Natalie Cochran found guilty of first degree murder for her husband’s death in 2019
By Autumn Shelton, RealWV
BECKLEY, W.Va. – Natalie P. Cochran, formerly of Daniels, has been found guilty of murder in the first degree for the 2019 death of her husband, Michael Cochran.
On Wednesday, after less than two hours of deliberation, the jury handed down their verdict in the Raleigh County Courtroom of Judge H.L. Kirkpatrick.
According to Judge Kirkpatrick, the case will now enter the mercy phase, which means a hearing will be held to determine if Cochran will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years in prison.
West Virginia Code §61-2-2 states that the penalty for first degree murder is life in prison.
For two weeks, members of the jury heard testimony from various witnesses and experts regarding the circumstances surrounding the death of 38-year-old Michael Cochran on Feb. 11, 2019.
On that day, Michael Cochran was admitted to a local hospital with a blood glucose level of 21 after he had collapsed in the couple’s home and spent hours unresponsive on the couch. He passed away days later in hospice care.
During the trial, the state argued that Natalie Cochran had injected Michael with insulin with pre-meditated murderous intent in order to prevent him from alerting authorities to a Ponzi scheme surrounding two businesses that Natalie owned – Technology Management Solutions and Tactical Solutions Group.
Natalie Cochran had been a pharmacist in Raleigh County and had access to a friend’s insulin, according to testimony. She was sentenced in March 2021 to 135 months in federal prison on counts of wire fraud and money laundering for the multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme. The Cochran’s had been married for 19 years.
Defense attorneys for Natalie Cochran argued that although she had been involved in the Ponzi scheme, the state was unable to prove her guilt for the murder of her husband “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“The experts that the state brought testified to, what they themselves admitted, a definite maybe . . . maybe it was the insulin shot and maybe not,” Defense Attorney Matthew Victor said in his closing argument on Jan. 28. “It was impossible to determine what killed him, medically.”
Experts had testified during the trial that by the time they received Michael’s body, which had been exhumed from a Raleigh County cemetery in September 2019 following an investigation by members of the West Virginia State Police, the cause of death could not be determined. One forensic pathologist, however, noted that Michael likely died from insulin due to his hypoglycemic state.
Ultimately, after listening to testimony, the jury sided with the prosecution, and found that Natalie Cochran was responsible for the pre-meditated murder of her husband. She did not take the witness stand in her own defense.
A mercy hearing for Natalie Cochran is scheduled to take place on Thursday.
