BECKLEY, W.Va. — Raleigh County Prosecutor Tom Truman says Michael Cochran was killed by his wife, former pharmacist Natalie Cochran, in 2019 when he started to ask questions about the Ponzi scheme she was operating.
Natalie Cochran is on trial for murder in Raleigh County Circuit Court. She allegedly killed her husband in 2019. She was later convicted in federal court on fraud charges in connection with the Ponzi scheme. She is currently serving time in federal prison.
The 12-member jury heard opening statements from the prosecution and defense Wednesday along with the first state witnesses.
“On Feb. 5, 2019, Michael Cochran was a 200-pound healthy 38-year-old man. By midday, Feb. 5, 2019, he would lose consciousness and never regain consciousness,” Truman told the jury.
He said Cochran got some insulin from a neighbor and gave it to her husband. Truman said he passed out on the kitchen floor a few hours later but his wife didn’t get help for him right away.
“Did she call 911? No. Did she load him into a car and take him to the ER? No,” Truman said. “All the opportunities to get help for this man and she took none of them.”
Michael Cochran was eventually taken to the hospital and in less than a week he died in Hospice care. Truman said it made no sense to many.
“An experienced RN and a Hospice nurse said she had never seen a body to come out of Hospice that looked so good,” Truman said. “This was a healthy man until she (Natalie Cochran) did him in.”
Truman told the jury circumstantial evidence will show Michael began asking questions about the large sums of money friends and family were investing in the contracting business he and his wife operated but were getting no return for their investment.
“Michael Cochran did not know what was going on but he was going to find out,” Truman said.
He said Michael Cochran didn’t know anything about the Ponzi scheme. Truman told the jury about a chartered flight scheduled from Beckley to a bank in Virginia on Feb. 6, 2019 to find out about where the money was going. He said mysteriously Natalie Cochran cancelled the trip in the early morning of hours of Feb. 5.
“Why was that trip so important? Because Michael Cochran and everyone else would know that there is no money in the Bank of America in Virginia. There’s never been any money in the Bank of America in Virginia. There are no government contracts which is what she was selling to most of Raleigh County it seems like,” Truman said. “Those were fictious things that she made up and bilked millions of dollars out of her victims.”
Defense attorney Matthew Victor told the jury the prosecution’s allegations are farfetched.
“She is accused here of one of the vilest crimes that is known and I’d submit to you the state’s motive in this case is absolutely nonsense,” Victor said.
He said considering Michael Cochran’s lifestyle it’s hard to believe he didn’t know about the Ponzi scheme.
Victor said Natalie Cochran is no angel but that doesn’t make her a cold-blooded killer.
“She is perhaps a fraud and perhaps a cheat and you wouldn’t perhaps invite her home for Sunday dinner but that doesn’t translate in being a murderer,” Victor said in his opening statement.
Victor said the truth is Michael Cochran “was up to his eyes” in the Ponzi scheme with his wife. He also said any evidence the prosecution has about insulin being his cause of the death would be easily discredited..
Michael Cochran was a “ticking time bomb” when it came to his health, according to Victor.
“He was taking medication–steroids–that were not for human consumption. There were some animal medications taken,” Victor said.
The first witness on the stand Wednesday was a former state police trooper who was the lead investigator in the Ponzi scheme.
The trial is being streamed live on Court TV.