UPDATED: Natalie Cochran granted continuance in Raleigh County murder trial
BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) — A continuance was granted for a Raleigh County woman who is on trial for the alleged murder of her then husband.
The defense attorneys for Natalie Cochran asked Raleigh County Circuit Judge H.L. Kirkpatrick to continue her trial for the first-degree murder of her husband, Michael Cochran.
The trial was initially scheduled for August 12, 2024. It is now scheduled for October 28, 2024, following the pre-trial hearing on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.
Raleigh County Circuit Court Judge H.L. Kirkpatrick granted defense attorneys Matthew Victor and Stanley Selden’s request for a continuance, saying the reason is to benefit the defendant and to allow defense attorneys more time to adequately prepare their defense, prior to trial.
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The judge did not sanction the prosecution, which defense attorneys had requested.
Victor and Selden told the judge they needed more time to review a “mountain” of evidence which includes medical and financial records and electronics records and that it was impossible to do so, prior to Aug. 12, 2024.
They said they believe there is evidence which can help Cochran in the files, which could number as high as 60,000, according to statements Selden made in court, but they said they needed more time to go through it.
“It’s just impossible,” said Selden.
The files include federal files, which Hatfield mailed on June 25, 2024, but which the defense did not receive in the mail until July 22, 2024, based on statements made in court.
Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Hatfield said much of the federal information is related to a federal investigation of a Ponzi scheme for which Cochran is currently serving a federal prison term.
“There is a tremendous amount of redundancy,” Hatfield said, explaining that much of the content contained in the files overlap with other files he had provided the defense attorneys.
Hatfield also said he had provided all evidence to the defense in a timely manner, as of Tuesday but had not received a preliminary witness list from the defense.
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He asked the court to maintain the current trial date.
Defense attorneys said they would provide the witness list to Hatfield as they made progress.
Cochran pleaded guilty in federal court to charges related to a 2018 Ponzi scheme which had fleeced investors, including Natalie Cochran’s family members and Michael Cochran’s mother and stepfather, out of their life savings.
The prosecution alleges Cochran told investors she was seriously ill as a way of explaining delays in their investment returns and that she later talked a friend into providing insulin, using her illness as an excuse.
Prosecutors have alleged she used the insulin to kill her 38-year-old husband in February 2019, when he became suspicious of the couple’s two businesses, which prosecutors have said Cochran was operating alone, and after he had been asking questions about his parents’ money.
Cochran is serving the federal sentence at FCI Hazelton but has been at Southern Regional Jail and will stay at SRJ through her murder trial, which is a state trial.
Her attorneys have said Cochran’s time at SRJ could interfere with the sentence she is serving at Hazelton federal penitentiary in Preston County.
Cochran was indicted for her husband’s murder in 2021, and the trial was delayed.
A second grand jury returned an indictment of first-degree murder again in October 2023, following the exhumation, and the trial date was then set for Aug. 12, 2024.
Cochran has alleged that Michael Cochran was aggressive and that he had struggled with substance use disorder during their marriage.
She pleaded not guilty to the murder charge in January.
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