Produced by Susan Mallie and Jennifer Terker
[This story previously aired on August 17, 2019. It was updated on February 22, 2020.]
The North Carolina Court docket of Appeals dominated earlier this month on whether or not a father and daughter convicted of second-degree homicide ought to get a brand new trial.
In August 2015, former FBI agent Tom Martens and his daughter Molly Corbett admitted killing her Irish-born husband Jason Corbett, insisting they beat him in self-defense with a brick paver and a baseball bat as a result of Jason was choking Molly and threatening to kill her.
Prosecutors stated Corbett’s dying was homicide.
Now, Tracey Lynch is attempting to set the report straight on her slain brother.
“They claimed it was self-defense,” Lynch tells “48 Hours” correspondent Maureen Maher in her first American TV interview.
“The Martens didn’t just murder Jason,” Lynch says. “They tried to destroy his character.”
“Jason was an amazing human being,” Lynch says.
Jason Corbett was a 30-year-old father of two in Eire, who instantly discovered himself a widower when his first spouse died of an bronchial asthma assault. He then determined he wanted assist with the youngsters and employed Molly Martens, initially from Knoxville, Tenn. Quickly, their relationship turned romantic, and so they have been married. Shortly after, they moved to america.
That’s the place the story turns main as much as the fateful evening of August 2, 2015.
Tom Martens advised a 911 dispatcher that his son-in-law received into struggle along with his daughter and he needed to intervene. “He’s bleeding all over, and I, I may have killed him,” he stated.
Molly additionally advised police that Jason, then 39, was “screaming ‘I’m going to kill you.’”
“I MAY HAVE KILLED HIM”
911 DISPATCHER: Davidson County 911…
TOM MARTENS: My son in legislation, uh, received in a struggle with my daughter. I intervened and he’s in unhealthy form. We want assist.
911 DISPATCHER: OK. What do you imply he’s in unhealthy form? He’s harm?
TOM MARTENS: He’s bleeding throughout and I – I’ll have killed him.
TOM MARTENS: He’s lined in blood
911 DISPATCHER: Alright, hear fastidiously. I’ll let you know the best way to do chest compressions. I’ll set a tempo for you. … One, two, three, 4.
The decision got here within the early morning hours of Aug. 2, 2015.
MOLLY CORBETT TO 911 [crying]: I — I’m licensed. I simply c — can’t suppose.
911 DISPATCHER: OK, you must keep calm. Let your coaching take over. We want — we have to attempt to do that to assist him, OK?
MOLLY CORBETT: OK.
“I may have killed him” former FBI agent tells 911 after assault on son-in-law
01:53
Police arrived on the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, residence to seek out Jason Corbett overwhelmed to dying and his blood on his spouse Molly. They knew who did it: Molly and her father Tom Martens. The query was why?
TOM MARTENS [police interview]: He’s received Molly by the throat like this.
Simply hours later, Tom Martens, a 30-year FBI veteran, explains that he had been spending the evening at his daughter’s residence. After being woke up by a commotion upstairs, he says he grabbed an aluminum Little League baseball bat he introduced as a present for the children – and ran to her room.
TOM MARTENS [police interview]: He sees me coming and he goes round her throat like this [demonstrates a choke hold]. And I stated, “Let her go.” He turned and like, … “Let her go. I’m gonna kill her.”
Martens says his protecting instincts as a father immediately kicked in:
TOM MARTENS [police interview]: I hit him with the baseball bat.
TOM MARTENS [police interview]: He reaches out and he grabs the bat and he’s stronger than I’m, and he pushes me down and I used to be scrambling on the ground. My glasses fall off. Now I’m considering, “he’s gonna kill me.”
Molly Corbett advised Davidson County Sheriff’s investigators the identical story:
MOLLY CORBETT [police interview]: He tried to hit my dad, I feel, however he might need missed. And I, um, I hit him on the pinnacle.
She hit Jason with a paving stone that was sitting on her nightstand:
INVESTIGATOR WANDA THOMPSON: You will have a brick in your nightstand?
MOLLY CORBETT: Yeah.
INVESTIGATOR WANDA THOMPSON: What was that — what was that for?
MOLLY CORBETT: Um, the children and I — we have been going to color — paint these bricks and flowers across the mailbox.
TOM MARTENS [police interview]: I get the bat again. … I can’t let you know what number of instances I hit him. … I can’t let you know that. I imply, it was battle.
In Eire, Jason’s sister Tracy Lynch nonetheless can not comprehend that he died this manner.
