Latest news with #MollyMartens
Daily Mail
13 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Beauty queen Molly Martens who killed her husband alongside FBI agent father planned to buy 'black market sperm' and get pregnant without him knowing a year before bludgeoning him
Husband killer Molly Martens had a secret plan to buy 'black market sperm' on the internet so she could get pregnant, according to the Irish Times. Molly, 41, from Knoxville in Tennessee, and her father Tom Martens, beat her husband Jason Corbett, 39, from Limerick, to death in 2015. Father-of-two Jason had been beaten with a baseball bat and concrete brick, sustaining so many injuries a coroner was unable to count them all. Tom and Molly, who always claimed she acted in self-defence, were convicted of second-degree murder at their first trial in 2017 but this was overturned on appeal. In October 2023, they accepted a plea deal for voluntary manslaughter on the theory of imperfect self-defence or defence of another. Molly Martens pleaded no contest and Tom Martens pleaded guilty to the charge - they were released in June 2024. Jason and Molly wed in June 2011. She was his second wife: his first wife Margaret 'Mags' Fitzpatrick Corbett died tragically in 2006 following an asthma attack. The couple, who got married in 2003, had been living in Limerick, Ireland. They shared children Jack and Sarah. When Mags died, Jason was left widowed at 30 with a 12-week-old baby daughter and two-year-old son. Two years after the death of his first wife, Jason hired then 24-year-old Molly Martens, who was a former beauty queen, to be the children's nanny and the pair quickly fell in love, which would eventually lead to the couple marrying, and the family moving to Meadowlands, North Carolina. Speaking to CBS News' 48 Hours in 2019, Jason's sister Jocelyn said the family 'began to see glimpses of the old Jason coming back' when he became involved with Molly. She added: 'He wasn't so sad all the time.' According to the Irish Times, Molly was welcomed into the family by the children she once looked after - and was even lovingly referred to as their 'mom'. However, according to reports, the pair were in conflict over whether Jason was going to let her legally adopt Sarah and Jack - making her their mother in the eyes of the law. Meanwhile, Jason was said to be unhappy, and considering a move back to Ireland - which would have meant Molly would have lost the children. The Irish Times reports how neighbours said she had another way to have children, claiming that one year before killing Jason, Molly told them she was planning to buy sperm from from Craigslist, and get pregnant by another man, behind his back. According to Brian Carroll, the author of A Deadly Marriage - which is based on his four-year investigation into the case - police records show that Molly also told neighbours - including Jerusha Maddock - in their exclusive Meadowlands golf community that her parents had given her $10,000 (£7,400) to buy fertility drugs, and that she was planning to use them in conjunction with sperm that had 'superior DNA' compared to her husband's. He cites summary notes of Molly's conversations with Jerusha Maddock, written by assistant district attorneys Greg Brown and Ina Stanton, which say: 'Molly called Jerusha needing a favour. She first asked Jerusha if Jerusha had space in her fridge, then asked to come in the house. 'Molly had a mini-cooler. Inside were fertility drugs. Molly wanted Jerusha to store them in Jerusha's fridge so Jason would not find them. Molly said her parents had paid for the drugs and that Jason did not know about them. Jerusha took a photo of the drugs so Jerusha could not be accused of anything later.' Molly came up with the plan after Jason had already spent $25,000 (£18,500) on unsuccessful fertility treatments for his wife. Writing in the Irish Times, Brian said that neighbours were asked by Molly to hold onto the fertility drugs so Jason didn't find them. The author adds that she revealed her plans to at least two of her neighbours. She is also said to have told neighbours that she was planning to buy 'upper crust' sperm from a friend of her brother. Around this time, it is believed that Jason's relationship with his father-in-law had worsened and Tom, who had been an FBI agent for some 30 years, reportedly encouraged Molly to divorce him. A year after making these claims, Jason was killed by Molly and Tom Martens, with Tom claiming he only intervened because his son-in-law was strangling his daughter. Molly would go on to claim she had been a victim of domestic abuse at Jason's hands - something his family has strongly denied. Molly claims she was woken up in the middle of the night by Jason's daughter Sarah - who had had a nightmare. The children's step-mother says Jack and Sarah would whisper at the bedroom door to get Molly's attention as they knew they weren't supposed to wake up Jason. After getting Sarah back to sleep in her room, Molly claims she returned to bed and accidentally disturbed Jason - who was furious that she had 'coddled' the eight-year-old. Downstairs, Molly's father - who had made an impromptu overnight visit with wife Sharon - said he heard 'thumping' and instantly felt something 'wasn't right'. Molly claims Jason wanted to make her be quiet so he covered her mouth and started choking her. 