BEAUTY WHO CLAIMS INNOCENCE
She was the All-American blonde model, he was the widowed Irish dad. So was his death her attempt at self-defence – or could she just not bear to see him take his children and come home without her?
IT HAS been two years since Limerick fatherof-two Jason Corbett was found bludgeoned to death in the master bedroom of his luxury North Carolina home. His wife, pretty, all-American girl Molly Martens and her father Tom, a former FBI officer, were later charged in relation to his brutal killing.
In Saturday’s Mail, we told the story of Jason’s happy marriage to his first wife Mags, which was tragically cut short when she died of an asthma attack. We also recounted how Molly Martens left a failed relationship behind to come and work with him as a nanny before they began a relationship and moved to the US.
Today we recount the night of Jason’s death and the subsequent battle for his orphaned children, Jack and Sarah.
We also recall the explosive publication of evidence that points to bitter acrimony in the marriage — a claim that Molly and her father will be pushing hard during the trial, which begins today.
THE EVENTS OF AUGUST 3, 2015
IT WAS a warm summer’s afternoon in the suburban cul-de-sac of Panther Creek Court. As a small firepit burned in the driveway of number 160, two couples chatted and laughed while their young children played on the green in front.
It was typically humid and as Jason Corbett shared a beer with his next-door neighbour, his wife Molly caught up on gossip with her friend Michelle. It was a familiar Saturday routine in the peaceful, picturesque street. After mowing their lawns, the men would relax with a few bottles while in true southern style the women provided the snacks.
‘We often have a get-together on the street while the kids are playing,’ Panther Creek resident Tony Turner told the Mail. ‘I was away that weekend but I know that Jason and Molly were out on their driveway with a couple who live on the street. The boys were having a few beers over a fire and the kids were playing out on the green. That was from about 5pm to 9pm. Everything was fine from what I was told.’
Hours later, the peaceful idyll of their sleepy neighbourhood would be shattered, with devastating consequences.
AT 3.02am on August 3, 2015, a 911 operator received a call from 160 Panther Creek Court. Molly Martens’ father Tom was on the other end of the phone, telling the operator that he had had an argument with his son-in-law and struck him with a baseball bat.
In the chilling 14-minute clip, the 65-year-old told an operator: ‘My daughter’s husband, my son-inlaw, got in a fight with my daughter and I intervened and I think he’s in bad shape. We need help. He’s bleeding all over and I may have killed him.’
A police officer then calmly asks the caller for his name, address and the number he is calling from.
Panicked Thomas answers: ‘160 Panther Creek Court... My name is Tom Martens... I don’t know [the phone number], I’m sorry. I’m the father, I’m visiting. I don’t know.’
He then struggles to roll the father-of-two on to his back under instruction from the 911 operator. Thomas goes on to describe how he struck son-in-law Jason in the head with a baseball bat because he was choking his daughter.
He said: ‘I hit him in the head. With a baseball bat. He was choking my daughter, he said: “I’m going to kill her.”’
When local police arrived at the house they found Jason unconscious with head injuries in a bedroom. He was later pronounced dead at the scene. Two weapons — a paving stone and a baseball bat — were recovered.
Both Mr Martens and his daughter were photographed after police arrived on the scene and their clothes were taken for examination. They later gave interviews at a local police station and were released without charge.
On the official police report of the incident, Molly Paige Martens, 31, and Thomas Michael Martens, 65, were named as ‘others involved’ in the death.
THE TUG OF LOVE BATTLE FOR SARAH AND JACK
RELEASED without charge, Molly Martens went about trying to secure custody and guardianship of Jack and Sarah. Her actions resulted in Jason’s sister Tracey Lynch flying to the US with a copy of his will, which stated that both children were to be placed in her custody in the event of his death.
A protracted courtroom battle ensued, with a judge finally issuing an order to remove the children from the care of Molly.