Tracey Lynch: I simply couldn’t course of it. It was — , he was my finest buddy. … We have been simply two of the closest folks on the planet to one another exterior my husband and youngsters.
Lynch and Jason have been a part of a giant Irish household in Limerick. She remembers her brother as a form and caring soul.
Tracey Lynch: We might simply spend summers in Spanish Level in County Clare … hang around, fish. Simply kinda regular conventional Irish upbringing, actually.
Jason was Wayne Corbett’s twin.
Wayne Corbett: We regarded like one another however we have been totally different in so some ways.
Maureen Maher: Would he have been the quiet one?
Wayne Corbett: No, no, no. Jason wouldn’t have been quiet. You’d hear him earlier than you see him.
Jason married his first spouse, Mags Fitzpatrick, when he was 27. That they had two kids, Jack and Sarah.
Tracey Lynch: They have been simply so completely satisfied and so excited with life and so passionate about it as nicely. And — and so they had Sarah, and , I keep in mind them sayin’ that that they had, that their household was full. That they had their little prince and princess.
However in 2006, shortly after having their second youngster, Jason’s storybook life got here to an abrupt finish, when Mags, a longtime asthmatic, instantly had an assault.
Tracey Lynch: Mags woke Jason to say that she was feeling wheezy. And he sat her up. She began to take her nebulizer. And she or he began to get progressively worse. … We came upon later, they referred to as him in and advised him that she had died within the ambulance on the way in which to the hospital.
Maureen Maher: And the way previous was he?
Tracey Lynch: He was 30.
Maureen Maher: So, 30 years previous with a 2-year-old son.
Tracey Lynch: Yeah, and a 12-week-old daughter.
Jason Corbett grew to become a widower with two younger kids at age 30.
Tracey Lynch
With two very young children nonetheless at residence, Jason Corbett had no alternative however to select up the items and transfer on after Mags died. A year-and-a-half later, 25-year-old Molly Martens answered an advert for an au pair. She arrived in Limerick in March 2008.
Lynn Shanahan: I met Molly the day she arrived within the airport in Shannon.
Lynn Shanahan is Jason’s longtime buddy.
Maureen Maher: And what was your impression of her whenever you met her?
Lynn Shanahan: My first ideas and the primary sentence to my very own husband have been, “This is not what Jason needs right now.”
Maureen Maher: Why?
Lynn Shanahan: The minute I noticed her with the large bouncing curls, she was in her 20s. She had a giant vibrant shade coat, fur collar, cowboy boots, was dressed and make-up accomplished like a pageant queen as we’d have stated. She simply appeared not the nannyin’ kind.
However Molly’s uncle, Mike Earnest, says she was nice with youngsters.
Mike Earnest: She grew up babysitting, at all times beloved kids.
Molly Corbett
Molly Martens had grown up in Knoxville, Tennessee. She had dropped out of Clemson College and was seeking to start a brand new chapter in her life.
Mike Earnest: I feel, , she perhaps was searching for one thing totally different, and that this would possibly get her concerned, too, in one thing that I feel she was obsessed with, which is kids.
In Limerick, Molly immediately linked with Jason’s kids, 3-year-old Jack and 1-year-old Sarah.
Tracey Lynch: He favored her. She appeared mild with the children. … We began to see, , a bit of glimpse of the previous Jason comin’ again, that he was simply, , not so unhappy on a regular basis.
That’s when Jason and Molly’s relationship modified from skilled to non-public.
Lynn Shanahan: We went on vacation collectively. And the 2 of them regarded very completely satisfied. The youngsters have been completely satisfied.
They have been quickly making long-term plans.
It was at Freddy’s Bistro in Limerick on Valentine’s Day 2010, practically two years after Molly Martens arrived to be an au pair, that Jason requested her to be his spouse. Molly was over the moon and instantly started planning for a marriage again within the states.
Tracey Lynch: They got here and — stated that they received engaged, and we opened a bottle of champagne and toasted to their future.
Maureen Maher: Was he completely satisfied?
Tracey Lynch: He was completely satisfied, yeah, he was. He was in love. He beloved Molly.
However that happiness wouldn’t final for lengthy.
A TROUBLED RELATIONSHIP
Molly Corbett and Tom Martens proceed to present Davidson County investigators a blow-by-blow account of what they are saying occurred that evening in that bed room. By now, they’ve washed off Jason’s blood:
TOM MARTENS [police interview]: I let you know that man was loopy.