'At some point, when he stopped, I screamed, and he started again, and the next thing I remember is my dad standing in the doorway,' she told ABC. Thomas claims he walked into the couple's bedroom to find Jason with Molly in a chokehold. He says his son-in-law told him he was going to kill Molly as he dragged her towards their bathroom. At this point, Thomas claims he hit Jason in the back of the head with a metal baseball bat - but then alleges the Irish father was strong enough to grab it off of him. The pair claim a struggle ensued as Molly feared Jason would then hit Thomas with the bat. She added: 'I'm trying' to hit him with the bat, and hit him with this end of the bat, and hit him with my elbow, and hit him with my fist, or anything else... but I'm going to hang onto that bat. And he goes down, and I've got the bat... and I back off.' Thomas was the one to call 911 and a recording of the conversation reveals how he calmly told emergency services: 'My son-in-law got in a fight with my daughter, I intervened and he's in bad shape. We need help.' He added: 'He's bleeding all over and I may have killed him.' Molly claims her husband was strangling her and yelling 'I'm going to kill you' when her father intervened. Emails between Molly and Jason, which were released in response to a public records request, show fractures in the relationship before the couple married. One sent from Jason to Molly read: 'I won't be able to make a go of it in the States under this emotional pressure you are placing on me... you just accuse me of things off the cuff when you have no valid reason for doing so. Please think about what I actually said in conversation and point out what I did wrong. You bang the phone down, you sound like an emotional wreck. I'm moving to your country to be with you, I need YOU to be strong for us and not constantly crying, accusing me of things, banging down phones. You are supposedly getting what you want and yet you sound more sad now than ever.' Another email he sent to her before the wedding said: 'Is there anything I can do to make you happy. I've done everything. And still you hate yourself, hit yourself, cry in the shower, vomit, curse, shout at me. I feel so inadequate Molls. I've given you everything in my life including my and my kids hearts and I know you love us so so much but you still in the last three days only have done all the above things. I don't know what to do.' Meanwhile, emails sent from Molly to Jason show how she would chastise him over his 'loser sperm'. And Jason sent himself email records which catalogued things she had said to him, which include the 'loser sperm' jibe, as well as criticisms she made about his weight. One of his emails to himself (which he sent in March 2014, some four months before Molly purchased the infertility drugs) said: 'Molly says I'm so sick in the head. B**** I wished dead. I need more of the bed because I'm so fat. My boobs are bigger than hers. Loser sperm, loser sperm. Kids probably aren't even mine because of my loser sperm.' Following Jason's killing, in February 2016, the father and daughter pled not guilty to murder during Davidson Superior Court during a hearing. Greg Brown, the attorney representing the state of North Carolina in the case, said the crime was especially 'heinous, atrocious and cruel'. Both applied for bail, which was granted on the condition that $200,000 was lodged with the court for each defendant, that they surrender their passports and agree to cease all contact with Jason's immediate family, specifically his children Jack and Sarah. After their father's death, the two children were interviewed by officers who upheld Molly's claims that Jason 'physically and verbally hurt' their step-mother. Eight-year-old Sarah said at the time: 'He would scream at my mom every day, or sometimes twice a day. He would fight with her. One time I saw him step on her foot. He called her bad names.' In a separate interview, Jack said: 'He would physically and verbally hurt my mom. She would cry and try to plug her ears. Sometimes she would just curl herself up in a ball. It made me very sad and angry.' The children both also recalled being coached by Molly's mother Sharon to call her and use the code-words 'peacock' and 'galaxy' if their father turned violent. However, Sarah said she never actually had to put the plan into action - and simply practised a lot. Following their return to Ireland, Jack and Sarah recanted their statements - a move which Molly and Thomas' legal team have claimed was influenced by Jason's family. As a result, the judge deemed Sarah and Jack Corbett's initial statements inadmissible