The order stated that Judge Brian Shipwash had ‘determined it is in the best interests of the minor child to appoint applicants Tracey and David Lynch, paternal aunt and uncle, as guardians of the minor child’.
The children returned to Ireland in August 2015, where their father’s funeral, which had been postponed
until they could leave the US, finally took place.
Back in Tennessee, where she was now living with her parents, Molly began to wage a social media campaign to get the children back. In numerous messages posted on Facebook, she posted pictures of her with both children, stressing her love for them. As part of a court order she was asked to desist. In a two-page notice of appeal on the guardianship issue, she argued that ‘the guardianship hearing was inappropriately terminated before the close of evidence’.
She added that Mr Shipwash had in August 2015 announced his intention to appoint a guardian ad litem for both children. He had also discussed the logistics for both children to be interviewed and advised counsel for both sides to prepare closing statements. Molly contended there were ‘multiple errors of law’ that occurred to her prejudice.
However, in an appeal against the decision, which was heard in a North Carolina Superior Court in December 2015, this was denied. Upholding an earlier decision, Superior Court Judge Ted Royster ruled that District Court Judge April Wood was correct in ruling Brian Shipwash, Clerk of Superior Court, was within his jurisdiction to grant guardianship to David and Tracey Lynch.
Molly then took a case to the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Again, the decision to give custody of Jason’s two children to their aunt and uncle in Ireland was upheld. The ruling by the appellate court brought an end to Molly’s year-long battle for custody in December 2016.
LIFE AFTER JASON
SINCE their return to Limerick almost two years ago, it is understood that both Sarah and Jack Corbett are adjusting well, immersing themselves in their new school lives. They are receiving professional counselling and are attempting to come to terms with their father’s death.
‘They’re doing extremely well,’ said a source. ‘They just finished their first year of school here and they have made leaps and bounds in terms of progress. They’re both very popular and have lots of friends. When they aren’t at school they are off playing sport or at whatever club they are in.
‘They’re happy. They will both celebrate their birthdays in September and the family want it to be special because their last birthday was so close to the death of their father.’
As well as the extended Corbett clan, central to their lives are their late mother’s relatives, the Fitzpatrick family.
In a private ceremony attended by relatives from both sides, both children made their First Holy Communion last year.
Together with their aunt and uncle, and sometimes relatives from their mother’s side, the children visit their parents’ grave in Castlemungret cemetery in Co Limerick ‘when they want to’.
‘There is a picture of Mags and Jason on their wedding day on the headstone,’ said a family friend. ‘The kids picked it out. They never leave the graveside without kissing the picture. It’s just devastating.’
The children live with their aunt Tracey, uncle David and the couple’s 11-year-old son Adam, in Limerick. Their son Dean, 25, lives close by. The couple’s mantra has been to make life as ‘normal’ as possible for both children. Behind the scenes, they are still fighting attempts by Molly to gain custody. Associated legal costs are believed to have amounted to hundreds of thousands.
Due to the circumstances surrounding Jason’s death, his estate was frozen by a court order which stated that all items of monetary value remain inside the property.
In a change from her previous incarnation as a ‘stay-at-home mom’ who was financed by her husband, Molly has enrolled as a student at Pellissippi State College, where she is studying interior design. In a recent photo posted on a social networking site associated with the course, she can be seen striking a sultry pose next to her classmates after winning a prize for ‘best presentation’.
Outside her studies, the former swim coach has thrown herself back in to the world of swimming, taking part in the Tennessee Open water series last summer. In a series of pictures of the event, the blonde can be seen swimming alongside competitors at a meet on August 19 — two weeks after the first anniversary of her husband’s death.
THE PROSECUTION CASE
IN JANUARY 2016, Thomas and Molly Martens were formally charged with second degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. The prosecution will present evidence of a lengthy spell of bitterness in the marriage and the acrimony over the split as a reason for Jason’s bloody end.
Officers allege that Jason was planning to travel to Ireland ‘with or without’ his wife Molly but with the children, and that his wife allegedly removed large sums of money from shared bank accounts after he died.
