Latest news with #TomMartens
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
"I may have killed him" former FBI agent tells 911 after attack on son-in-law
In her first American television interview, the sister of an Irish businessman who was murdered in Winston-Salem, N.C., speaks out to "48 Hours" to defend his honor. An encore of "In Jason's Name" airs Saturday, May 24 t at 9/8c on CBS. Jason Corbett was beaten to death with a brick paver and a baseball bat in 2015 by his American au-pair-turned-wife, Molly Corbett, and her father, former FBI agent Tom Martens. Corbett and Martens maintained they killed Jason Corbett in self-defense after he tried to strangle Molly. They claimed he was abusive to Molly for years and he had been threatening to kill Molly the night he died. Prosecutors said Corbett's death was murder. Now, Tracey Lynch is trying to set the record straight on her slain brother. "They claimed it was self-defense," Lynch tells "48 Hours"' Maureen Maher. "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 Ireland, who suddenly found himself a widower when his first wife died of an asthma attack. He then decided he needed help with the children and hired Molly Martens, originally from Knoxville, Tenn. Soon, their relationship turned romantic, and they were married. Shortly after, they moved to the United States. That's where the story turns leading up to the fateful night of August 2, 2015. Tom Martens told a 911 dispatcher that his son-in-law got into fight with his daughter and he had to intervene. "He's bleeding all over, and I, I may have killed him," he said. Molly also told police that Jason, then 39, was "screaming 'I'm going to kill you.'" "I just couldn't process it," Lynch says of her brother's death. "It was that, you know, he was my best friend. We were just two of the closest people in the world to each other outside my husband and children." Lynch tells Maher that before his death her brother said he was unhappy and wanted to move home to Ireland. "He said she was acting strange," Lynch says of Molly Corbett. "He would open up and say they were having difficulties, and then he would change the subject." Molly Corbett and Tom Martens were arrested and charged with killing Jason Corbett. They were convicted of second-degree murder in 2017 but have maintained their innocence. In March 2021, the North Carolina Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Molly Corbett and her father, Tom Martens. The two were released on bond the following month. In October 2023, Molly Corbett pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter. Tom Martens pleaded guilty to the same charge. The second-degree murder charge was dropped. They were each sentenced to another 7 to 30 months in prison. In June 2024, Molly Corbett and Tom Martens both completed their sentences and were released from prison. Rubio interrupted at Senate hearing during remarks on changes at State Department Car bomb outside Palm Springs fertility clinic was act of terrorism, officials say Sneak peek: In Jason's Name
CBS News
20-05-2025
- CBS News
Jason Corbett murder: A look at the evidence
48 Hours Jason Corbett murder: A look at the evidence Davidson County Courthouse 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 because Jason was choking Molly and threatening to kill her. Investigators photographed Molly and Jason Corbett's bedroom after the murder. Blood spatter can be seen on the bed. Measuring Spatter Davidson County Courthouse An investigator measures the height of the blood spatter on the wall in Molly and Jason Corbett's bedroom. The prosecution says Jason's head was 12-18 inches above the ground when he was struck, meaning he was struck when he was down. The Bat Davidson County Courthouse Tom Martens used this baseball bat to hit Jason Corbett when, Martens claims, he saw his son-in-law strangling his daughter Molly. He told investigators he had been spending the night at his daughter's home. After being awakened by a commotion upstairs, he says he grabbed the aluminum Little League baseball bat he brought as a gift for the kids – and ran to her room. The Brick Davidson County Courthouse Molly Corbett used this brick to hit Jason on the head. She claims it was sitting on her nightstand in the bedroom because she and the kids planned to paint it for an art project. Molly also told police that her husband was "screaming 'I'm going to kill you.'" Molly's Shirt Davidson County Courthouse Investigators photograph Molly's clothes and indicate the blood spatter. Molly Corbett Davidson County Courthouse Investigators photograph Molly Corbett at the sheriff's office after Jason's murder. The prosecution used this photo in court to show that Molly did not appear to have any injuries. Tom Martens Davidson County Courthouse Investigators photograph Tom Martens at the sheriff's office after Jason Corbett's murder. The prosecution used this photo in court to show that Tom did not appear to have any injuries. Tom Martens' shirt Davidson County Courthouse Markers indicate blood spatter on Tom Martens' shirt. Bloody Boxers Davidson County Courthouse Markers indicate blood spatter on Tom Martens' boxer shorts. These spots were never tested, but the prosecution argues the spatter indicates that Tom was standing over Jason as he hit him with the baseball bat. Jason's Blood on Molly Davidson County Courthouse Molly Corbett, with Jason's blood on her, is photographed outside after his murder. Molly's Neck Davidson County Courthouse Molly Corbett told investigators she was in pain from the choke hold her husband Jason allegedly had her in. There was a small red mark on her neck. It is hard to see in this photo.