when the case went to trial. While the father and daughter never denied killing Jason, they always claimed they had acted in self-defence, with Thomas telling 20/20 in 2017: 'I'm going to do everything that I have to do to save her life. And if I die trying, well… she's my daughter. I'm not going to live with not trying. I'll tell you that.' He also said while giving evidence that he believed Jason was going to kill him, and that he continued to hit the father-of-two with a baseball bat until he felt Jason was no longer a threat. However, during the 2017 trial, prosecutors disputed claims that Molly and Tom Martens acted in self-defence, arguing that they started attacking Jason when he was asleep in bed. They said blood spatter on Tom's shorts indication that Jason had been hit while he was lying down. In addition, paramedics who had attended the scene said that Jason was cool to the touch - suggesting that the Martens had delaying contacting emergency services, to ensure that the father-of-two could not be saved. The prosecution team also argued that Jason and Molly had been in disagreement over whether she could adopt his two children in the lead-up to his death - something she wanted to do. In their closing statements, the prosecution claimed that Molly Martens 'bashed Jason's skull' after learning that he wanted to take the children back to Ireland. Jason's autopsy showed he died from blunt force trauma to his head. The description of the 'means of death' is a 'ball bat and landscaping stone'. During the trial, forensic experts argued that the physical evidence - including blood splatter patterns - proved that Jason sustained severe head injuries while on his bedroom floor. It has also been suggested that Jason sustained wounds post-mortem - meaning he was beaten after he died. After just hours of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict for both Tom and Molly. They were sentenced to 20-25 years in prison. After finding the father and daughter guilty, juror Miriam Figueroa said they did not believe the choking incident took place as Molly never had any reported injuries from the hospital at the time. 'The evidence to me did not suggest that the story that was fabricated ever occurred,' she said. 'There was no doubt in my mind that I made and my fellow jurors made the right choice.' 'Once you hit a certain point and you do not stop, manslaughter or self-defence goes off the table. Once that point was matched where you could have stopped then and there, once the person was no longer an aggressor, if that were the case, and you continue, it's no longer self-defence.' Figueroa claimed the duo allowed some time to pass before contacting 911, suggesting that, if they were victim in the event, the call would have been their top priority. 'I think at some point dad came to help out and cover it up. There was blood on the pillow and on the comforter. That may have been the first blow, and then it progressed from that point where he got out of bed and she might have struck him more than one time in bed,' Figueroa speculated. Nancy Perez - who was another juror - said she struggled with Molly and Thomas' self-defence argument due to the graphic photos from the crime juror said she threw up in the courtroom after being shown a photo of Jason Corbett's body. After the guilty verdict was read in court, Molly Corbett said: 'I'm really sorry to my mom, he should have just killed me' according to ABC News. In 2020, the pair appealed and a new trial was ordered on the basis that some evidence was left out of their first trial that should have been shown to the jury. The North Carolina Supreme Court upheld that decision in 2021. This included evidence the defence said could have explained Tom Martens' state of mind on the night of the killing. They also argued that the children's statements should have been admissible. Towards the end of 2023, the judge accepted plea deals for involuntary manslaughter, in exchange for dropping the second degree murder charges. Instead of a whole new trial, the father-daughter pair had a sentencing hearing. At the hearing, the court was played a recording Molly had made of Jason in which he could be heard shouting at his wife for not preparing a meal that he wanted to eat with Jack and Sarah. Instead, Molly had fed the children early and taken them to play in the snow before Jason returned home from work. Jason is heard saying: 'I'm talking to you! Is this how you treat... you just ignore me? I said I'd like to have dinner with my family. I'm talking to you. I shouldn't have to say it over and over.' The short clip ends with Sarah screaming at Molly and Jason to try and put an end to the argument. It was argued by the prosecutor that this was manufactured evidence, and Molly had created the scenario to obtain the recording. However, it was used as a mitigating factor when it came to resentencing, and the pair were told they would have to serve just 51 and 74 months behind bars, according to reports. But