Blogger gets jail time in Cochran video conspiracy

A blogger who pleaded guilty to conspiracy for breaking into a nursing home last year and videotaping Sen. Thad Cochran’s (R-Miss.) ailing wife was given a five-year sentence on Monday.

{mosads}Clayton Kelly, 29, of Pearl, Miss., will spend half that time in prison and the rest on probation, according to The Clarion-Ledger.

Kelly pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy in the case, in which he took video of Rose Cochran during last year’s primary battle between the Mississippi senator and his challenger, state Sen. Chris McDaniel. Investigators had said several other apparent McDaniel supporters conspired in the case.

Kelly took a plea deal, avoiding charges of burglary and attempted burglary, according to the Jackson, Miss. newspaper.

An investigator in the case said Kelly told him he felt “sick to his stomach” about taking video of Cochran’s bedridden wife but released it anyway, according to local ABC affiliate WAPT.

Images of Rose Cochran, who had dementia and was in a nursing home for more than a decade, appeared online in a video suggesting her husband was having an affair. She died in December.

Thad Cochran married longtime aide Kay Webber last month, his office announced.