Kelly pleads guilty to conspiracy in Cochran photo case

CANTON - Clayton Kelly took a last minute plea deal before his trial for breaking into the nursing home room of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran's late wife last year and videoing her for a political hit piece.

Kelly's lawyer said testimony from nursing home guards while arguing motions to dismiss the case tanked Kelly's strongest defense -- that he did not sneak into the nursing home, but was allowed in by guards.

Attorney Kevin Camp said that while he had not been allowed to talk with guards, he was led to believe they would say Kelly was waived in to see Cochran's wife. But on the stand Monday, a guard from St. Catherine's said Kelly obviously lied about who he was there to see, or he would have not been allowed in without clearance from nurses or the Cochran family.

"The officer saying he had gotten in by deception -- I think (Kelly) sort of realized he didn't have a whole lot of options," Camp said. "... He couldn't take a chance."

Kelly blew a kiss to his wife, Tara, as he was taken out by a deputy and remanded to the Sheriff's Department, and potential jurors filed out of the courthouse.

Kelly pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and exploitation of a vulnerable adult. He faces up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. He had faced up to 55 years in prison on additional counts of burglary and attempted burglary.

Madison County Circuit Judge William Champman III on Monday dismissed or deferred numerous motions made by Camp for Kelly, including one to move the trial because of publicity, in a case that drew national -- even international -- media coverage.

Chapman noted: "My speculation is if you move this to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, people will have heard about it. If you move it to DeSoto County, people will have heard about it, and if you move it to Tupelo people would have heard about it."

Chapman dismissed a motion by Camp that the DA's office had a conflict of interest because Deputy D.A. Marty Miller, a member of the Rankin County Republican Executive Committee, was a Cochran supporter.

Miller said he is no longer involved in the case, and that all he did for Cochran's campaign was to man a booth at a festival before Kelly's arrest. He said he stayed out of any campaign involvement, and took a hiatus from the executive committee after the case broke.

Camp was also denied a motion that Kelly was simply exercising his First Amendment rights and that he would have journalistic protection for videoing Rose Cochran in her nursing home bed at St. Catherine's Village.

"A reporter can't break into someone's home to take a picture of them," said Assistant D.A. Bryan Buckley. "You can't commit a crime under the First Amendment."

Chapman said: "This is not a case about the defendant's First Amendment rights, it's about whether or not he did what he's been charged with."

Prosecutors said Kelly entered St. Catherine's "by deceit," claiming he was visiting someone else, because access to Mrs. Cochran was limited.

Kelly, accompanied by his wife, Tara, had little comment before his plea Monday.

"I've lost a lot, lost everything," Kelly said, about losing his job as a computer customer service engineer and home in Pearl where he had been living last year. "I would like to clear my name."

"I think a lot of this is political," Kelly said. "I think my constitutional rights should be respected."