each will served just seven months more in prison due to the good behaviour sentencing reduction earned during the 44 months they'd already served, their attorneys said Each will serve only seven months behind bars, thanks to good behaviour sentencing reduction earned during the 44 months they've already served, their attorneys said. Ahead of their release from prison the following June, North Carolina's former sheriff David Grice said Molly and Tom 'got off with a slap' for the 'gruesome' crime. The former sheriff wrote on social media: 'They got off with a slap. I have had to bite my tongue for years for fear of saying something which could have affected the appeals. It was a gruesome crime scene. I believe they (Tom and Molly) just spent enough money on appeals until the courts got worn down and accepted their last appeal.' According to the Irish Independent, Molly spent almost $200,000 from the sale of the house she shared with her late husband and his children on her legal bills. The publication also claims Molly's parents Tom and Sharon spent their life savings on lawyers fighting for the pair's freedom. In February this year, Jason and Mags' daughter Sarah Corbett Lynch, who moved back to Limerick, Ireland, with her brother following their father's death in 2015, to live with their aunt, published a memoir. In addition, Sarah claims that her stepmother had been controlling. For a start, she says that Molly, now 41, would tell people she was the children's birth mother. When they were in elementary school, she allegedly dyed their hair blond to look more like her but told Jason they were going through a 'phase'. And the alleged abuse didn't end there. Sarah claims that Molly would punch and slap the children when they 'misbehaved' - and says she once had to 'drag' her stepmom off a battered Jack when he was curled up on the ground in pain. But Molly's biggest flashpoint, Sarah says, was their birth mother, Margaret. 'Molly hated Jack or me talking about her,' Sarah recalls. Molly allegedly taunted them with claims that Margaret, who had died of an asthma attack in 2006, had been murdered by their father. 'Molly didn't have to warn us not to tell our dad,' Sarah recalls. 'We knew that, if we told him what she'd said, we'd get punished.' In the days after their father's death, Sarah and Jack had made statements to police and social workers which upheld Molly's claims that Jason had been abusive. However, following their return to Ireland in 2015 - where they were adopted by Jason's sister, Tracey Lynch, and her husband, David - they recanted the statements, which were then deemed inadmissible in court. Sarah says she is now haunted by those statements, which she says she was 'coached' into making. She alleges that Molly told her and her brother that if they didn't lie, they would be separated. Sarah said: 'We loved [Molly] and thought she was telling the truth. It was a combination of manipulation, gaslighting and coercive control. We were abused, didn't know it was abuse and were let down by a system that didn't recognize it as abuse.' Molly has denied the allegations. A statement from her lawyer cited the 2023 retrial, saying: 'The court found that it was Jack and Sarah's original statements about their abusive father that was 'the truth,' not the later claims made after they came under the influence of Tracey Lynch. The two forensic interviewers of the children, trained to spot lying and coaching, both said that the children had not been coached and told the truth.' They added: 'The children's original statements were corroborated by five brave women who came forward to testify about Jason's physical and emotional abuse of Molly and by a tape recording of Jason's abuse. The court further found that Molly acted that night in response to Jason's threat, duress, coercion and provocation.' As Sarah never got the opportunity to appear in court, she has said she hopes her book will help clear her father's name. She said: 'I wrote A Time For Truth as a tribute to our dad. He was a victim of abuse, but Jack and I survived it. Despite what happened, we're living our lives as fully as possible - in a way that would make Dad proud.'
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
New evidence in a deadly marriage: Jason was bludgeoned to death by his second wife and father-in-law in the most gruesome way imaginable. Now a book reveals a shock twist, a hair that could change everything... and the questions that must now be answered
US prosecutors described Sharon Martens as the 'void' in the Martenses' story: a wife, mother and grandmother who saw her husband rush upstairs with a baseball bat, heard her daughter screaming, and knew her grandchildren might be in danger… yet her response was to fall asleep. Sharon and her husband Tom had arrived at their daughter Molly and son-in-law Jason's Meadowlands home at 8.30pm on August 1, 2015, seven hours before the former FBI agent and Molly beat Jason to death with a baseball bat and a brick.