Irish Times
19-05-2025
- Irish Times
A new version of the story of Jason Corbett, Molly Martens, his children and her father
At 10.23am on Monday, August 3rd, 2015, Shelly Lee was assigned case file 37698. The social worker with Davidson County's department of social services in the US state of North Carolina opened the homicide report of Jason Corbett , an Irishman beaten to death the previous day in his family home. Lee had 72 hours to assess the welfare of Jason's children: Jack, aged 10, and Sarah, aged eight. Both had been asleep upstairs during the killing. Detectives wanted to interview them about allegations of domestic violence in the home. There was a complicating factor, however: the children were Irish citizens from Jason's first marriage to Margaret 'Mags' Fitzpatrick. READ MORE Mags, who owned a creche in Limerick, died suddenly in 2006, aged 31. At the time of her death, Jack was two and Sarah was 11 weeks. Molly Martens left her home in Tennessee for Limerick in March 2008 and became the children's au pair. She and Jason became romantically involved and were married in 2011 at Bleak House, Knoxville, in Martens's home state. Four years later, Jason was dead. Corbett's killing and the subsequent trials of his wife Molly and her father Tom , a retired FBI agent, over his violent death have gripped audiences. A new Netflix documentary about his killing, A Deadly American Marriage , draws on previously undisclosed material, from case notes by social workers to detailed reports by police detectives and emergency responders, from criminal trial exhibits to transcripts and legal papers in court proceedings. Jason Corbett and Molly Martens with Corbett's children, Jack and Sarah Corbett-Lynch. Photograph: Netflix In 2017, Martens and her father were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to at least 20 years. In 2021 their convictions were overturned following an appeal. Two years later, they reached a plea deal on the charge of voluntary manslaughter. Both received shorter sentences and were returned to prison for seven months. They were released in June 2024. In the end, each served a total of four years and three months in prison for the killing of Jason Corbett. The Netflix documentary centres on Corbett, his marriage to Molly, his killing in 2015, and how his two children, Jack and Sarah, were affected by the eight-year legal battles between those seeking justice for their father's killing and those claiming the Martens were victims of a miscarriage of justice. Within hours of their father's death on August 2nd, 2015, the orphaned children found themselves at the centre of an international custody dispute between their stepmother, Molly, and Jason's Irish relatives. Less than seven hours after Corbett's killing, Molly and Tom Martens were allowed to take the two children, even though Molly had not adopted them. Jason's will named his sister, Tracey Lynch, as guardian. Twenty minutes after opening the file, Lee, the social worker, received a call from Lynch, who detailed her concerns for Jack and Sarah's safety. Lynch informed Lee of Molly's mental health issues and the 'strong medications' she was taking for bipolar disorder. Molly, she said, was denying access to the children. The detail is contained in an extensively documented Department of Social Services case file, which outlines all of the children's interactions with social workers after their father's killing. Molly's lawyers sought the case file under discovery, in advance of the 2017 murder trial, and drew on its contents when successfully appealing their second-degree murder convictions in 2021. [ A Deadly American Marriage review: Excruciating documentary gives Jason Corbett's killers Molly Martens and her father a platform and megaphone Opens in new window ] Next, on that morning of August 3rd, 2015, an Irish consular official warned Lee that Molly was trying to cremate Jason's body before Tracey arrived in the United States. Lee then spoke to Lieutenant Wanda Thompson, who was leading the investigation. The 72-hour response time was upgraded to 'urgent', the case file said. Police and social workers needed to speak to the children, but Molly controlled access. Three days after the killing, Molly was granted emergency custody for 15 days, pending a full guardianship hearing. What happened in those 15 days would shape Jack and Sarah's lives. During that time, both children told social workers they had not witnessed the events of August 2nd, 2015, but they said they had seen their father hit, shove and verbally abuse Molly in the past. This supported the account given by Tom and Molly on the night Jason died. Molly (31) told police she had previously sought medical care for injuries caused by Jason. She admitted to hitting Jason with a brick from her bedside table – once, to protect her father. Tom (65), a retired FBI agent, told 911 operator Karen Capps, according to a transcript of the call, that he struck Jason with a baseball bat. 