Nearly two years ago, life took a sudden, devastating turn for the family of Hayward Cochran. A head-on collision claimed the Toccoa businessman’s life and left his family reeling.
“My mom, bless her heart, had just retired,” says Cochran’s daughter Angelica Cochran-Bolton. “It’s hard for her; my dad was her life for 45 years before he passed. His death has been very rough.”
February 24, 2020, was a rainy night. Cochran was heading home to Stephens County when a teenage driver crossed the centerline on Talmadge Drive/GA 17 Alternate near the Habersham-Stephens County line. The Jeep Wrangler struck Cochran’s work van head-on, instantly killing the 65-year-old cleaning service owner.
As Cochran’s family navigated their way through the devastating loss, they watched from a distance as the case made its way through the judicial system.
Sentencing
This past January, a judge sentenced the teenager who caused the wreck to two years of probation. In addition, his sentence required him to participate in two blood drives in Cochran’s honor.
Hadden Carswell was 17 at the time of the fatal crash. He suffered serious injuries and spent three months recovering in the hospital. The judge in the case also ordered that Carswell not be allowed to drive without a doctor’s clearance.
The Georgia State Patrol Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team (SCRT) investigated the crash, but documents obtained by Now Habersham show troopers were unable to determine what caused Carswell to cross the centerline that rainy February night.
SCRT investigators were unable to interview the teen due to his injuries. Hadden’s mother, Mountain Judicial Circuit Juvenile Court Judge Nichole Carswell, speculated that her son might have run off the road and overcorrected or hydroplaned due to the wet roadway.
Initially, the state patrol charged the Habersham Central high schooler with second-degree vehicular homicide. Because of Judge Carswell’s job, the Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office recused itself from the case. A special prosecutor and judge from outside the circuit were appointed to oversee it. Carswell did not contest the charges. The vehicular homicide charge was eventually reduced to reckless driving.
A painful two years
Cochran’s daughter, Angelica Cochran-Bolton, says she and her family have no hard feelings about how the case was handled.
“It was an accident,” she says. “There was no foul play or anything in it; it just hurts our family.”
Marie Cochran, a local artist and Cochran’s niece, dedicated her last exhibit at the Piedmont University Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art to her uncle’s memory. She says “words cannot explain” how she feels about the sentence.
Cochran-Bolton describes her dad as her mother’s lifeline. Since his death, she’s stepped into his role of caring for her mom while also tending to her own children, one of whom has special needs.
“Thank you to the Habersham County Little League and community leaders for thinking of our family during our hard time.”
It’s been a painful two years for the family, she says, but they are making it through by relying on their faith and each other.
This article has been updated