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Irish Times
How an anonymous phone call helped convict Molly and Tom Martens of Jason Corbett's killing
Sitting in Cagney's Kitchen, a classic American diner deep in the North Carolina countryside, retired sheriff David Grice pauses over his breakfast of pancakes with buttered syrup and bacon to reflect on a key moment in the Jason Corbett homicide investigation – an anonymous call to the detective unit. The diner is just a few miles from the Meadowlands home where Corbett, from Limerick, was beaten to death in August 2015, aged 39, by his American wife, Molly Martens (31) and her father, Thomas (Tom), a former FBI agent. Although convicted of second-degree murder in 2017 and sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison, the Martenses' convictions were quashed on appeal in March 2021. Avoiding a retrial, they entered a plea deal in October 2023, which saw Tom plead guilty, and Molly plead 'no contest' to the charge of voluntary manslaughter. Handed seven-month sentences, they were freed in June 2024. Legally the case was over, but so many questions remained, not just for Corbett's family but for the detectives who had spent eight years investigating the killing. For Grice it began on August 2nd, 2015, when he was awoken by a 5am phone call. He drove 80km to Meadowlands to view the scene. Jason's body had been removed and CSI officers had bagged a bloodied brick and baseball bat found in the master bedroom, but Grice instinctively knew the descending pattern of blood spatter on the south wall did not match the 'self-defence' story the Martenses had told detectives. The scene was so bloody, one of the first responders asked Molly where the gun was, as he assumed Jason had been shot. READ MORE . Sheriff Grice's instincts were shared by the three lead detectives on the case – Lieut Wanda Thompson and detectives Michael Hurd and Brandon Smith. To secure search warrants early in the investigation, all three filed supporting affidavits stating their suspicions about the Martenses' claims of self-defence. [ Fresh information in Netflix documentary sheds new light on the killing of Jason Corbett Opens in new window ] More than 10,000 pages of new documentation, released following a public records request, make clear that the assistant district attorney for Davidson County, Alan Martin, shared the detectives' concerns, particularly over the weapons used. A baseball bat and a brick were not typical weapons used in a crime of passion, he said, and were generally not items often found in someone's bedroom. Tom Martens claimed, in his voluntary police interview with detectives Smith and Hurd hours after the killing, that he brought the baseball bat as a gift for his step-grandson, Jack, Jason's 10-year-old son from his first marriage. Martens said he and his wife, Sharon, both 65, had spontaneously decided that Saturday to drive 4¾ hours from their Tennessee home to Meadowlands, the affluent neighbourhood where Molly lived with Jason, a manager of a paper packaging plant. The detectives found it strange that any grandparent would bring a gift for one grandchild, but nothing for the other – they had not brought a gift for Jason's eight-year-old daughter, Sarah . Tom had met Jack that night, yet he did not give him the bat. The caller told detective Hanna it would 'not be good for me in Tennessee' if he revealed his identity Grice felt the 480km road trip was suspicious, especially as Tom said he was due at work in Tennessee on Monday. His was no ordinary job. He was a counterintelligence officer with the US Department of Energy, charged with protecting US energy secrets from hostile foreign spies. He had a Q Level security clearance at Oak Ridge National Laboratory – one of two sites where the atomic bomb was developed during the second World War – the highest security clearance issued by the department. Martens would later be psychologically assessed – in court documents submitted to the sentencing hearing in 2023 – as a classic Type A personality, calm and unemotional, driven by rules and facts. He was not a spontaneous character. Exhibit 124: Thomas Martens at police station The prosecutors and the investigators all wondered whether Tom had in fact been summoned to North Carolina by Molly. Then the anonymous call came. Det Mark Hanna received the call at 6.50pm on Friday, August 14th, 2015, the same day Molly was in court testifying in a guardianship hearing, where she was battling Jason's sister, Tracey Lynch, for custody of Jack and Sarah. Lynch had been named as Jason's preferred guardian for Jack and