'He's bleeding all over, and I may have killed him ... He was choking my daughter. He said: 'I'm going to kill her.'' Thomas and Molly Martens pictured in November 2023. Photographs: Hannah Cox Capps believed Martens and her father were faking CPR, even as Molly cried out: 'I think he's still alive.' Capps told this to the judge in the 2017 murder trial in 'voir dire' testimony – where a witness is questioned in the absence of the jury. The judge, however, ruled that the jury should not hear Capps's 'opinion'. When paramedics arrived, Jason's body was cold. The blood on the carpet had congealed. The room was so bloody, one responder thought Jason had been shot and he asked Tom and Molly where the gun was, according to official notes on the case. The weapons – a Louisville Slugger baseball bat and a concrete brick – were feet away in the darkened room. Jason lay naked, his feet toward the bed, his head near a bloodied vacuum cleaner. Blood spatter expert Stuart James later said in a report submitted to court as evidence that the blood on the vacuum cleaner defied physics. Blood had dripped sideways on the vacuum cleaner, suggesting the scene had been altered. He noted blood impact spatters descending along the wall, ending with Jason struck inches from the floor. A partial bloody handprint was found on the bedroom door, suggesting that Corbett might have been trying to escape. Neither Molly nor Tom had blood on their hands. [ A Time for Truth by Sarah Corbett Lynch: Daughter of Jason Corbett makes for a compelling and understandably angry narrator Opens in new window ] A review of the crime scene video and autopsy photos shows Jason had been struck at least 12 times in 10 locations. Two areas, both at the back of the head, showed overlapping impacts. This had the effect of obscuring which weapon – the brick or the bat – had caused the initial wound. In his interview with police, Tom claimed to have no knowledge of the bloodstained brick in the bedroom. He had not seen Molly hit Jason with it. Whichever weapon was deployed, Jason's skull was crushed. He was declared dead at 3.24am. Despite blood spatter on her clothing, Molly showed no signs of a struggle. A fragile bracelet on her wrist remained intact, as photos taken of her on the night of the killing show. The fact the bracelet was fragile and intact was raised in the 2017 criminal trial. Tom's hands were also clean, as seen in police photos taken on the night of the killing, though he claimed he had supported Jason's head to clear his airway per 911 instructions, according to the transcript of that call. Detectives noted how Tom tried to control his police interview, repeatedly emphasising his 'state of mind', according to Lieut Thompson, the investigating officer. A former lawyer and FBI expert in crime scenes and interrogation, Tom knew that self-defence hinged on convincing a jury that he and Molly feared for their lives. According to the transcript of his police interview, Tom told detectives that Jason's first wife had died in mysterious circumstances – by asphyxiation, not asthma, as Jason claimed. Detectives noted that Tom had now alleged two choking events: one ending Mags's life and one that would have ended Molly's had he not intervened. It would take years before the full significance of those statements became clear. After 15 days in Molly's custody, a judge awarded guardianship to Tracey Lynch. Jack and Sarah cried and begged to stay with Molly – the only mother they remembered. Back in Ireland, with counselling and time, the children recanted, telling the prosecuting district attorney over the following years that they had lied to social workers in 2015 about their father being abusive. They now claimed Molly was the abuser. Martens and her father were charged with second-degree murder. At the 2017 trial, the judge excluded the children's initial claims, made during their 15 days with Molly. Without the children's abuse allegations, the defence had no proof of domestic violence. Tom and Molly were convicted and sentenced to 20 years. They appealed. The court ruled the children's statements should have been heard. The convictions were overturned. Jack and Sarah were devastated. Their initial allegations had helped free the people who killed their father. They vowed to tell the truth in