INVESTIGATOR WANDA THOMPSON: So, there’s a historical past of home violence on the home?
MOLLY CORBETT: Sure.
INVESTIGATOR WANDA THOMPSON: How lengthy has that been happening?
MOLLY CORBETT: Perpetually.
INVESTIGATOR WANDA THOMPSON: OK, your husband didn’t survive his accidents, proper?
MOLLY CORBETT: I didn’t suppose so.
Tom Martens claims that when he arrived earlier that night to go to Molly and the children, Jason was drunk. All of them went to mattress with out incident. However hours later, Jason’s daughter Sarah awakened from a nightmare.
MOLLY CORBETT [police interview]: She thought the fairies on her sheet have been bugs and spiders and lizards. … He was indignant that he was woken up.
In the midst of her interview, Molly tells investigators she is in ache from the choke maintain Jason had on her. They {photograph} her – together with a pink mark on the middle of her neck. Additionally they take photos of Tom.
Investigators photographed Molly Corbett on the sheriff’s workplace after Jason’s homicide. The prosecution later used this picture in court docket to indicate that Molly didn’t seem to have any accidents.
Davidson County Courthouse
MOLLY CORBETT: Yeah, my throat hurts loads.
INVESTIGATOR WANDA THOMPSON: And the way did you get that bruise?
MOLLY CORBETT: Yeah, it was from the opposite evening.
INVESTIGATOR WANDA THOMPSON: One other evening when?
MOLLY CORBETT: Simply when he grabbed my arm.
However as Molly and Tom inform tales about Jason’s abuse, Jason’s household had a distinct story. They are saying Molly was the one who brought about issues within the relationship for years.
Tracey Lynch: The particular person in Eire was very totally different to the one which we met … in Tennessee.
Jason’s household supported the wedding. However once they arrived within the states for the marriage, they are saying they observed Molly was behaving surprisingly.
Tracey Lynch: She was simply very controlling. She was indignant, I’d say. And for somebody who was about to get married, , she simply wasn’t herself. … She stayed in mattress curled up in a ball. She didn’t come out and socialize with anyone.
And that, Lynch says, wasn’t the worst of it.
Tracey Lynch: What actually set alarm bells ringing for me was when one of many bridesmaids advised us earlier than the marriage that Molly had advised them that she had been mates with Mags, Jack and Sarah’s mom, earlier than she died of most cancers. Mags didn’t die of most cancers, she died of an bronchial asthma assault.
And, in fact, Molly by no means knew Mags. Jason’s household was starting to surprise if he was making a mistake by marrying Molly.
Paul Dillon: I stated … “you’re the most unhappiest man I’ve ever seen on his wedding day.”
Jason’s finest buddy and groomsman, Paul Dillon, thought he ought to stroll away.
Paul Dillon: I requested him to only depart her and simply get on a aircraft and go residence. And he stated he can’t. He made the dedication.
One man believes the Corbetts had a cause to be involved.
Keith Maginn: My title is Keith Maginn and Molly is my former fiancé.
Molly had been engaged to a different man, who says they have been nonetheless collectively when she left for Eire to turn into Jason’s au pair.
Keith Maginn: She had lots of issues happening. She had migraines. She had insomnia. … She mainly— she spent lots of time simply soaking within the bathtub generally simply crying on the toilet ground.
Maginn claims each he and Molly struggled with psychological well being points that he describes in a self-published ebook written earlier than Jason died. He gave “48 Hours” no data to again that up, though Molly’s medical data from years after her time with Maginn present that she was recognized with melancholy. Her brother Connor is reluctant to speak about it.
Maureen Maher: A lot has been stated about Molly’s psychological well being … are you snug addressing that?
Connor Martens: I don’t wish to touch upon that.
Jason and Molly Corbett, together with Jason’s kids, on their marriage ceremony day
On the time of the marriage, in keeping with Molly’s household, all was nicely, and she or he was completely satisfied to be strolling down the aisle with Jason.
Mike Earnest | Molly’s uncle: She regarded very completely satisfied … and she or he regarded like she was very completely satisfied to be getting married.
Jason was in a position to get a job switch with the packaging firm he had labored for in Eire. He and Molly settled into the suburbs of Winston-Salem, the place Molly received a job as a part-time swim teacher however spent most of her time with Jack and Sarah.
Tracey Lynch: I used to be involved for Jason and his kids. He had moved lock, inventory and barrel from Eire. Packed up his complete life, offered his home, gave up his job, and was on the cusp of a brand new life.
