Scene of Jason killing ‘staged’
Jury hears that blood-spattered vacuum left in victim’s room ‘was moved’ to tie in with defendants’ claims of a violent brawl
PROSECUTORS in the Jason Corbett murder case claim that the crime scene where his body was found was ‘staged’ by his killers.
Ms Martens, 34, and her father Tom Martens, 66, are charged with second-degree murder of the Limerick father of two in August 2015.
Both deny the charge and are claiming self-defence.
In evidence on Thursday, the State focused on blood spatter that was found on a vacuum cleaner behind the door in the master bedroom where Mr Corbett’s naked and battered body was found.
Crime scene investigator Lieutenant Frankie Young told jurors that, in his expert opinion, the vacuum cleaner had been moved.
Lt Young said that he noted that blood spatter on the canister of the vacuum cleaner was ‘moving from left to right horizontally, as if it was lying down’ when it was hit by the victim’s blood.
However, pictures from the scene showed the vacuum cleaner in an upright position.
‘It has now been stood up,’ the witness told the court.
During Lt Young’s evidence, prosecutors started to lay the foundations for their argument that the scene was staged or altered to tie in with the defendants’ claim that a violent argument took place.
Other objects in the room, including a bedside lamp that was also found close to the door, were the focus of police investigations into what exactly happened in the room.
Sources close to the investigation have said that the State will show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the scene inside the room, including the situation of certain objects, does not correlate with the defendants’ version of events.
A blood spatter expert, who is expected to give evidence this week, will focus on blood impact patterns – some reaching 5ft up the walls – that show excessive force was used.
The State commenced its case against Mr Corbett’s wife and fatherin-law on Tuesday with a dramatic opening statement that focused on the extensive injuries inflicted on the victim.
Instead of asking why the killing happened, prosecutor Alan Martin said the question to ask in this case was: ‘Why didn’t’ they stop?’
THE 911 CALL
PROSECUTORS said the female dispatcher who took an emergency call from Mr Martens in the early hours of August 2, 2015, did not believe he or his daughter were actually trying to revive Mr Corbett.
On the date in question, Mr Martens made a 911 call from Mr Corbett’s family home at 3.05am and explained to the operator that there had been an argument between the victim and Ms Martens.
The call lasted 14 minutes and 27 seconds. Over half of it is taken up with the dispatcher instructing Ms Martens and her father on how to administer CPR.
Before the 911 operator was allowed to testify to jurors, lawyers for Mr Martens moved to prevent her ‘comments’ being heard in court.
In response, assistant district attorney Ina Stanton said: ‘She [the witness] was of the opinion that they were not actually doing CPR.’
During her testimony on Tuesday, Karen Capps said that Tom Martens was ‘surprisingly calm’ during the call.
She added that after he performed the first 200 pumps as required, he ‘was not out of breath’.
‘He didn’t sound like most people performing CPR,’ she said.
‘There was no panting, no gasping. He wasn’t out of breath.’
Molly Martens performed two sets of 200 pumps, she said.
‘How was her demeanour?’ asked Ms Stanton.
‘She was very tearful,’ said the witness. ‘A little excited, I suppose you could say. She counted, but she counted like she was yelling.
‘She wanted to make sure that I heard her counting.’
AUTOPSY REPORT
ON DAY two of evidence, jurors were shown photos taken during the post-mortem examination of Mr Corbett’s body.
The images were so graphic in nature that one juror had to be
removed from court and was physically sick into a bin.
Dr Craig Nelson, a forensic pathologist at the office of the chief medical examiner in North Carolina, told the court that he had identified 10 different impact sites on the head. Two impact sites featured evidence of ‘repeated blows’. He couldn’t say how many.
Photographs showed pieces of scalp that had become detached from the skull and connective tissue.
‘It illustrates the depth and underscores that this was a laceration and therefore a blunt force injury rather than a sharp force injury.’
These pieces of scalp were ‘sagging and drooping with gravity’, said the witness.
In his evidence, Dr Nelson also noted one post-mortem blow.
The witness said that he peeled back areas of skin around the head to examine the skull further. When he did this, ‘pieces of bone fell out’ in two areas. This, he said, indicated that the bone had been severely fractured. Some of the ‘full thickness lacerations’ he noted showed the blows had ‘gone all the way through the scalp to the depth of the skull bone.’
THE UNEXPLAINED SEDATIVE FOUND IN JASON’S SYSTEM
AN ALCOHOL level of 0.02% was found in Mr Corbett’s blood as well as the presence of a drug called Trazodone in ‘trace amounts’.
The powerful drug, which is known to cause drowsiness and lack of co-ordination, had never been prescribed to Mr Corbett.
However, Katie Wingate, a nurse practitioner at Kernersville Family practice, told the court that she had prescribed Ms Martens Trazodone in July 2015. She had visited the practice complaining of foot pain, something she had suffered from over the years due to a condition that affected the blood vessels in her left foot.
She had previously been prescribed medication for sleeplessness and depression. Ms Wingate told the court that she prescribed Trazodone tablets and advised Ms Martens to take one a day at bedtime.
In later testimony, a CVS pharmacy supervisor told the court that records show that a prescription for Trazodone had been filed and dispensed for Ms Martens on July 30, 2015.
NO INJURIES, NO TEARS
MS MARTENS refused to go to hospital for a medical examination after alleging her husband had tried to strangle her, testimony revealed.
A witness also told jurors that he observed Ms Martens ‘rubbing her neck in a scrubbing motion’ and crying with no tears in the hours after her husband’s death.
Officer David Dillard told the court that Ms Martens was placed in his patrol car for about an hour and a half after he arrived at the scene.
He was asked about her demeanour in the car during that time.
‘She was making crying noises,’ he said. ‘But I didn’t see any visible tears. ‘She was rubbing her neck in a scrubbing motion,’ he added.
Paramedic David Bent told the court that while he was at the scene, he observed ‘light redness’ on the left side of Ms Martens’s neck.
He used a penlight to examine her pupils, which were normal.
He found ‘no abnormalities at all’ and no injury, apart from the redness to the neck.
Mr Bent said that Ms Martens told him that she had been choked and that her neck hurt.
He added that she said she felt okay and didn’t want to go to hospital to be examined.
‘She signed a refusal form document,’ he said.
In a series of pictures taken by Lt Young at the scene, Ms Martens’ neck could clearly be seen with no injuries.
After his arrival at Mr Corbett’s house at 160 Panther Creek Court, Lt Young had approached Ms Martens who was sitting in a patrol car.
He asked her if she could get out of the car, so he could take pictures of her injuries and she consented, starting to ‘continually’ tug and pull at her neck.
‘I asked her to stop,’ he told the court.