a retrial. But Tom's lawyers fought back, claiming Tracey Lynch had brainwashed Jack and Sarah. The Martens hired experts to review Mags's autopsy report. The experts argued Mags had not died from asthma, as previously believed. One expert said it was 'probable' she had been manually strangled. Sarah Corbett-Lynch says there is 'nothing voluntary' about her father's death The district attorney's expert agreed Mags had not died of asthma, but dismissed strangulation as speculative. There was, he said, no scientific basis to show strangulation from Mags's autopsy findings. Still, the district attorney, Garry Frank, decided it was too risky to retry the case. A plea deal was reached . Tom pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Molly entered a 'no contest' plea. She refused to say the word 'guilty'. At sentencing in November 2023, Molly's lawyers accused Jason of killing his first wife. They played the children's interviews accusing their father of violence. Jack (now aged 19) and Sarah (17) had to sit silently as words they uttered as severely traumatised young children were used to tarnish their father more than eight years after his killing. Molly and her father turned their own sentencing hearing into Jason's trial – portraying the victim as the killer. In response, Jack and Sarah gave powerful victim impact statements. They called Molly a 'monster' who manipulated them and abused their father. 'The charge they now accept is voluntary manslaughter,' said Sarah. 'I've seen my father's bloody handprint on the bedroom door. There was nothing voluntary about his death. I know he tried to leave that room. He didn't choose to leave us – he was taken. He was the victim.' In the Netflix documentary, Tom and Molly stuck to their story. They agreed to be interviewed because they were adamant Corbett was a domestic abuser, that Molly was the victim of his abuse and that, on the night of August 2nd, 2015, her father acted to save her life and his own. Looking directly into the camera, Tom said: 'My daughter's not a liar. I'm not a liar. And if you think we are, go ahead – prove it.' Brian Carroll was co-producer on the Netflix documentary and has written a book, A Deadly Marriage, on the killing of Jason Corbett that will be published in August.
News.com.au
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Huge problem with Netflix's ‘irresponsible' new true crime doco
Those who are ready to feel icky about lots of things about life and existence can fire up new Netflix true-crime documentary A Deadly American Marriage, which chronicles the utter destruction of a family in the untimely 2015 death of husband and father Jason Corbett. Directed by Jenny Popplewell and Jessica Burgess, the film plays out suspensefully if you don't know much about the somewhat high-profile decade-long legal battle that ensued – and for a movie that tells a story laced with psychological manipulation and allegations of brainwashing, it sure seems to be manipulating its audience in order to keep us on a yo-yo. You might be better off reading the Wikipedia page for this one. In 2006, Jason Corbett was living in Ireland when his wife Mags died of complications from an asthma attack, leaving him to raise his young children Sarah and Jack on his own. He couldn't handle the burden of working full time and caring for the kids, so he used an au pair service to hire Molly Martens, who relocated from the U.S. for the job. Their relationship eventually became more than professional, and they got married in the U.S. in 2011, eventually settling with the kids in North Carolina to start their new life together. By August, 2015, Jason was dead. We see Molly and her father, Tom Martens, in police interrogation rooms. Crime scene photos show Molly and Jason's bedroom splattered with blood. A baseball bat leans against some furniture. A brick is stained with blood, hair still stuck to it. Horrific. What happened? I'll leave it to the documentary to both-sides the story and stick to a vague description: Jason and Molly were awakened in the middle of the night when Sarah, then eight years old, had a bad dream. An argument broke out between the two. Tom, who'd been visiting overnight, heard sounds of physical violence, so he grabbed a baseball bat and intervened. In the police interview footage, we see Tom say he hit Jason with a baseball bat, and Molly says she hit Jason in the head with a brick. They killed him, no doubt about it. It's the contextual circumstances that are in question. Was it self-defense? They claim Jason was violently angry and had choked Molly. But any reasonable third party would look at this scenario