A Montana woman acknowledged she hit and stabbed her boyfriend to death during a "satanic initiation," authorities said. Nina Mel Cochran pleaded no contest to deliberate homicide in an agreement with prosecutors.
A Montana woman has been committed to a state mental hospital for 75 years after she pleaded no contest to killing her boyfriend in a "satanic initiation," authorities said.
Nina Mel Cochran, 34, was sentenced last week in a deal with prosecutors that allows her to continue receiving mental health treatment at Montana State Hospital.
Her attorney, Gregory Tomicich, had unsuccessfully argued for a 30-year commitment. She was charged with deliberate murder in December 2022, after the bloodied body of of her boyfriend, 64-year-old Douglas Merrill Nielsen, was found sprawled on the couch of his home.
Cochran had been arrested on Dec. 1 for reckless driving and leading state police on a high-speed chase that ended only when troopers threw down road spikes, authorities said. The SUV she was driving belonged to Nielsen.
When troopers couldn't reach Nielsen by phone, an agent visited his house, where a neighbor said the man hadn't been seen in days, according to authorities.
During a jail interview on Dec. 6, 2022, Cochran told a trooper she had killed Nielsen as part of an initiation ritual because she was “born to become Lucifer and rule over the earth,” according to a charging document filed in court.
Billings Police Department officers later entered the home and found Nielsen's remains "in an advanced state of decomposition," authorities said.
During Friday's hearing in Yellowstone County District Court, Cochran was described as having schizoaffective disorder, which is a mental disorder marked by schizophrenia symptoms — including hallucinations or delusions — and mood disorder symptoms, including depression or mania, according to the Mayo Clinic.
At the time Nielsen was killed, Cochran was off her medication and her behavior was exacerbated by alcohol and drug use, her attorney said.
She also suffers from a traumatic brain injury (TBI) sustained when she was 3, when she was attacked by boys who threw rocks at her and fractured her skull, her lawyer said.
“She was a child damaged for life, she never had a chance" after sustaining a “severe TBI on a brain just beginning to form," her lawyer told the court.
Prosecutor Arielle Dean said Cochran will need constant supervision.
“We need to keep her monitored for really the rest of her life,” Dean said.
Judge Brett Linneweber said reports from the Montana State Hospital showed Cochran's moods had stabilized, but she is “still hearing voices, still hearing satanic thoughts.”
“You need monitoring, unfortunately I believe, for the rest of your life, to be safe,” the judge told Cochran.
The defendant did not speak during her sentencing, except to say, "I’m really sorry, your honor, that’s all."
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