ESCANABA — An Escanaba man who was one of three people arrested on meth charges last year is off to prison.

Jesse Allen King, 24, received a sentence of 2 1/2 to 20 years in prison on one count of delivery and/or manufacture of meth. On October 2nd, 2016, officers with Escanaba Public Safety were dispatched to conduct a welfare check in the two hundred block of N. 12th Street, where they found a meth lab.

King originally faced two felony drug charges. One of those charges was dropped as a result of a plea agreement he entered back in December.

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WISCONSIN — A New York man arrested last year for attempting to rob a bank was sentenced Monday in federal court.

Ross Bertucci, 33, will serve six years at a federal penitentiary in Indiana for one count of attempted bank robbery. Bertucci was arrested on August 5th, 2016, after a clerk at a gas station noticed him attempting to walk into the State Bank of Florence in Wausaukee with a covering over his face.

The clerk quickly notified the bank. Employees there were able to lock the doors before Bertucci came in.

The Marinette County Sheriff’s Office found him also in possession of a handgun. He was arraigned on federal charges in October and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in November.

After his prison sentence, Bertucci will have three years of supervised release.

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AHMEEK — A Keweenaw County man was arrested on two counts of delivery of marijuana.

Detectives from the UPSET West team served a search and arrest warrant on 59 Bollman Ave in Ahmeek, Michigan on Monday. During the search, marijuana, packaging, and a scale were recovered, along with $2,000 in cash.

Eric Eugene Pushee, 52, was arrested at his residence on two counts of delivery of marijuana, a four year felony. Pushee was arraigned in the 97th District Court and released on bond.

UPSET was assisted on the scene by the Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Department and the Michigan Sate Police-Calumet Post.

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CRYSTAL FALLS– Today was day number two of Kelly Cochran’s murder trial.

The trial was delayed around three hours this morning for an unexpected legal issue that Iron County Prosecutor Melissa Powell declined to comment on.

Opening comments for both sides began in the afternoon.

The prosecutor said that Cochran and her deceased husband, Jason Cochran, were “Bonded in Blood.”

Powell gave the jury copies of her presentation, which included copies of text messages sent by Cochran to both her husband and the victim, Christopher Regan.

During his opening comments, Cochran’s defense lawyer, Michael Scholke, said Cochran’s husband was solely behind the murder and his client was acting out of fear for her own life.

“I hope you find the defendant guilty of aiding and abetting Jason Cochran in the murder of Christopher Karl Regan by plotting and planning his death and luring him to his funeral,” said Melissa Powell.

“We believe that the evidence will show that Jason, Mr. Cochran, acted alone in the murder of Mr. Regan and that Kelly had no knowledge of that,” said Michael Scholke.

For the latest information on Cochran’s trial, make sure to tune into ABC 10 News Now tomorrow.

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ONTONAGON — An Ontonagon man was arrested Tuesday night after police found him behind the wheel with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of .27, more than three times higher than the legal limit.

Just after 10:00 p.m. last night, the Ontonagon County Sheriff’s Office received a call about a truck in the snow bank at the intersection of M-38 and US-45, near the Ontonagon River Bridge. Upon their investigation, officers on scene discovered the 68-year-old driver was intoxicated.

Officers arrested the man for Operating While Intoxicated (OWI). He was lodged at the Ontonagon County Jail on 10% of a $2,000 bond.

The truck sustained minor damage in the accident.

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HOUGHTON — A former Houghton High School coach facing child porn charges was in court today.

72–year–old Don Sawaski appeared in Houghton County Circuit Court Wednesday to ask that the conditions of his bond be amended.

Sawaski is prohibited from leaving Houghton County except to travel to Marquette County to meet with his attorney.

The motion before the court was to allow Sawaski to travel to Gogebic County so he can visit a sick family member.

His attorney tried to expand the motion to include travel to downstate Michigan as well as out of state to visit other members of his family. The court will allow the travel to Gogebic County, but would not rule on the additional requests since they were not included in the original motion.

Sawaski is facing three felony counts relating to alleged possession of child pornography. His trial has now been pushed back to June to give the defense more time to review the evidence in the case.

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CRYSTAL FALLS– Kelly Cochran’s murder trial continues to move along as an ex–lover was brought to the stand to testify. Eric Erickson, who also had an affair with alleged murder Kelly Cochran, was called to the stand by Iron County Prosecutor Melissa Powell. Erickson testified that he had a relationship with Cochran, but the two were not emotionally connected and he never expected it become serious.