Mike Earnest: Effectively, my impression was that issues appeared to be OK. I don’t know in the event that they appeared to be nice. I did see events the place … there appeared like there have been points developing.
After 4 years, Molly was nearer to the youngsters than ever and thought of them her personal, however her relationship with Jason was in hassle.
Tracey Lynch: Jason began to speak about movin’ residence. He wasn’t completely satisfied.
Maureen Maher: Did he say why he wasn’t completely satisfied?
Tracey Lynch: Lot of it was right down to the connection with Molly. She was appearing unusual. These issues occurring that he wasn’t snug with. … And he missed Eire, needed to maneuver again. … However he knew and stated that there can be big issue in him coming again — as soon as Molly came upon.
Maureen Maher: And the children at this level, they name her mother?
Tracey Lynch: Sure.
Maureen Maher: She is their mom.
Tracey Lynch: Sure.
Molly had at all times needed to formally turn into Jack and Sarah’s mom, however Jason wouldn’t permit it.
Maureen Maher: He didn’t wish to take the one mom they’d ever recognized away from them, however he wouldn’t permit her to undertake them?
Tracey Lynch: Sure.
Maureen Maher: Why?
Tracey Lynch: Due to what she had stated about Mags and due to her erratic conduct. … She waited till simply earlier than the marriage, after which all these tales got here out. So after we spoke, he stated, he simply couldn’t. How may he go forward and permit Molly to undertake the youngsters when he had all these problems with belief?
Now, with Jason lifeless, police ask Molly about his household. Jason’s choice to not permit her to undertake Jack and Sarah hits onerous:
MOLLY CORBETT: — and I’m scared they’ll take the children.
INVESTIGATOR WANDA THOMPSON: Did you undertake the youngsters?
MOLLY CORBETT: No.
INVESTIGATOR WANDA THOMPSON: Then that’s an actual risk.
MOLLY CORBETT [cries]: Oh, God.
The considered shedding the youngsters is greater than Molly can bear. However, investigators supply Molly a light-weight on the finish of a darkish tunnel:
INVESTIGATOR WANDA THOMPSON [TO MOLLY]: At this level, after speaking to your dad and speaking to you, it seems like that is going to be self-defense. OK? I don’t suppose there’s going to be a difficulty with that.
SELF-DEFENSE OR MURDER?
Tracey Lynch: I stored ringin’ Molly. She wouldn’t return my calls. Her dad and mom, , no, they only utterly stonewalled us. … I received 30 seconds on the telephone with Jack … to inform him that I beloved him and I used to be coming over to be with him.
Lynch says she was determined to get to Jason’s kids as quickly as potential.
Tracey Lynch: I used to be terrified.
Maureen Maher: What have been you terrified about?
Tracey Lynch: I used to be terrified she would kill them.
Maureen Maher: You thought that Molly would possibly kill the youngsters?
Tracey Lynch: Completely.
Tracy Lynch advised “48 Hours” she feared Molly would kill Jason’s kids.
Years earlier than, Jason had named Lynch authorized guardian if he have been to die. And Tracey knew Molly wouldn’t surrender the children with no struggle. Lynch instantly flew to North Carolina and filed for custody. And positive sufficient, Molly filed a movement for custody as nicely.
Lynn Shanahan: Nobody knew what state of affairs was enjoying in Molly’s head, what she thought she wanted to do. Or was there an opportunity that they’d be at risk — if she knew they have been taking them from her?
In the course of the troubled marriage, Molly had requested an lawyer what her rights to the youngsters can be within the occasion of a divorce. She additionally secretly recorded arguments with Jason:
MOLLY CORBETT: Are you completed together with your dinner, hon?
JASON CORBETT: I’m talkin’ to you! Is that this the way you deal with … you simply ignore me? I stated, “I’d like to have dinner with my family” … I’m talkin’ to you. I shouldn’t need to say it again and again. I shouldn’t need to say, “Molly — “
MOLLY CORBETT [ignoring Jason]: Are you able to guys get out the stuff for pancakes?
JASON CORBETT [yelling]: See! [slamming sound] There you go once more. I’m speaking to you and also you’re nonetheless happening speaking about one thing else!
SARAH CORBETT: Cease preventing!
A buddy of Molly’s spoke along with her about Jason.
Maureen Maher: So, previous to his dying, you by no means talked to her about their relationship?
Molly’s buddy: No.
