposed of them in the woods a couple days later, the paper reported, citing court documents.
Two years later, Jason Cochran died in Hobart.
After making a frantic 911 call, responding paramedics said Cochran was disruptive and would not leave the room when they requested her to while they tried to revive Jason Cochran, according to the report.
She was charged with murder in Lake County in 2016 after authorities determined there were inconsistencies in her stories.
Cochran reportedly told investigators she “evened the score” after her husband forced her to take part in the murder of her lover.
Before her trial in Indiana began, Cochran was already serving her life sentence without the possibility of parole at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Michigan.
She plead not guilty Wednesday to her husband's murder.
