US attorney general to challenge retrial bid by Jason’s murderers
Relief for Limerick family as US lawman appeals ruling
A RETRIAL of the father and daughter convicted of murdering Limerick man Jason Corbett is to be challenged by North Carolina’s attorney general.
Joshua Stein’s move for a temporary stay on the order in relation to Mr Corbett’s father-in-law and wife, Tom and Molly Martens, while he appeals the decision was confirmed in papers filed in court yesterday.
The news will come as a huge relief to Mr Corbett’s family in Limerick who were ‘devastated’ to hear his convicted killers were entitled to a retrial.
Mr Corbett’s sister Tracey Lynch, released a statement to the media recently – prior to yesterday’s announcement – outlining the further anguish now endured by the family.
‘The truth will not change,’ she said. ‘We all know what happened – Jason was beaten around his head with a brick and baseball bat while he slept in his home.
‘Molly and Thomas Martens continued to beat Jason even after he died. Two children were orphaned.
‘My brother’s children, Jack and Sarah, had to be sheltered by police from seeing what the Martens had done to their father. The autopsy has also not changed. The horrific details of Jason’s death [have] not changed. We had not expected this decision – we fully respect the courts in the US. However, we are disappointed.’
Mr Corbett, 39, died from head injuries after being struck with a brick and a baseball bat at the home he shared with Ms Martens,
his second wife, in Wallburg, North Carolina, in 2015.
The beating was so bad that pathologists could not determine precisely how many blows he had sustained.
Prosecution lawyers described the attack in the original trial as ‘heinous, atrocious and cruel’.
Ms Martens and her father, Tom, a former FBI agent, were both convicted of second degree murder after a trial in 2017.
Despite being sentenced to 2025 years in prison, the pair have always maintained that they acted in self defence.
A US appeal court ordered the retrial last month as they claimed the defendants had not been able to present ‘a meaningful defence’.
Lawyers for the father and daughter argued that the judge had excluded key evidence from the case which could have proven their innocence.
This is said to include comments from Mr Corbett’s children – whose mother died from an asthma attack in 2006.
The youngsters, who were in the house when their father was killed, now live with their family in Limerick.
That court found by a majority two-to-one there were deficiencies in the trial process which necessitated a retrial.
One of the judges, Valerie Zachary, found there was ‘instructional errors’ before and during the three-week hearing.
She concluded that Molly and Tom Martens were ‘prevented from presenting a meaningful defence or from receiving the full benefit of their claims of self-defence and defence of a family member’.
The judge said that as a result, the jury was denied critical evidence and rendered incapable of performing its function.
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‘The truth will not change’