Jason Corbett's killers, Molly and Tom Martens, complete North Carolina parole

Irish Times

5 hours ago

Tom
and
Molly Martens
, the North Carolina father and daughter jailed for the killing of Limerick man
Jason Corbett
, have completed their parole.
Records from the North Carolina Department of Corrections show the pair's one-year parole period was officially terminated on June 6th.
During that time, Tom Martens (75), a former FBI agent, and his daughter Molly (41) were subject to strict conditions, including where they could live and travel.
They were also subject to monitoring by parole officials in Davidson County, North Carolina.
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Neither came to the attention of authorities during this period, meaning they can now move freely within the United States and live together in the family home.
Their parole status has been officially changed to 'inactive', records show.
The killing of Mr Corbett, who was married to Molly, was recently the subject of a high-profile
Netflix documentary
which interviewed the victim's two children as well as the perpetrators.
[
Netflix documentary sheds new light on Jason Corbett killing
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In October 2023, the
Martens were sentenced
to a minimum of four years to include time already served under a plea deal they accepted for the voluntary manslaughter of Mr Corbett.
Both were
released from prison
just more than a year ago.
In their original 2017 trial, the Martens were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to between 20 and 25 years.
The court heard that in the early hours of August 2nd, 2015, paramedics were called to the home Mr Corbett (39) shared with Molly and his two young children Jack and Sarah, from a previous marriage in Ireland, at Panther Creek Court in a suburb of the North Carolina city of Winston-Salem.
Jason Corbett was killed by the Martens in August 2015. Photograph: Brendan Gleeson
They found Ms Martens attempting to carry out CPR on Mr Corbett, who had suffered traumatic injuries.
State prosecutors argued that the victim had been beaten to death with a baseball bat and a paving brick by Tom Martens because the Martens feared that if Mr Corbett returned to Ireland, the children would be taken from Molly Martens.
The prosecution also made the case that Molly Martens would benefit from a $600,000 (€518,000) life insurance policy. In their defence, the Martens argued the killing was in self-defence against an abusive spouse.
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Their 2017 second-degree murder conviction was overturned on appeal in 2020 and the retrial was moved from Davidson to Forsyth County due to the intensity of the media and public interest in the story.
Before the retrial began, the Martens accepted a plea deal for voluntary manslaughter in October 2023. The district attorney dropped the murder charges, but Judge David Hall advised them that a 'no-contest' admission, under North Carolina law, was taken to be an admission of a guilty plea.
Under the deal, Thomas Martens admitted hitting Mr Corbett on the head with a metal baseball bat and his daughter admitted striking him on the head or shoulder with a concrete landscaping brick.
The plea agreement stated that the 'autopsy and circumstances of the scene establish that at least some of the fatal blows inflicted were of a nature, number and level of force that exceeded what could have been reasonably necessary in furtherance of perfect self-defence'.