“Besides initially when she was still working there we talked at work,” Erickson said, “then we exchanged numbers, it was text messages and sometimes phone calls.”

A number of different text messages between Cochran and Erickson were shown and Erickson said that he had an issue with losing contact with Cochran from time to time. During cross examination, Erickson told defense attorney Michael Scholke that Cochran did talk about feeling threatened by her now deceased husband Jason Cochran. However Erickson said that he felt it was strange.

“She was fearful of living with Jason Cochran, in the same house because he would become violent and enraged and would be physical with her,” Erickson said, “And I had thought it was odd that if she had a possible divorce in her relationship, why you would still allow him to come back into the household, even though he’s being threatening.”

Also called to the witness stand by the prosecutor was Michigan State Police Detective Sergeant Chris Bracket, who was involved in investigating the disappearance of Chris Regan. Bracket testified that he was involved in an interview with Cochran were she said that she was unafraid of her husband.

“She said she was never threatened by him and she said no man would ever push her around or she could take care of herself,” Detective Sergeant Chris Bracket said.

Tune in tomorrow for the latest on Kelly Cochran’s murder trial.

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CRYSTAL FALLS — Today at the murder trial of Kelly Cochran, two of her old neighbors testified about their relationship and what they say during the time the victim Chris Regans’ disappearance.

Caroline Miatech who lived close to Cochran and her grandson David Saylor took the stand to testify.

The Cochran’s went to their house on multiple occasions and Jason Cochran hung out with Saylor.

Both said that in October of 2014, they heard strange noises coming from around the Cochran’s house. Miatech reported that she had heard a disturbance coming from the direction of the Cochran residence in October

“I was sleeping, woke up, and it sounded like a gunshot. I laid there for a while, then I heard some loud talking,” Miatech said. “I went to the window and looked down the street where it was coming from and there was a woman on the porch.”

Miatech said that after the noise, a couple seemed to scramble to drive away. She said that she had not meet the couple yet and could not remember if the voices were the Cochrans.

Saylor said that he had heard the sound of power tools coming from the house at night, also in October.

Both reported another odd meeting with the Cochran’s when their house was searched by law enforcement.

Saylor said that the two acted strange and after the search left the state. He said that he stayed in contact with Cochran after that and assisted with the investigation.

“She was saying that the whole time,” Saylor said, “they’re never going to find the body cause they didn’t do nothing.”

Stay tuned for the latest in the Kelly Cochran murder trial.

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MARQUETTE – The Marquette Police Department is requesting any information our viewers might have about the man and woman in these photographs. If you know or recognize these people, please send them a private message, or call (906) 228-0400.

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MARQUETTE — A Negaunee man who damaged public school property back in November was sentenced Friday in Marquette County District Court.

Gerald Potvin, 33, was sentenced to 12 months probation. Potvin pleaded guilty to failure to report an accident and careless driving, the second of these charges was later dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Around 1,000 dollars in damage was done to the concession stand at the Negaunee Public Schools football complex when Potvin struck it with his pickup on the morning of November 6th.

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CRYSTAL FALLS — Former Iron River Police Chief Laura Frizzo took the stand as the first week of Kelly Cochran’s murder trial came to a close Friday afternoon.

Laura Frizzo was the original officer who took the missing person complaint back in 2014 and was a member of the investigation into Chris Regan’s disappearance and death.

“I was leaving the office and I noticed her pull up in front of the office, I was waiting for the 5:00 car to come in, it was approximately 20 to 5:00 and I was supposed to be done by 3:00,” said Frizzo.

“I looked back at her, she got out of her car, tired to open the door and go into the office and as she turned around I noticed she was crying so I went back in with her and at which time she wanted to report her friend was missing,” she added.

Frizzo says the investigation eventually led her to the alleged murderer, Kelly Cochran. The former Iron River Police Chief heard Regan was having an affair with Cochran and that he had directions to her house.

“She told me, ‘I found these directions’ and she started to read them to me and as she read them to me I realized they were the same directions to the defendant’s house,” said Frizzo about Cochran.

Michigan State Police Forensic Scientist Lisa Oravetz also testified on Friday. Oravetz worked to identify human blood as part of the investigation.

During her investigation, Oravetz found human blood on a red comforter and pillow in the master bedroom as well as on the trimming of a door at the Cochran’s residence. However, Oravetz could not tell when the blood stains occurred and sent the samples out for DNA testing in Grand Rapids.

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CRYSTAL FALLS– In her second day testifying, former Iron River Police Chief Laura Frizzo described the change in appearance she saw in alleged murderer Kelly Cochran, as Frizzo continued to investigate the murder of Chris Regan.