and wonder, even if their story is true, if their response wasn't extreme. The prosecutor on the ensuing criminal trial struggles to describe the state of Jason's head; his skull was so thoroughly crushed, the pathologist couldn't determine how many blows Molly and Tom inflicted on it. Cue Lt. Wanda Thompson, who's interviewed here: 'Are they (Tom and Molly) the victims, or is he (Jason) the victim?' From here, the film outlines the details of the murder trial via interviews with lawyers, police and family members, including now-teenage Jack and Sarah, and Jason's sister Tracey Corbett-Lynch and brother-in-law David Lynch (no relation to the filmmaker), who took custody of the children. We're subject to a character profile of Jason as a friend to everybody and a devoted dad. Everyone points to the evidence stacked against Molly and Tom, discrepancies in their story and issues with their character – she appears to be a compulsive liar, and he's a former FBI agent schooled in the skill of interrogation. A decent chunk of the documentary is devoted to the interviews Jack and Sarah did with child psychologists in the wake of their father's death, and whether Sarah coached them beforehand. Molly and Tom look guilty as hell. Then our jaws hit the floor as Molly and Tom sit down for interviews for this very documentary, and they're not in orange jumpsuits or behind glass or calling from prison. What gives? I previously mentioned that A Deadly American Marriage both-sides this story, but we don't hear Molly and Tom's version of things until deep into the film – deep enough to make you angry that the directors aren't quite doing this story justice. Listen: I walked away from the film believing the prosecution's case to be far more convincing. I couldn't reach that point without hearing Molly and Tom speak. And the film lets us judge their credibility. But Popplewell and Burgess choose to broadside us with a big reveal in lieu of giving us linear journalism, therefore exploiting an already sensationalist case in order to make their film more entertaining – in a word, yuck. We find ourselves navigating the twists and turns and peaks and valleys of a narrative rollercoaster instead of contemplating the ideas that emerge from such tragedies, e.g., if we can ever truly know another person, what makes a healthy marriage, what comprises domestic abuse or how someone can reach such an emotional boiling point that they take a life. That's the fine line of true crime that the filmmakers cross, and it's a bit of a rubicon for the documentary. Which is too bad, because the story warrants a less manipulative and greasy presentation, and it's rare to see all involved parties, especially those who've already faced public scrutiny, participate in this type of doc. It tracks two trials, one that disallowed the interviews with the children as evidence and put Molly and Tom in prison; the second played out in an appeals court that allowed the interviews, got them sprung for a while and let Molly and Tom's attorneys essentially drag Jason's character through the mud, going so far as to speculate that he killed his first wife. Jason's siblings and children likely see the film as an opportunity to reclaim the narrative about their father. But how do Molly and Tom justify their participation? They come off a little … pathological. Don't they want to put all this behind them? They push back against the extremes of the narrative, so that makes sense. Were they paid to participate? (They were probably paid to participate.) The third act of the film mostly jumps back and forth between attorneys on both sides of the case – Molly secretly recorded arguments she had with Jason, and one side interprets them as evidence of Jason being abusive, and the other contends that she was hoping to recontextualise their spats in an attempt to control the narrative, get him in trouble with the law and claim custody of the children. Never mind that to the rest of us, the recordings sound like ugly, but generally typical fights between people whose marriage is hitting the rocks – and that the film's 102-minute chase for the truth might've been more journalistically credible if it started in the gray area where the story actually lies. Instead, in the interest of putting its audience on an emotional yo-yo, it veers from the white side to the black side before eventually, wisely, suggesting that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. And it smacks of irresponsible journalism. Journalism is informative. True crime is often voyeuristic and exploitative. A Deadly American Marriage is closer to the latter than the former – skip it.