Sarah in his will, but Molly wanted a US court to override this and grant her sole custody, as she had been the children's de-facto mother for seven years. She had joined the family as an au pair in March 2008, a year and four months after Jason's first wife, Mags Fitzpatrick, died aged 31. Molly and Jason moved to the United States and married in 2011. The caller told detective Hanna it would 'not be good for me in Tennessee' if he revealed his identity, but he encouraged detectives to look at Tom's phone records. He said the Martenses were lying about their impromptu visit to Molly. In fact Tom had had dinner plans that evening with his boss, Selin Warnell, who was a former CIA station chief in Tokyo and Seoul, before becoming head of the counterintelligence unit at Oak Ridge. The caller told Hanna that Tom had cancelled the dinner plans and sought Monday off work 'due to an issue with Molly'. The caller advised detective Hanna to interview all of Tom's 12 colleagues in the counterintelligence unit. 'The male subject on the phone asked if I was aware that Mr Martens hated his son-in-law. The male stated that Mr Martens made comments to his coworkers about hating his son-in-law.' All the detectives met the following Monday, August 17th, to discuss interviewing Tom's coworkers. That Monday the judge in the guardianship hearing, Brian Shipwash, ruled that the children should be taken from Molly and raised in Ireland by Tracey Lynch. Shipwash later told The Irish Times he believed Molly felt a 'deranged entitlement' to the children, and he was worried about her mental health. Exhibit 116: Molly Martens at police station As Lynch was reunited with Jack and Sarah – bar a brief call with Jack lasting less than a minute, the Martenses had refused to allow her contact with the children for 15 days after the killing – detectives prepared to travel to Tennessee. Tom and his boss were close – Warnell gave Molly and Jason two gifts at their 2011 wedding: a rocking chair and a crib. The crib was never used. Despite the couple spending $25,000 on fertility treatments, Molly could not have children of her own. Detectives believed Molly's burning desire to be a mother was at the root of what happened at 160 Panther Creek Court in Meadowlands. Detectives suspected Molly found out Jason was leaving, panicked and summoned her parents. The anonymous tip-off only underscored their suspicions, according to Lieut Wanda Thompson, the head of the criminal investigations division in Davidson County. Lieut Wanda Thompson and Sheriff David Grice on her retirement in May 2018 'It must have been a real family emergency for him to cancel dinner with his boss,' Thompson told me in 2023. 'You might let friends down, but when your boss is a former CIA chief, that dinner was important. Why did he drop everything?' Detective case notes reveal how crucial the anonymous tip-off proved. It ultimately led detectives inside the counterintelligence unit where they learned that Tom 'hated' Jason and referred to him as 'that son-of-a-bitch son-in-law' and an 'asshole'. One former FBI agent told detectives that Tom was 'manipulative, calculative and a planner' and 'uses things and people to his own advantage'. It was 'odd' for Tom to cancel dinner with Warnell, because Tom was not 'spontaneous', the FBI agent added. Another colleague said Tom spoke of Molly's bipolar disorder and 'openly expressed his dislike for Jason'. Armed with these insights, detectives executed search warrants for Tom, Sharon, Molly and Jason's phone records on the days immediately before and after the killing. These records heightened the detectives' suspicions. Molly had 20 calls on her mobile phone on August 1st, beginning with a 2.21pm call from Tom. Fifteen minutes later Tom made the first of four calls to Jason, but Jason did not answer. On the fourth call, Tom was forwarded to Jason's messaging service, and he left a 37-second message. Sarah Corbett Lynch, daughter of Jason Corbett, on her memoir A Time for Truth Listen | 70:10 While Tom was trying to reach Jason, Molly had a two-minute call with Sharon. What did Molly tell her parents that Saturday to prompt the change in dinner plans and incite Tom to call Jason, the son-in-law he hated? About an hour later the Martenses set off for North Carolina. During the journey, there were 11 calls between Sharon and Molly. Jason's phone, laptop and home computer were all mysteriously missing from the crime scene and were never found. The detectives never discovered the content of Tom's 37-second message to Jason. Journalist Brian Carroll was co-producer of the Netflix film A Deadly American Marriage. A Deadly Marriage by Brian Carroll is published by Sandycove, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and is available from August 21st
