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US prosecutors have offered a plea deal with Tom (71) and Molly (37) Martens for the murder of the Irish father of two Jason Corbett (39).
The disclosure means that, if accepted, the father and daughter will not face a retrial in the United States for the second-degree murder of the Limerick businessman in August 2015, but will accept a lesser charge, most likely involuntary manslaughter. or unlawful murder.
The settlement was offered nearly three weeks after the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down the second-degree murder convictions for the father and daughter on grounds of evidence.
In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, the Martens family had hinted that a plea deal could be considered after the former FBI agent and his daughter, a nanny, had served nearly four years in prison terms ranging from 20 to 25 years. for beating Jason Corbett to death in the bedroom of his Winston-Salem home with a metal baseball bat and concrete pavement
brick.
The Irish widower’s family consistently maintained that he was killed to prevent him from returning to Ireland with his children amid concerns about his second wife’s mental health and increasingly bizarre behavior.
Corbett’s family, who had traveled to North Carolina to meet with the Davidson County district attorney last week, expressed shock at the decision.
“We are devastated that the Davidson County District Attorney has decided to offer a plea deal and not seek a retrial of Tom and Molly Martens, who admitted to killing Jason Corbett, orphaning their children, who were then 10 and eight years, “said Corbett’s sister. Tracey Corbett-Lynch said.
Ms. Corbett-Lynch added that “today the Davidson County District Attorney has allowed her and her father to get away with it.”
Tracey had traveled to the United States last week with her husband, David Lynch, who are legal guardians of Corbett’s two children who were orphaned by the 2015 murder.
The couple have fought a valiant battle for justice since 2015, culminating when the father and daughter were convicted of second-degree murder following a high-profile trial in July and August 2017 in North Carolina.
Both immediately appealed their convictions.
Mr. Corbett’s wife and the mother of their two children, Margaret ‘Mags’, died in November 2006 from a severe asthma attack. Their children were two years old or younger.
He later began a relationship with Mrs. Martens, an American nanny, although he was completely unaware
your history of mental health problems.
The Limerick businessman moved to the US in 2011 after his Tennessee-born wife complained of longing.
At the 2017 trial, Corbett was beaten to death in his sleep with a metal baseball bat and a concrete paver.
An attempt was made to drug him, he was beaten even after his death and the trial heard allegations that the father and daughter even delayed calling emergency services just to make sure Corbett was dead when paramedics arrived.
“What does it say for justice in North Carolina that you can drug a father of two, then beat him to death with a baseball bat and cobblestone, literally smash his skull, and still escape a murder conviction? “Tracey added.
“What does justice say that you can escape a murder conviction as long as your pockets are full? Would Molly and Tom Martens have avoided a new trial if they weren’t rich?”
“We are grateful to the detectives who heard the truth about Molly Martens and gathered evidence that she was a dangerous, liar fantasy with a history of mental illness who drugged Jason with Trazodone sleeping pills that had been prescribed for Molly.
Martens two days before Jason’s death. “
“Detectives provided extensive evidence for the district attorney to successfully prosecute Molly and Tom Martens for second-degree murder in 2017.”
“A jury unanimously convicted both. When the North Carolina Supreme Court voted by a majority of four to three to grant a new trial last month, it did so for two main reasons.”
“One reason was a technicality related to the blood found on the inside hem of Tom Marten’s boxer shorts, blood showing that Tom Martens had been standing over Jason hitting him with a baseball bat from a height of less than two feet while Jason was on the floor .
Although the other blood splatters on Tom Marten’s underpants had been tested and
confirmed as blood at the North Carolina State Laboratory that the blood samples inside the hem had not been “.
“On this basis, the Supreme Court said that the blood spatter expert’s testimony should be set aside. The evidence is still in police evidence bags and would only require retesting of those blood samples to allow this evidence to be use in a new trial. It is inexplicable to our family that District Attorney Garry Frank decided not to do this and not proceed with a new trial. “
“The second reason the Supreme Court majority overturned the unanimous verdict of the trial jury was because of statements made by Jason’s two sons, then eighteen years old, to social workers in interviews that took place. immediately after a funeral for her father, a funeral Molly Martens banned Jason’s own family from attending. “
“Jason’s two sons, now 16 and 14, traveled to North Carolina this week and spent days giving statements to detectives describing how terrified they were giving those statements to social workers because Molly Martens had perpetrated years of abuse. of the kids”.
“The children told detectives how Molly Martens had instructed and intimidated them into lying to social workers. They had been forced to lie and claim that they had witnessed domestic abuse in the home.”
“The children were trained from the night of the murder on what to say when asked. The children retracted those statements once they returned to Ireland and were safe.”
“This week they detailed to Davidson County detectives the long history of child abuse perpetrated against them by Molly Martens. The children also detailed to detectives how they saw key pieces of evidence, such as Jason’s phone and two of his computers, in the possession of Molly’s family in the days after the murder.
“These items were never found, as they would have shown that Jason planned to return to Ireland with the children. They would also have proven that Jason’s life insurance policy was changed a year before his death to make Molly the sole beneficiary.
“The simple truth is that Molly Martens killed Jason Corbett to get her children back. Today, the Davidson County District Attorney has allowed her and her father to get away with it.”
Online editors
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