Shocking details contained in a set of search warrant documents released by Davidson County District Attorney reveal a series of damning insights into the relationship between Jason and his second wife. An affidavit given by Wanda Thompson, the lead detective in the case, states that, through Jason’s colleagues and friends, she had learned that he was planning to return home on or around August 21.
She also states that Jason’s business partners had provided information that he had allegedly discussed transferring some of his financial assets, to include up to $60,000 from bank accounts in the US, to bank accounts in Ireland. Ms Thompson said that members of the Corbett family had told her that Molly’s spending habits were a source of concern for her husband.
She concludes: ‘Davidson County Sheriff ’s officers have also learned, from attorneys handling Mr Corbett’s estate, that since Jason Corbett’s death, large sums of money have been removed from some of the bank accounts he shared jointly with Molly Martens Corbett. Jason Corbett’s alleged comfortable financial status provides additional motive for his untimely death.’
Sources say the time of death, ‘as suggested in the narrative of the two accused’ will be a key issue in the upcoming trial. An autopsy report on Mr Corbett’s body puts his time of death at 3.24am, when emergency responders found him at the scene.
It is understood that expert testimony and forensic evidence will be used to show that Jason died
before the 3am 911 call was placed by Mr Martens. Investigators also plan to use a blood spatter expert to show that Jason was bludgeoned to death in a sustained attack.
Sources close to the case have indicated that the pattern of blood spatter in the master bedroom, where the alleged crime took place, is not consistent with the accused duo’s version of events.
‘We have a blood spatter expert who will talk about the pattern that was left at the scene,’ said a source. ‘His or her forensic evidence will cast doubt over the assertion that the accused parties acted in self-defence. The use of force was excessive.’
Details revealed in the autopsy state that the bedroom where Jason’s remains were found ‘had a large amount of blood on the floor, spatter on the walls and furniture. Pieces of tissue and scalp were visible on the floor.’
Mr Martens told detectives that he came to his daughter’s defence after she got into ‘an uncontrolled argument’ with his son-in-law.
Mr Corbett, he alleges, was ‘choking’ Molly when he struck him with a baseball bat.
In affidavits given by detectives who visited the scene, they say the struggle described by Molly and her father ‘was not consistent with the evidence at the scene, particularly the master bedroom where Mr Corbett was killed’.
Furthermore, neither Mr Martens nor his daughter showed any ‘evidence of injury to their person’, according to investigators.
However, details contained in autopsy examination of Jason’s remains, released by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina, show the 39year-old suffered a catalogue of harrowing injuries as a result of an ‘altercation’.
THE DEFENCE CASE
AS MOLLY and her father prepare for trial, her legal team and several family members have indicated they will plead self-defence.
In claims that have been vehemently denied by Jason’s family, she further claimed she was a victim of domestic abuse. Her lawyer Walter Holton claims Jason ‘brutally attacked’ his wife, placing her in a ‘life-threatening situation’.
Molly’s uncle, Mike Earnest, says the actions of his niece and brother-in-law were ‘necessary and justified’. However, the prosecution is likely to say that there is no evidence that either defendant had any physical injuries after the alleged attack.
In August 2015, Molly Martens’ cousin Amanda Mui, originally from Naples, Italy, but living in Semiole, Florida, posted a message on Facebook making a string of extraordinary allegations.
She wrote: ‘Please everyone who can, think of and pray for my cousin Molly Martens Corbett. After surviving years of emotional and physical abuse from her late husband, she’s now fighting to retain custody of the children she’s raised for years now. Should two children lose the only parent they have left? Should two children be separated from the only real mother they’ve ever had?’ she added.
‘Molly is a wonderful mother; it’s the love she has for her kids that has given her the strength to survive the abuse her late husband put her through. Pray that the courts acknowledge her as the children’s mother and guardian,’ Ms Mui said.