Maureen Maher: And after his dying, has she talked to you a lot about Jason and that relationship?
Molly’s buddy: Sure.
“48 Hours” agreed to not use the buddy’s title or present her face. She says she’s been threatened by Jason’s supporters.
Molly’s buddy: There have been some indicators that issues weren’t proper.
Maureen Maher: Like what?
Molly’s buddy: Simply controlling conduct. Among the unhealthy language and calling her names. … After which it simply progressively received worse. … Compelled intercourse … stuff like that.
Molly by no means reported any abuse to police.
Maureen Maher: Molly has stated that Jason was verbally abusive, had began turning into bodily abusive. … Do you suppose that any of that’s potential?
Tracey Lynch: I don’t consider any of that’s true.
4 days after Jason died, each of his kids have been interviewed by a social employee:
SOCIAL WORKER: Inform me why you’re right here.
JACK: Um, my dad died, and individuals are attempting — my aunt and uncle from my dad’s aspect are attempting to take me away. To take me away from my mother.
Molly Corbett, heart, with Jack and Sarah
Jack and Sarah are requested in regards to the evening their father died:
SARAH: My mother didn’t need my dad to get up as a result of that will not have been a very good factor.
SOCIAL WORKER: Inform me why it’s not a very good factor.
SARAH: As a result of he simply will get actually, actually indignant. He can be like, “why are you waking me up?”
Jack even explains the odd presence of the paving stone within the bed room:
JACK: It was in my mother’s room as a result of it was raining earlier, and we have been going to color it we didn’t need it getting all of it moist.
When a social employee asks the children about their dad and mom relationship, each appear to help Molly’s claims of abuse:
SOCIAL WORKER: Did you see him bodily harm her?
JACK: Um, a few times.
SOCIAL WORKER: What did you see?
JACK: Um, punching, hitting, pushing.
SOCIAL WORKER: Has anyone advised you what to say when different folks discuss to you?
SARAH: My mother simply stated, “say the truth,” . That’s all she stated.
However Lynch says that isn’t the reality.
Maureen Maher: You consider that Molly or somebody within the Martens household coached the youngsters?
Tracey Lynch: I’m sure of it.
The youngsters have been faraway from Molly’s care and positioned with Lynch, who was staying at a lodge in North Carolina because the custody battle waged on.
Tom and Molly have been allowed a go to., which was recorded on cellphone video. It could show to be one in all their final:
Tom Martens: Numerous folks love you. Numerous folks love you.
Molly Corbett: There’s tons and plenty and plenty of folks praying for you. And for us.
[Molly starts to cry, and Jack and Sarah hug her]
Molly Corbett: I like you a lot.
Jack Corbett: I like you, too.
Molly Corbett: I like you.
Sixteen days after Jason was overwhelmed to dying, Lynch prevails. Jack and Sarah can be heading again to Eire along with her and away from Molly, the one mom these kids have ever actually recognized.
Molly’s buddy: She was very, very devastated. She may barely operate. I imply, she was completely distraught.
Within the months following their return to Eire, Lynch says that Molly repeatedly tried to contact Jack and Sarah, posting quite a few messages on social media, hoping that someone in Limerick would cross them on to the youngsters.
Maureen Maher: Did you’re feeling that Molly had any rights to them in any respect?
Tracey Lynch: No. Molly had murdered their father. And that’s what I firmly believed at that time.
Lynch had a brand new battle on her arms: justice for Jason.
Tracey Lynch: After the post-mortem … I recall the sheriff saying that, “It was blunt force trauma.”
She was advised that Jason suffered at the least a dozen blows to the pinnacle.
Struck with the baseball bat and the brick, Jason Corbett suffered at the least a dozen blows to the pinnacle.
Davidson County Courthouse
Tracey Lynch: I checked out my brother within the coffin and witnessed simply the devastation that one human can inflict on one other.
After these first interviews, Molly and Tom heard nothing extra from authorities. Regardless of Molly being advised that the assault on Jason regarded like self-defense, a homicide investigation really kicked into full gear. And in January 2016, 5 months after Jason died, father and daughter are shocked when they’re charged with second-degree homicide.
Mike Earnest: I imply, in fact, they’re devastated.
Tom Martens, the FBI veteran of 30 years, would now discover out what it’s like to sit down at a legal protection desk.
Maureen Maher: They have been each conscious of the likelihood that they won’t stroll out of that courtroom?
Mike Earnest: Appropriate.