Laura Frizzo’s testimony continues at murder trail

Frizzo said, “It was a different side of her, she was kind of willing, relaxed and willing to tell me how she was and what kind of life she had growing up. Basically, again, that she’s been this way her whole life there is no one incident that occurred in her life to her the way she is. It’s just the way she was born; and she describes that a being a person whose always had homicidal tendencies and has no remorse.”

During the testimony, Frizzo talked about the investigation after she found the remains of Regan and the second of two “field trips” she took with Cochran.

Frizzo said there was some evidence found during the trip, however Frizzo was still looking for proof that Cochran was telling the truth.

That came at Cochran’s house, when evidence Cochran had talked about was found by law enforcement.

Frizzo said, “We had many, many, many discussion in days and weeks prior to this day and she said a lot of things I wasn’t able to validate. She wanted me to believe her and she want to help me find Chris Regan but I told her, you know, I needed some validity to what she was saying. This was actually the first day that she said something to me and validated what she had said.”

At the house things turned gristly, as Cochran lead them into the basement and talked about the process and some issues with dismembering the victim.

However, the human remains dogs brought into the house did not find evidence of this in the basement, but did trigger outside the house. They can pick up the smell of a fatal accident that happened twenty years ago.

Another thing Frizzo noticed was Cochran seemed very interested in butterflies and asked where her interest came from.

“She told me that the butterfly was to her a symbol for death and she said that when you find a corpse or any kind of decomposition of an animal or human, you’ll actually see more butterflies flocking to it than maggots,” Frizzo recalled.

Cochran’s murder trial continues tomorrow in Iron County Circuit Court.

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ONTONAGON COUNTY — A traffic stop Sunday afternoon resulted in the arrest of a 24-year-old Petoskey man on drug charges.

The traffic stopped occurred at approximately 3:45 p.m. in Ontonagon County. An officer with the sheriff’s office found marijuana in the man’s vehicle.

He was lodged at the Ontonagon County Jail on charges of possession of marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia. The suspect was later released after posting bond.

His name won’t be released until he’s arraigned in district court March 6th.

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HOUGHTON — A Hancock man will spend the next month in jail for a drug charge.

Andrew Rohrer, 30, was sentenced to 60 days in the Houghton County Jail for possession of a controlled substance. Rohrer was allegedly attacked by 28-year-old Joseph Schreiber in June 2015 when the
two met to discuss the purchase of marijuana.

Rohrer is a licensed medical marijuana provider but Schreiber did not have a medical marijuana card. Police say Schreiber tried assaulted Rohrer with a knife and tried to rob him.

Schreiber was sentenced to 12 months in jail for his role in the incident last August. Rohrer pled guilty to the possession charge as part of a plea agreement.

A controlled substance, not marijuana, was discovered during the investigation by police. Rohrer was given credit for 36 days time served.

He will also spend two years on probation.

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CRYSTAL FALLS– The recordings of two of Kelly Cochran’s phone calls were played to the jury today as her murder trial proceeded.

Melanie Gaboyan told her daughter “overall, even though all this happened you’re still my daughter, I hate what you’ve done, I hate what happened, I hate all the choices and things that you guys did, but I still love you.”

A recorded phone call between the alleged murder Kelly Cochran and her mother brought out emotion in both of them as the defendant’s mother testified. During the conversation that occurred while Cochran was in jail, Gaboyan told her daughter that she didn’t know she was capable of murder and asked her if she had always felt that way and if she had a conscience.

Another phone call played was a conversion between Cochran and Walt Ammerman, her deceased husband’s friend. During that call, Ammerman tells Cochran he has a letter from her late husband that he asked Ammerman to send to the Iron River Police Department if anything happened to him.

The letter was made up by investigation officers who recorded the call. Ammerman says that Cochran asked him not to send it but ultimately told him to “do what he had to,” but questions about the letter persisted.

“Just whether I mailed it, I said I did, asked me what was in it, I said I didn’t open it,” Ammerman said.

Michigan State Police Forensic scientist Lisa Champion also took the stand Tuesday morning. Champion testified that she had results from different blood stains related to the case

Stains found on a comforter and on a door arch had the Cochran’s DNA on them. However blood found on a pair of forceps had the victim, Chris Regan’s DNA.

Cochran’s murder trial continues Wednesday in Iron County Circuit Court.

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K.I. SAWYER– Authorities in K.I. Sawyer spent part of Tuesday night cleaning up what appears to be an suspected meth lab.

