MOLLY REMAINED SILENT IN COURT, BUT GAVE US TV AN INTERVIEW...
MOLLY Martens and her father recorded a pre-trial interview with a US TV station, in which they recount their ‘version’ of Jason Corbett’s murder.
Ms Martens told ABC News 20/20 that she didn’t want to talk about hitting Jason with a brick, but said it was ‘horrible’ her father ended up in court over her husband’s killing.
The Martens claim on the show – which airs in the US tonight – that they were acting in self-defence.
In the interview, Tom said: ‘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.’
Molly, 33, sobs on camera as she says: ‘I was sure that he was going to kill my father.’
She claims she was woken up on the fateful night by Jason’s daughter Sarah at around 3am.
‘She’d had a nightmare, and she came down. And the kids were not supposed to come in the room, you know, and wake up Jason.
‘So they would just kind of stand outside the door and whisper until I heard ’em. So I heard her calling me. And I got up as quietly as I could and tiptoed up to her room.’
Molly claimed she got Sarah back to bed and returned to her room, trying not to wake her husband.
‘But he woke up, and he was angry, and he wanted to know why I’d gotten up. Then he was furious because Sarah had been doing this lately and, you know, she just wanted to be coddled. And she was too old for that, and I shouldn’t have gotten out of bed.
‘I said, “She’s just eight. She had a nightmare. I should be allowed to go upstairs and comfort our daughter”. He forgot my parents were there, and he, you know, just got angry with me.’
Tom told ABC: ‘I don’t know what precisely woke me up, but what I heard were loud voices and a kind of thumping, like heavy feet moving around. It was coming from the floor above me. It was in the dead of the morning, and it wasn’t right. Something bad was going on.’
Molly said 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.’
Tom Martens had the bat in his hand at this stage. The father said: ‘He quickly moves to not having his hands around her neck, but to move her in front of him in between me… with her throat right in front of the crook of his elbow, and so he’s got her in a chokehold.
‘I said, “Let her go”. And he said, “I’m going to kill her”. Then he starts to edge toward the master bathroom, which has a door. And my thought was: “If he gets into the bathroom, if he gets that door between me and him, then she’s dead. And there’s nothing I can do about it”.
‘And so I reached around to his left, and my right – I’m right-handed – with the baseball bat. I hit him in the back of the head with the baseball bat.’
Tom Martens said that, after the blow, Jason kept dragging Molly towards the bathroom. The father said he was able to get into the bathroom with Jason and hit him again with the baseball bat.
‘I hit him hard on the back of the head again. He’s still got her by the throat, but he changes tactics. He decides to come back at me, and I’m swinging the bat, and he catches the bat in his hand.’
Molly said: ‘Jason just grabbed the bat away. It was like it was nothing. He could choke me with one hand – with one arm – and grab the bat with the other. He was just so much stronger.
‘He grabs the bat and, you know, pushes my dad.’
Molly said she then screamed at her husband not to hurt her father. ‘I thought: “He’s going to hit my dad with the bat, and that’s it… he’s going to kill my father”.
‘So I rush him and I grab the bat with two hands, and I hang on for dear life. We’re struggling back and forth now four hands on the bat...
‘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.’
Tom Martens said he realised Jason was not going to get up: ‘It looks like the threat is over, so I tell Molly, “We need to call 911”.’
Molly said she was told in a patrol car that her husband was dead. ‘We gave separate statements and I was told, “Don’t worry. It looks like selfdefence. It’s going to be okay”.’
Molly said that it was ‘horrible’ Tom had ended up in court over the death.
‘It makes me feel like I’ve ruined his life. That I’ve impacted my whole family. And it’s not a good feeling.’
Thomas insisted: ‘I didn’t murder my son-in-law. And I would challenge any reasonable man, much less a reasonable father, to say that this was unnecessary force.
‘I used the force that was necessary to end the threat.’