A DAD & DAUGHTER ON TRIAL
Tracey Lynch: We have been beneath a lotta strain as a household, and , we have been involved. Have been they going to be charged? So, it was a aid that the fees have been introduced.
Tracey Lynch felt positive from the start that Molly and Tom didn’t kill her brother Jason in self-defense. In reality, she believes she is aware of the actual motive.
Tracey Lynch: There isn’t a shadow of a doubt in my thoughts that Jason was overwhelmed to dying as a result of he was going to go away with the children.
Mart Molly Corbett and Tom Martens have been charged with second-degree homicide within the dying of Molly’s husband, Jason.
Davidson County Courthouse
Lynch says Jason’s plans to maneuver again to Eire with Jack and Sarah however with out Molly had lastly come collectively. And she or he and Lynn consider Molly came upon that evening.
Lynn Shanahan | Jason’s longtime buddy: I feel Jason grew to become surplus to her necessities. She didn’t want him anymore. She simply needed the youngsters.
After realizing her for years, Lynn Shanahan thinks Molly had been plotting to get the children away from Jason for a while.
Lynn Shanahan: She was enjoying the lengthy recreation that she was tellin’ those that he had been abusive. She had her recordings. … She would have a case to get the youngsters from him.
Whereas awaiting the trial, Tracey Lynch settled Jack and Sarah into their new residence again in Eire. That they had intensive remedy, she says, and adjusted nicely.
9 months after returning to Limerick, Jack recanted what he’d advised social employees after his father was killed:
SOCIAL WORKER [via Skype from N.C.] Is it true that your father was abusive? Or false?
JACK: Um, false.
SOCIAL WORKER: What did Molly say?
JACK: We have been going to get interviewed. … She was saying lots of tales, making up tales about my dad saying that he was abusive. And she or he began saying, “if you don’t lie, I’ll never ever see you again.”
Jack says he solely has one motive for telling the reality now:
JACK: I discovered what occurred to my dad and I need justice to be served.
In 2019, Jack was 14 years previous and Sarah was 12. Whereas “48 Hours” visited Eire, the youngsters didn’t wish to be interviewed, however the household did permit video to be taken of them.
Molly Corbett and Tom Martens went on trial collectively in July 2017. Household and mates of each the Corbetts and the Martens turned out in drive.
Maureen Maher: What was it wish to be so shut, sitting by and — and in the identical room with Molly and Tom?
Tracey Lynch: It was very — very troublesome. … You’re sittin’ there and lookin’ at, , two folks … that had accomplished one thing that was so malicious and insidious and ferocious.
Prosecutor Alan Martin: We thought we had proof stacked up behind us a mile excessive.
Assistant District Lawyer Alan Martin was assured the state would show that Molly and Tom murdered Jason with malice.
Prosecutor Alan Martin: The viciousness and violence and excessiveness of the accidents that Jason suffered was actually the cornerstone of our case.
Not solely had the post-mortem said Jason suffered at the least a dozen blows to the pinnacle, the precise quantity couldn’t be decided, as a result of he’d been struck repeatedly in the identical spot.
Prosecutor Alan Martin: We regarded on the injury to his scalp. His scalp was actually ripped from his cranium. His cranium was crushed.
For comparability, the jury was proven photos of the defendants taken that very same evening.
Tracey Lynch: They didn’t have a scratch, an abrasion. … Molly had a fragile bracelet on her that — that evening that she continued to put on — all through the trial.
Martin says that makes Molly and Tom’s declare of self-defense a tricky promote.
Prosecutor Alan Martin: You can’t be engaged in a donnybrook, like they described, with a person who is greater than you, stronger than you, taller than you, and never have a mark on you. It’s simply not potential.
Jason Corbett homicide: A have a look at the proof
11 pictures
A blood spatter knowledgeable bolstered that argument.
Prosecutor Alan Martin: He can inform by trying on the spatter on the wall that Jason’s head was 12 to 18 inches off the ground when a number of the blows have been struck.
Martin says that meant Tom was standing over Jason, nonetheless swinging, after Jason may not have been a menace.
Mike Earnest: I’ve recognized Tom Martins for 50 years. … This isn’t somebody who loses management. This isn’t somebody who’s going to kill somebody out of malice. … I completely don’t consider there’s any manner Tom would hit him whereas he’s down.
The protection pointed to pictures that confirmed Molly did have that pink mark on her neck. And a nurse practitioner testified that at a checkup simply two weeks earlier than he died, Jason stated he’d been extra burdened recently.