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Irish Times
Molly Martens crashed car while ‘out of it' just weeks after killing Jason Corbett
Eleven days after losing custody of her stepchildren and less than a month after killing her Irish husband, Molly Martens drove through an intersection while 'out of it' and crashed into her parent's neighbour's brick mailbox, causing thousands of dollars in damages. Molly's parents, Tom and Sharon, arrived at the scene where they convinced their neighbour and another witness, a nurse, not to report the incident to police. Detectives from North Carolina travelled to Tennessee to investigate the crash and the cover-up in January 2016, two weeks after Molly and Tom Martens were charged with the August 2015 second-degree murder of Molly's husband, Limerickman Jason Corbett . Mr Corbett (39) was beaten to death with a baseball bat and a brick in the master bedroom of his North Carolina home by Tom (65) and Molly (31), who claimed they acted in self-defence. READ MORE The Martens were convicted of second-degree murder in a 2017 trial but the verdict was overturned on appeal. In October 2023, they received a reduced sentence under a plea deal they accepted for voluntary manslaughter. Both were released from prison in June 2024, having served four years and three months for the killing, which orphaned Jack (10) and Sarah (8) – Jason's children from his first marriage to Mags Fitzpatrick. Detectives Michael Hurd and Brandon Smith travelled to Knoxville, Tennessee, on January 18th, 2016 to investigate a tip-off that Molly Martens had been involved in an unreported car crash 11 days after losing her legal battle with Tracey Lynch, Jason's sister, for guardianship of Jack and Sarah. The detectives spoke to Stephen Eimers, a registered nurse and an EMT, who witnessed Molly 'blast through an intersection and strike a brick mailbox and electrical box'. Detective case notes, released following a public records request, reveal that Tom Martens covered up the car crash. Knox County Sheriff's Office confirmed to detectives Smith and Hurd that they had no police reports on file for the crash. The four-door Toyota sedan Molly was driving belonged to her younger brother, Connor. It was written off. Detectives established that despite not reporting the incident to police, Tom made a successful insurance claim to recover the value of the car, and to repair the $2,300 damage caused to the mailbox. Det Hurd's case notes reveal that on August 31st, 2015, around midday, Mr Eimers was driving through the Comblain Road neighbourhood when he witnessed the crash. Det Hurd took handwritten notes of Mr Eimers' statement: 'He went up to her. She was out of it, but [he] did not smell alcohol. She said [she was] not drinking ... Did not want police called. Leaves her name – Molly Corbett.' Mr Eimers remembered Molly Martens having a couple of bruises. 'Molly talked to Eimers about the children being taken away to Ireland.' The detective wrote. 'Eimers said that he believed she may have been impaired due to her glassy eyes but [he] did not smell anything on or coming from her.' The case notes continue: 'Eimers strongly suggested to call the police for the wreck. Molly and her mother (who had arrived at this time) denied wanting to call the police. They said her father would take care of it and would know what to do, he arrived shortly after. Tom arrived. None of the three [Molly, Tom or Sharon] wanted the police.' Weldon McBride the owner of the mailbox on Comblain Road confirmed that Tom, Sharon and Molly were insistent that the police should not be called. Sarah Corbett Lynch: 'My dad was abused, he was a victim' Listen | 70:10 'Tom Martens came to the house and introduced his self. When McBride suggested he was going to call the police. Tom said he didn't want the police and would handle it, pay for the damages. Tom's insurance contacted McBride and fixed the mailbox. McBride never spoke with Molly, only had interactions with Tom.' The detectives believed the car crash incident had added significance as it showed Tom had a history of cleaning up after Molly. Weeks after Mr Corbett was killed, detectives had learned from Tom's work colleagues in Tennessee that he spoke several times about problems Molly's bipolar disorder was causing him. The Martens completed their parole on June 6th last, meaning they can now move freely within the United States and live together in the family home.
