Kelly gets 2.5 years in Cochran photo case

"We need you to have no more contact with the campaign," John Mary, a.k.a. John Bert, messaged Clayton Kelly one day last February. "What we are going to do will be EXPLOSIVE. The other side will be hunting for ANY connection to you."

Kelly on Monday was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for his role in the conspiracy to photograph the late wife of Sen. Thad Cochran as she lay in her nursing home bed suffering dementia. John Mary and Richard Sager had previously pleaded guilty and got no jail time in exchange for their cooperation. Another defendant, Ridgeland attorney Mark Mayfield, committed suicide in June 2014, about a month after his arrest.

Kelly, an aspiring political blogger, was egged on by others to photograph Rose Cochran at St. Catherine's Village nursing home. He used the image in a political hit-piece video against Cochran, who was in the biggest political battle of his long career in his re-election battle against tea party challenger state Sen. Chris McDaniel.

Records released Monday show online correspondence between Kelly, other defendants and others about the scheme to create a political video saying Cochran was having an affair with a longtime staffer while his wife languished in a nursing home.

From testimony from an investigator and records introduced Monday, it appears Mary, a former radio talk show host and tea party leader from Hattiesburg, was the ringleader in the plan to photograph Rose Cochran and make the hit piece video.

Kelly had faced charges of burglary, attempted burglary and conspiracy, carrying a maximum 55 years in prison. In a last-minute plea deal as his trial was about to start last week, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and faced a maximum of five years.

Judge William Chapman III said he took into account that Mary and Sager got no jail time in the case, but also took into account Kelly having a past felony conviction for possession of marijuana. He sentenced Kelly to two and a half years in jail, plus two an a half years' probation.

Kelly's attorney, Kevin Camp, and District Attorney Michael Guest both said Kelly will likely serve less than the full sentence.

Camp said, and the police investigator agreed, that Kelly cooperated with the investigation from the outset.

Madison police Investigator Chuck Harrison in court Monday quoted from a police interview with Kelly in which he told police, "I felt sick to my stomach" after he photographed Rose Cochran

, but posted his video anyway

.

Chapman said it's been his experience with armed robberies and other crimes that the smarter criminals talk the less intelligent ones into doing the actual crime.

"This defendant probably fits into that category," Chapman said.

The judge noted a statement from Kelly's wife that "I told him it was a stupid idea and that it was just plain wrong" and said he couldn't sum it up any better.

Cochran's son, Clayton Cochran, made a brief statement in court Monday before Kelly's sentencing.

"I'm here as much to mourn my mother as to condemn anybody who perpetrated the crimes that have been discussed," Clayton Cochran said. "She was a lovely woman. We miss her, and she lives in our hearts."

Contact Geoff Pender at (601) 961-7266 orgpender@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @GeoffPender on Twitter.