Mike Earnest: He had complained of getting indignant for no obvious cause.
One strand of lengthy, blonde hair was present in Jason’s hand. It was seemingly Molly’s however was by no means examined. And the post-mortem indicated there have been defensive wounds to Jason’s left arm however to not his proper – the one during which he supposedly held Molly.
Tom Martens prpeares to stroll Molly down the aisle on her marriage ceremony day.
Nonetheless claiming he did what any father would do to guard his youngster, the protection’s star witness, Tom Martens, takes the stand. No cameras have been allowed however there’s audio:
TOM MARTENS [testifying]: He stated he was going to kill Molly. …I definitely felt he would kill me. I felt each of our lives have been at risk. I did the most effective I may.
Molly didn’t testify and the protection was not allowed to supply proof relating to Jason’s alleged abuse.
TOM MARTENS [testifying]: I didn’t like a few of Jason’s conduct, notably in regard to my daughter. That doesn’t imply that I demonized the person.
Martens testifies he went solely so far as he needed to:
TOM MARTENS [testifying]: As soon as I received management of the bat, I hit him till I thought-about the menace to be over and after I thought-about the menace to be over, I stop hitting him. I thought-about the menace to be over when he went down.
Throughout closing arguments, Alan Martin used the bat and paving stone from the Corbett bed room to hit residence his level on the prosecution desk:
PROSECUTOR ALAN MARTIN: How a lot drive [hits bat on table] does it take [hits bat on table] to separate the flesh [hits bat on table] all the way in which to the cranium? … You realize what malice seems like when it comes from the brick that Molly had? It seems like, I hate him. I need these youngsters [hits table twice with the brick]. That’s what malice seems like.
After 9 days of testimony, arguments and graphic crime scene pictures, the jury deliberated for simply three hours.
Prosecutor Alan Martin: In the event that they’re coming again this quick with two unanimous verdicts, that’s a very good signal.
Molly Corbett and Tom Martens have been discovered responsible of second-degree homicide
Tracey Lynch: It was simply overwhelming aid actually.
Jason Corbett
Tracey Lynch
Prosecutor Alan Martin [in tears]: They beat him horribly and viciously. And no human being deserves to go away their marital bed room with their cranium destroyed like what occurred to Jason.
Maureen Maher: Had you been considering that it was potential {that a} responsible verdict would possibly come again?
Connor Martens: I didn’t suppose it was potential that each of them can be convicted of second-degree homicide.
Molly and Tom have been instantly sentenced to 20-to-25 years in jail. That’s when Molly rotated in court docket and stated one thing to her mom.
Mike Earnest: “I’m so sorry. I should have just let him kill me.”
Because it seems, this case could also be removed from over.
TRIAL AND ERROR?
After the verdicts, as Tom Martens and Molly Corbett have been led off to jail, the jury foreman described his wrestle.
Jury foreman: You noticed tears. There have been tears. I even had just a few tears there whereas the verdicts have been being ran by means of.
Jury foreman: It wasn’t a straightforward choice. Someone’s life adjustments.
After which, he blurted out one thing that might doubtlessly put these freshly-minted verdicts in jeopardy.
Jury foreman: We didn’t focus on the decision, however in having personal conversations, everyone — we may learn that everyone was stepping into the identical path.
Did the foreman simply admit the jury mentioned the case previous to deliberations? If that’s the case, that will be a direct violation of the choose’s each day directions to attend.
Prosecutor Alan Martin disagrees.
Prosecutor Alan Martin: It’s been pounced upon as to say: aha, these folks received collectively and began deliberating earlier than they have been alleged to. … What I hear is: we’re a bunch of people that have been sitting collectively seeing all these occasions transpire within the courtroom collectively. … With out speaking about it, we will learn one another’s physique language whereas we’re within the courtroom.
However inside days, the protection filed a movement to have the decision thrown out based mostly on jury misconduct. The trial choose denied that movement, however one yr later, the protection went to the appellate court docket — this time arguing there have been quite a few errors at trial.
Mike Earnest: There’s a part of me that, , type of perhaps has some thankfulness that so many errors have been made at trial that leaves room for a correct appellate choice in favor of Tom and Molly.
Markers point out blood spatter on Tom Martens’ boxer shorts. These spots have been by no means examined, however the prosecution argues the spatter signifies that Tom was standing over Jason as he hit him with the baseball bat.