Daily Mail
09-05-2025
- Daily Mail
A Deadly American Marriage: Jason Corbett was bludgeoned to death by former beauty queen wife and her ex-FBI agent father, new Netflix documentary reveals
The violent story of how an Irish father-of-two was bludgeoned to death by his second wife and her ex FBI father will be explored in an upcoming Netflix documentary. A Deadly American Marriage, which comes out today, examines how Jason Corbett, 39, originally from Limerick, Ireland, was beaten to death in America by Molly Martens, 40, from Knoxville, Tennessee, and her father Tom Martens in 2015. Jason had been beaten with a baseball bat and concrete brick, sustaining so many injuries that 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 later accepted a plea deal - to voluntary manslaughter on the theory of imperfect self-defence or defence of another. Molly Corbett pleaded no contest and Martens pleaded guilty to the charge - and they were released in June 2024. Around this time, Jason's family appeared to describe the plea deal an 'injustice', claiming the family now has 'no room for closure or peace' in a heartbreaking post on social media. Calling the pair 'Mad Molly & the FBI Killer', the family said although they are free from jail they will always see them as 'convicted felons' and 'murderers'. This controversial plea deal 'reignited questions over the incident's true nature', according to Netflix. The streaming giant says the question of whether it was 'actually self-defence, as they argued, or a calculated killing?' will be explored in the documentary, noting that 'for some, the intricacies of Jason and Molly's marriage add further complexity, including a long-simmering debate over the custody of [Jason's children] Jack and Sarah, who were 10 and eight years old, respectively, at the time of Jason's death'. Jason and Molly we d in June 2011. She was his second wife: his first wife Margaret 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. The death of Margaret - who was known as 'Mags' - left Jason widowed at just 30-years-old, with a 12-week-old baby daughter and two-year-old son. Mag's family have disputed any suggestion that Jason could have been involved in her death - describing him as a 'warm and caring person who loved Mags more than anything else in his life.' Two years after the death of his first wife, Jason hired then 24-year-old Molly Martens, who was a former beauty queen from Tennessee, to be the children's nanny and the pair quickly fell in love. 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'. In an interview with ABC's 20/20 in 2017, Molly - who was awaiting trial at the time -said: 'It was wonderful for me. It gave me a sense of responsibility and it filled a void I had that made me feel like I was worth something.' A former boyfriend of Molly, Keith Maginn, has spoken out about how he was in a relationship with the former model before she moved to Ireland. According to Keith, who has proposed to Molly, she told him she would be going for a week, but he heard nothing for 10 days, when she contacted him and said she likely wouldn't be returning. Speaking to the Irish Times in November 2023, Keith said that Molly had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He said: 'I know first-hand how tumultuous it was to be in a relationship with her.' 'I have got over the hurt of her leaving while saying she would be back to resume our engagement and our life together, but all of this madness since then has been shocking and really sad.' One month before their June 2011 wedding, the family moved into a four-bedroom home in the picturesque suburb of Winston-Salem in North Carolina, with some saying that they made the move after Molly complained of homesickness, saying she could not settle in Limerick. However, in her 2017 20/20, Molly claimed: 'Jason loved the United States and he thought the opportunities for the children were significantly better.' The couple's relationship soon began to deteriorate and Molly's brother Connor told CBS that he noticed more 'verbal altercations' between his sister and Jason. At the time, Molly says 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. In the lead-up to his death, Jocelyn said her brother had started talking about moving back to Ireland and was clearly unhappy. Meanwhile, Molly claims her husband became increasingly 'controlling' and 'paranoid' she would cheat on him. The year before Jason's death, it is believed that his relationship with his father-in-law had worsened and Thomas, who had been an FBI agent for some 30 years, reportedly encouraged Molly to divorce him. However, unfortunately the couple did not split, and on August 2, 2015, Jason was bludgeoned to death in his bedroom by Molly and her father Thomas - who claims he only intervened because his son-in-law was strangling his daughter. 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 911. A recording of the call 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. 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. Following 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 scene. The 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 memoire. A Time for Truth: My Father Jason and A Search for Justice and Healing delved into her memories of her father and what happened in the aftermath of his brutal killing, which took place as Sarah and her older brother Jack slept. Sarah, who lost her birth mother at just 12-weeks-old, alleged that her step-mother abused her, destroyed her father's memory, and even forced her to lie during the horrifying case. 'My father's name was dragged through the mud,' she told the Daily Mail. 'He was a loving, decent man and they made him out to be a monster.' 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.'
