Judge denies Natalie Cochran's request for an acquittal in husband's murder
BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) — The special judge who presided over Natalie Cochran's murder trial in the death of her husband, Michael Cochran, denied her request for an acquittal during a post-trial hearing in Raleigh County Circuit Court on Tuesday, February 25, 2025.
The hearing was a precursor to defense attorneys' plans to file an appeal in the case within the next 30 days, the time allotted by state law.
In a televised trial which drew national interest, jurors found Cochran guilty last month of first-degree murder and denied her request for mercy, recommending that she spend the rest of her life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Special Judge H.L. Kirkpatrick ordered her to serve the sentence recommended by jurors.
In post-trial motions, defense attorneys Matthew Victor and Stanley Selden argued that Cochran's jury pool had been tainted due to extensive publicity before the trial, that an insulin bottle admitted into evidence should have been excluded and that the circumstantial evidence prosecutors presented was not enough to warrant a conviction.
Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Truman disagreed.
'Unfortunately for the defense, they have no evidence to support any of that, and so they were all denied, and that's really just a prerequisite to perfecting an appeal,' said Truman, following the hearing.
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Raleigh County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Ashley Acord added that an oral argument not included in the written motions was also made by defense attorneys during the hearing.
'That was that jurors may have had a misunderstanding of the mercy phase or that they completely disregarded the judge's instructions in the mercy phase,' said Acord. 'We do not agree with that supposition.'
She said defense attorneys had based on the argument on post-trial interviews that were conducted with jurors.
Truman said that, due to Judge Kirkpatrick's experience and conservative rulings in the case, he does not believe the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia will overturn Cochran's conviction on appeal.
Prosecutors say text messages show Natalie Cochran tried to put distance between Michael Cochran and his family, prior to murder
Cochran is also serving a sentence of around 11 years in federal prison for operating a Ponzi scheme from 2017 to 2019.
Prosecutors argued during her trial that she killed her husband to prevent him from finding out about the fraud.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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