KELLY COCHRAN, RIGHT, confers with defense attorney Michael Scholke before her sentencing Wednesday in Iron County Trial Court for the 2014 killing of 53-year-old Christopher Regan of Iron River. (Nikki Younk/Daily News photo)

CRYSTAL FALLS — A grisly 2014 murder case came to a conclusion Wednesday in Iron County Trial Court as a former Caspian woman received a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole for helping her husband fatally shoot an Iron River man and then dismember and hide his remains.

However, this likely won’t be the last time 34-year-old Kelly Marie Cochran sees the inside of a courtroom. Indiana authorities still are interested in pursuing an unrelated homicide charge against her, said Jeremy Ogden, one of the lead case investigators.

Procedure calls for Cochran to be booked into the Michigan prison system — probably at the state’s only female prison facility in Ypsilanti — before Indiana can extradite her, Iron County Prosecutor Melissa Powell said.

Cochran could face the death penalty in that case, in which she is accused of killing her husband, Jason Cochran, in February 2016.

Cochran in April 2016 told investigators she lured 53-year-old Christopher Regan of Iron River to her Caspian home Oct. 14, 2014, so her husband could shoot him with a .22 rifle. 

Cochran and Regan were involved in an extramarital affair, and investigators believe Cochran became upset with him when she realized Regan was not interested in a long-term relationship.

Powell also cited a reported murder pact between the Cochrans requiring them to kill anyone with whom they had affairs.

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

Investigators, with Cochran’s guidance, found Regan’s skull and eyeglasses in May 2016 in a wooded area on Pentoga Trail.

Although investigators made an effort to find the rest of Regan’s remains at the time, all the bones they collected were non-human, Powell said. She does not know if any law enforcement agency is actively seeking the missing remains.

Cochran testified at her 12-day jury trial earlier this year she lied in her April 2016 interview because she felt guilty her affair led her husband to murder Regan. She maintained Jason Cochran acted alone in the murder and she only assisted him in concealing the death out of fear for her own life.

The jury convicted her on all five charges after less than three hours of deliberation.

“Obviously we went through a trial, and my client is not happy with the way things turned out,” defense attorney Michael Scholke said at sentencing Wednesday. “She told her version of the events when she testified and she told her version of events numerous times while talking to law enforcement entities, and she to this day maintains that is what happened here.”

Cochran has several redeeming qualities, Scholke said, including her cooperation in finding Regan’s skull, her lack of criminal history and her admitting she did play a role in Regan’s death.

“She brought him into her world and she regrets that, and she is very sorry for that,” Scholke said.

Cochran did not speak on her own behalf.

Powell asked the court to focus on Regan and his life instead of Cochran and how she “butchered” him and “threw him in the woods like a common sack of garbage.”

Regan was a son, brother, husband, father and Air Force veteran who enjoyed nature, taking photos, cycling, and good food and wine, Powell said.

“We cannot know, unless in their shoes, the agony his children and family members went through waiting for him to be found,” she stated. “From October 2014 to May 17, 2016, he was a lost soul. There are no words to describe what they went through.”

Regan’s family was not at Wednesday’s hearing but sent a letter the crime victim rights coordinator read aloud.

“Being exposed to the evil world of someone like Kelly Cochran is not something we as a family ever thought we would experience, but we remain a strong family and will continue to heal and move forward,” the letter stated. “There is some solace in knowing Kelly Cochran will never be able to inflict her murderous impulses on any other unsuspecting victims. Society will now be safe from Kelly Cochran.”

Jurors Sherrie McFarland, Pat Butler and Heather Charbarneau did attend the sentencing as “closure” for themselves and to support Regan’s family, who they had the opportunity to meet after the trial. 

“We just hope for closure for his family as well,” Charbarneau said. “They have our prayers.”

The jury as a whole believed Cochran was guilty as soon as they began deliberations, McFarland said, so they just needed to decide between the different degrees of homicide.

Judge Richard Celello noted he had no choice in imposing the mandatory life sentence for a first-degree murder charge.

“I know your position, that you didn’t do these monstrous things, but the jury deemed otherwise, convicting you by proof beyond a reasonable doubt that you committed these five offenses,” the judge told Cochran. “Based on the testimony I heard, even without the mandatory sentence, that probably would have been my opinion.”

Celello’s official order was life in prison without parole for first-degree murder, six to 10 years for conspiracy to commit dead bodies-disinterment and mutilation, three to five years for concealing the death of an individual, and 2.5 to four years for each charge of larceny in a building and lying to a peace officer-violent crime investigation.

All sentences will run concurrently, and Cochran has credit for 376 days already served in the Iron County Jail. 

She has a right to take her convictions to the Michigan Court of Appeals.