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Yahoo
Daughter of Irish man beaten to death by American wife, her ex-FBI agent father rejects self-defense claims
A new documentary raises questions about the 2015 murder of an Irish-born man in his North Carolina home. Jason Corbett's American wife, Molly Martens, and her father, former FBI agent Thomas Martens, confessed to beating Corbett to death on Aug. 2, 2015, but they have maintained that they were acting in self-defense after Corbett apparently tried to choke his wife. "There were times when I thought, 'I'm gonna die,'" Molly Martens says in the documentary. The Martens were convicted in Corbett's death in 2017, but their convictions were overturned on appeal. In 2023, Thomas Martens pleaded guilty to beating Corbett to death with a bat and Molly Martens pleaded no contest, prompting their respective releases from prison in 2024. Model, Ex-fbi Agent Who Claimed Self-defense Plead In Her Irish Businessman Husband's Killing A Netflix documentary titled "A Deadly American Marriage," which premiered on May 9, follows the case and its many lingering questions, featuring interviews with both sides of the family, including Molly and Thomas Martens, as well as Corbett's two children, Jack and Sarah. Read On The Fox News App The filmmakers also spoke with Corbett's sister, who lives in Ireland and was eventually granted custody of her brother's two children with his first wife because she was listed as their legal guardian if anything ever happened to him. Model, 33, And Her Ex-fbi Agent Father Get 20 Years In Prison For Killing Husband Sarah told Fox News Digital she does not think her father got justice. "I definitely don't think justice has been served. I don't think it could ever be served, but definitely not what the Martens were given," she said. Now the author of a memoir titled, "A Time for Truth," Sarah says she felt the documentary accurately portrayed both her family and the Martens. Follow The Fox True Crime Team On X While the film leaves viewers with lingering questions, Sarah remains firm in her belief about what happened to her father. "Everyone knows that I believe that Molly and Tom murdered my dad. That's my belief," she said. "But that's not what they were convicted of. There's a lot of evidence [in 'A Time for Truth'] that points to that that doesn't get shown anywhere else. So, I think the book has a lot more detail in it." Ex-fbi Agent, Daughter Charged With Murdering Woman's Husband She added that her book is "not just sad" and has happy anecdotes about her father, as well. Fox News Digital reached out to Molly and Thomas Martens' respective attorneys. Molly Martens alleged that her husband was choking her when her father walked into the room and the deadly confrontation began, per local outlet WXII. A medical examiner determined that Corbett had injuries to his arms, legs and torso, as well as a fractured skull. The medical examiner said the man died of blunt force trauma and sustained at least 10 hits to the head. Sign Up To Get The True Crime Newsletter Corbett and Molly Martens met in 2008 following the death of Corbett's late wife, who suffered an asthma attack. Corbett then advertised for an au pair to help him care for his two children with his late wife and gave Molly the job. They were engaged in 2010 and married in 2011. Idaho Murders Timeline: Bryan Kohberger Plea Caps Yearslong Quest For Justice A former North Carolina FBI agent and prosecutor who knew of Thomas Martens said he was a talented agent who supervised a team of employees in Greensboro. "He had a good reputation – a very good reputation," Chris Swecker, now an attorney, told Fox News Digital. "He was in the Greensboro office of the FBI for a good while. I believe he was the supervisory resident agent up in Greensboro, which meant he was in charge of maybe 15 or 20 agents in a pretty active office in the Bureau." Swecker added that Thomas Martens would have had plenty of experience conducting interrogations, and that would have helped him as police interrogated him in Corbett's killing. "Without a doubt," Swecker said when asked if Thomas Martens' professional experience would help him in an interrogation. "He knows where the interrogator is going when he asks a question and… the piece of evidence or point he's trying to extract from him. It's a chess game, if you're trying to protect yourself and your daughter, for example." GET REAL-TIME UPDATES AT THE FOX NEWS True Crime Hub The former FBI agent described Corbett's killing as "one of those cases where you wonder if you ever really get the answers, and there's only two people that will ever know, and it's Tom and his daughter."Original article source: Daughter of Irish man beaten to death by American wife, her ex-FBI agent father rejects self-defense claims