Davidson County Courthouse
For one factor, there have been blood stains on the hem of Tom’s boxer shorts that the state stated indicated he had been standing over Jason as he swung the bat. These stains have been assumed to be Jason’s blood, however they have been by no means examined.
Prosecutor Alan Martin: It’s not sensible, cheap or possible to check each single blood spot in each location.
Then there’s the matter of the statements from Jack and Sarah. Molly’s brother, Connor Martens, is upset that the trial choose didn’t permit them in.
Connor Martens: The youngsters’ assertion say that Jason was an abuser. And people interviews have been carried out in skilled environments on a number of events the place Molly was not current.
Maureen Maher: And to the allegation from the Jason aspect of the household that they have been coached by Molly?
Connor Martens: The interviews have been carried out by professionals. And that’s their job. … Why would the prosecution attempt so onerous to forestall that from coming from trial? It’s solely proof for the jury. Allow them to make that call.
Jack’s assertion recanting what he’d stated after he’d returned to Eire was additionally by no means heard by the jury:
SOCIAL WORKER [via Skype from N.C.]: Is it true that your father was abusive? Or false?
JACK: Um, false.
The Martens household has maintained all alongside it’s that assertion that was coached:
JACK [to social worker]: She was saying, making lots of tales saying that my dad was abusive.
Maureen Maher: Do you suppose that the recanting ought to be allowed in too?
Connor Martens: I don’t suppose so beneath the circumstances. But when they’ll’t, then the jury can discern which is truthful.
In January 2019, the state appeals court docket makes the uncommon transfer to permit oral arguments in Molly and Tom’s case. As soon as once more, each households flock to the courthouse with Lynch flying in from Limerick.
Tracey Lynch: There may be at all times one other step, or there’s at all times one thing else to face.
Neither Tom nor Molly are current within the courtroom.
Maureen Maher: How does she really feel her chances are high with the attraction?
Molly’s buddy: I don’t know. I feel that she is cautiously optimistic. However I feel that there’s lots of hopelessness, too. It’s onerous to belief the system after what they’ve gone by means of.
Both sides has only a half hour to make its most essential factors. The protection goes first:
DEFENSE ATTORNEY: There are a selection of statements from the youngsters together with, “dad got mad for no reason.” … It was error to exclude them.
However the prosecution pushes again:
PROSECUTOR: The truth that someone makes an announcement doesn’t imply it’s reliable. … The youngsters didn’t wish to return to Eire. …That they had mates, that they had faculties. They have been used to the USA. They rode horses. They lived in a pleasant home. They have been snug.
The protection makes an impassioned argument about jury misconduct.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY: A juror is confessing on the courthouse steps not even an hour after the decision that they engaged in personal conversations.
Maureen Maher: Are you involved about this attraction?
Lynn Shanahan: Effectively, I’m not involved about it. … I feel the case was actually, actually robust.
Mike Earnest says it’s power of a distinct variety that retains Tom going.
Mike Earnest: Tom, I feel, whilst he sits on this atrocious miscarriage of justice is aware of that he saved his daughter’s life. And, , I feel he can sleep at evening realizing that even when she is in jail, she’s not lifeless.
Again in Eire, Tracey Lynch waits for the appeals court docket’s choice. She’s written a ebook about this case and Jason.
Tracey Lynch: I wrote the ebook to present him again his character. The Martens, Molly Martens specifically, tried to destroy his character.
Tracey Lynch [reading from book]: “I smile briefly to myself as I realize that Jason eventually found himself back in the only place on this Earth he ever wanted to be — in the arms of his beloved Mags.”
She finds consolation that her brother is buried in Limerick, subsequent to his first spouse and the mom of his kids.
Jason Corbett is buried in Limerick, Eire, subsequent to Mags, his first spouse and the mom of his kids. Their marriage ceremony picture is on their shared gravestone.
Tracey Lynch [at gravesite]: Jack and Sarah picked out the image to vary on the gravestone from Mags to each of them. … I hope they’re collectively someplace.
Tracey Lynch: The reminiscences simply float to the floor, and , they’ll at all times be a part of our lives.
In March 2021, the North Carolina Supreme Court docket ordered a brand new trial for Molly Corbett and her father, Tom Martens. The 2 have been launched on bond the next month.
In October 2023, Molly Corbett pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter. Tom Martens pleaded responsible to the identical cost. The second diploma homicide cost was dropped.
They have been every sentenced to a different 7 to 30 months in jail and have been launched from custody in June 2024.
Sarah Corbett Lynch has written a kids’s ebook sequence on dealing with loss.