Members of the Upper Peninsula Substance Enforcement Team were at a residence on Dart Street in K.I. Sawyer just before 5 P.M. The Forsyth fire department was called in to assist at the scene.

According to Forsyth Police the residence is abandoned.

At this time authorities had no comment on any arrests or injuries.

We pass along more information once it’s released.

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CRYSTAL FALLS– A Kentucky jail supervisor testified about some experiences he had while alleged murderer Kelly Cochran was housed there.

Edward Jackson, the Jail Supervisor of Graves County Jail in Kentucky testified today over Skype today as part of Kelly Cochran’s murder trial. Jackson talked about two incidents that happened with Cochran while she was there.

One time Jackson said Cochran faked being passed out and unresponsive. She was monitored for her health after this incident. Another incident happened the next day, when officers from the facility found the earpiece of a pair of glasses that had been broken to make a shank. Jackson said that when asked about it, Cochran said she flushed the lens part of the glasses.

Also on the stand Wednesday was Tiffany Smith, a Forensic Analyst for the FBI. Smith talked about test results from a number of different items sent to her lab.

Some of these were samples of stains found on a door arch in Cochran’s home, but she said the DNA of those didn’t belong to the victim Chris Regan or the Cochran’s.

Clothing was also presented, including a hat that came from Regan’s car, which had the DNA of several people on it. The biggest source of DNA came from Regan, but Smith said Cochran was another likely contributor.

Smith said, “I calculated the DNA and the DNA typing results from that swabbing were at least 2 times more likely to have originated from Ms. Cochran and two additional three unknown individuals.”

Cochran’s murder trial continues Thursday in Iron County Circuit Court.

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CRYSTAL FALLS — The prosecuting attorney in the Kelly Cochran murder trial didn’t hold back when cross examining the defendant today.

Iron County Prosecutor Melissa Powell was able to question alleged murderer Kelly Cochran as Cochran continued her testimony. Throughout the cross examination, Powell constantly brought up the lies Cochran repeatedly admitted to telling during the investigation and challenged Cochran’s testimony from the past Friday.

“Homicidal feelings and the plan to kill Chris, that was all a lie, right?” Powell asked. “And the conversations that you had with your family between April 30th and May 16th when you talked to Chief Frizzo, those were all lies right?”

During Powell’s questioning, Cochran kept repeating the same reason for lying she used Friday– that she felt so guilty for the victim in Chris Regan’s death that she wanted to make herself look like a monster.

“At one point I was strong and independent but… but to me I considered myself a monster because here I am,” Cochran said. “I’m here and he’s not, if he would have never meet me he’d be here today.”

Powell also challenged Cochran’s testimony that she was a victim of her abusive husband’s rage.

She questioned the defendant’s unwillingness to get help during the ordeal and lack of emotion during the investigation.

Powell brought up that during a trip Cochran took with law enforcement to her house to show them evidence, Cochran did not seem distressed and instead was eating pizza and joking with officers.

Kelly Cochran’s murder trial continues Tuesday in Iron County Circuit Court.

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MARQUETTE — A Marquette County woman charged with three counts of uttering and publishing checks has entered a plea agreement.

Melinda Rae Mongiat-Gransinger, 29, of Republic, pleaded guilty to one count of uttering and publishing on February 17th. According to court records, restitution is part of the plea agreement.

Mongiat-Gransinger was arrested last month by the Marquette Police Department for allegedly cashing checks from a deceased relative. She will be sentenced in Marquette County Circuit Court on April 7th.

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CRYSTAL FALLS– After only a few hours of deliberation, the jury for Kelly Cochran’s murder trial came back with a verdict.

Cochran was found guilty of one count of first-degree premeditated murder, aiding and abetting and four other felony counts, including conspiracy to commit dead bodies, disinterment and mutilation. The verdict came around four hours after the jury went to deliberate.

In a statement to the press, defense attorney Michael Scholke said that he respected the decision of the jury, but it would be premature to comment before the sentencing in May. For the prosecution, it was the ending they were looking for.

“I feel that justice was served today for the family of Chris Regan and that was our goal was to bring justice to the family,” said former Iron River Police Chief Laura Frizzo. “It was a very, very exhausting family for all of us and it was a team effort.”

Tuesday morning, both the defense and prosecution had made their closing statements. Iron County Prosecutor Melissa Powell repeated her message that Cochran and her deceased husband, Jason Cochran, were bonded in blood from a pact on their wedding night.

Scholke said without much scientific evidence, the only evidence was the word of the defendant, who had admitted to lying throughout the investigation.

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