New NC trial ordered in slaying of Irish businessman that made headlines worldwide
%20(1).jpg "Jason Corbett, left, and Molly Martens on their wedding day in 2011.")
In 2015, a retired FBI agent beat his son-in-law to death with an aluminum baseball bat while his daughter added blows to the head with a brick, starting a six-year murder drama that continues to captivate the globe.
The death of Jason Corbett, an Irish businessman who had relocated to North Carolina, sparked headlines in his native country and turned Irish eyes to Davidson County, south of Winston-Salem, where he lived with his American wife, Molly.
The trial of Molly Corbett and her father Thomas Martens, the former agent, hinged on the pair’s plea of self-defense. During a five-week trial, Martens testified that he woke to find Jason Corbett choking his daughter and threatening to kill her, and that he bludgeoned his son-in-law in a bedroom melee he feared would take his life. Jurors, unconvinced, convicted both of second-degree murder.
But last week, the NC Supreme Court ruled the pair deserves a new trial, arguing in a lengthy opinion that the trial court blocked numerous pieces of evidence that would have bolstered the argument of self-defense.
The court’s ruling is set to free them both in a few weeks, bringing long-sought relief to their families fighting on their behalf.
Michael Earnest, Martens’ brother-in-law and Corbett’s uncle, described choking up in his car, receiving the news via text while driving.
“To tell you how overcome I was, my wife turned to me and said ‘Maybe I ought to drive,’” Earnest said. “It’s just an overwhelming moment. Not only are we gratified, I work in law enforcement, and I know people hear all the time about people getting out on a technicality. I’m a firm believer that in law enforcement, our role is pretty simple: You bring all the facts.”
The decision, meanwhile, has also reignited the attention overseas, placing North Carolina back in the Irish press.
From Dublin, The Irish Independent declared the slain Corbett’s family “overwhelmed” with supporters outraged by the ruling, including many well-wishers from North Carolina. Tracy Corbett Lynch and David Lynch, the slain man’s sister and brother-in-law, allege in the press that Molly Corbett killed her husband to gain custody of his children and collect insurance money.
“Despite our disappointment at this decision, by a 4-3 majority, to grant the Martens a retrial, we retain our faith in the US criminal justice system and our confidence that a jury will once again find the Martens guilty of this heinous crime,” said the Lynches in a widely printed statement.
The publicity adds to the case’s 2019 appearance on a segment of “48 Hours,” and Tracy Corbett Lynch’s book, “My Brother Jason,” in which she alleges Molly’s erratic mental behavior and desire to prey on a lonely widower, according to the Independent.
“I’m going to kill her”
After his first wife died in Ireland, court records said, Jason Corbett hired Molly as an au pair in 2007 or 2008. Their relationship turned romantic, and in 2011, the pair relocated to Davidson County as Jason transferred to a new office. The Corbetts married that year, caring for Jason’s young children Jack and Sarah.
Then in 2015, court records said, Molly’s parents Tom and Sharon Martens came for a visit, bringing Jack Corbett a baseball bat and tennis racket as a present. In the middle of the night, Tom later testified, he heard “a scream and loud voices ... like a matter of urgency,” and ran upstairs with the bat to find Jason choking his daughter.
“I’m going to kill her,” Jason said, according to the court’s opinion.
The two men struggled over the bat, the court wrote, but Martens struck Jason several times. Molly tried to hit him with a paving stone she had on her nightstand after her father lost the bat and fell to the floor.
“I hit him until I thought that he could not kill me,” Martens testified. “I thought that he was — I mean, he said he was going to kill Molly. I certainly thought he would kill me.”
The first ambulance crew on the scene found blood spattered on the walls and floor, records said, and when the first EMT touched Jason Corbett’s head, his fingers went through the skull.
Both Molly Corbett, now 37, and Martens, now 71, were sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Missing evidence
The case grew more complex in the months after the killing, and in her 55-page opinion for the court, Justice Anita Earls details key evidence jurors never heard.
Much of it stems from the Corbett children’s interview with social workers following their father’s death, statements excluded by the Davidson County trial court.
For one, Earls wrote, jurors did not hear Jack Corbett explain why his mother had a brick paver on her nightstand. In that interview, the opinion said, he explained that he and his mother had been working on a garden project and had wanted to paint the brick until rain stalled their plans.
Earnest, who is Martens’ brother-in-law, said jurors’ key question at trial centered on the brick’s presence on the scene.
Second, Earls wrote, Sarah Corbett told DSS that she had a nightmare on the night of the killing, prompting her mother to rush to her bedroom and making Jason Corbett angry to have been awakened. Third, both children said their father had grown increasingly angry and physically abusive.
Had jurors known any of this — explaining the presence of the murder weapon, the source of their argument and the nature of their marriage — they might have ruled different, Earls said.
“Without evidence supporting their account,” she wrote, “it was easier for the jury to conclude that Tom and Molly had invented their story in an effort to cover up their crime and falsely assert that they acted in self-defense.”
Jack Corbett later said in a Skype interview with a prosecutor that he had lied during those interviews and that Molly Corbett had tearfully coached their statements by telling them they would be sent to live with relatives with Ireland.
However, Earls wrote, “this evidence in no way calls into question all of the statements the children made which were relevant and probative to defendants’ self-defense claims.”
She added that doubt exists over the accuracy of Jack Corbett’s recollection in the Skype interview, noting that evidence shows Molly did not accompany Jack and Sarah to that interview.
“We have never held that only children who do not like their parents or who are blind to the potential consequences of a destabilizing family crisis possess a motivation for truthfulness,” Earls wrote, “and we reject the invitation to do so here.”
Three justices dissented from the majority, splitting the decision by party affiliation.
“The evidence against (the) defendants in this case was overwhelming,” wrote Justice Phil Berger Jr. “Each defendant had the opportunity to argue and present their arguments of self-defense to the jury.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 1:25 PM with the headline "New NC trial ordered in slaying of Irish businessman that made headlines worldwide."