However, no evidence has emerged of Molly ever having made any allegation of domestic violence against her husband. The couple’s neighbours have not spoken of any suggestion of domestic abuse.
More recently, court documents filed by lawyers for Tom Martens made a serious of startling new claims.
In a sensational court document, filed last month, Mr Martens claimed that Jason had been blamed for the death of his first wife, Mags Fitzpatrick. He also alleged that Mags’ own father Michael told him this at Jason and Molly’s wedding.
Mr Martens, a retired FBI agent, went on to argue that this would have influenced his own state of mind during the row with Jason in which he was killed.
A document filed by Mr Martens’s lawyers, on June 6 in Davidson County, stated that the ‘defendant, Thomas Michael Martens, through his legal team alleges: While attending the 2011 wedding of his daughter Molly Martens Corbett to Jason Corbett, the defendant Thomas Michael Martens was approached by Michael Fitzpatrick (since deceased), the father of Jason Corbett’s late first wife Margaret Fitzpatrick. On that occasion, Mr Fitzpatrick told Mr Martens that he believed that Jason Corbett caused the death of his daughter.’
It also alleged that ‘Mr Martens witnessed Jason Corbett, a man far... more physically powerful than he or his daughter, choking his daughter and threatening to kill her, and thereafter acted in defence of his daughter, and eventually in his own defence.’
The documents added that the claims about Mr Fitzpatrick were ‘highly relevant’ to Mr Martens’ state of mind during the alleged altercation — specifically the belief that his actions were necessary to protect both him and his daughter from ‘deadly force at the hands of Mr Corbett’.
However, Mr Fitzpatrick’s family spoke to the Mail to reveal that he was not even at the US wedding in 2011 and so could not have spoken to Mr Martens at it.
Mr Martens legal team later withdrew the claim and said it had been admitted as a ‘lawyers’ error’.
MOLLY’S LAW ENFORCEMENT CONNECTIONS
CONCERNS have been raised by the Corbetts in relation to how the Martens family background and knowledge of police and court procedure might work to their advantage. Tom Martens is a former FBI agent with over 30 years’ service and Molly’s brother Robert is a federal agent with the Internal Revenue Service. Her maternal uncle Michael Earnest is also a federal agent in Washington DC.
‘They will have the knowledge of the courts,’ Jason Corbett’s brother John told the Mail in an interview. ‘These people come from a police background.’
Both the Davidson County Sheriff and the District Attorney have stressed that no preferential treatment will be given to Thomas Marten and that he has been and will be treated ‘like any other suspect’.
Speaking outside a preliminary custody hearing in family law court in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in August 2015, Mr Freedman said the Martens family had nothing but respect for the law.
‘These are people who have great respect for law enforcement and the court system in general. Molly gave a complete statement to police, as did her father.
‘We are continuing to co-operate with law enforcement and providing them information. Both have volunteered to be interviewed again should that opportunity arise. We have provided everything to them that has been asked and more.’
In the days after Jason’s death, Molly took Sarah and Jack to stay with her brother Robert while authorities decided if custody should be granted to Tracey Lynch. The Mail revealed that Robert, also known as Bobby, was arrested for driving while impaired as well as misdemeanour child abuse in June 2014. He was alleged to be under the influence of alcohol and was driving with a child who was not wearing a safety belt.
In January last year it emerged that Michael Earnest was under investigation by his employers over claims he tried to get into Jason Corbett’s workplace office the day after the Limerick man died.
He works for a US federal law enforcement authority called Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). Two senior internal affairs investigators from SIGAR are understood to have travelled from Washington to interview staff from Multi-Packing Solutions, where Jason worked.
Jason died in the early hours of Sunday, August 2, and it is alleged that on Monday, August 3, Mr Earnest made several ‘insistent’ phone calls to the MPS plant where Mr Corbett worked, allegedly telling staff that he was a federal agent and seeking access to Jason’s personal office.
Staff at the plant in North Carolina contacted police and Mr Earnest was denied access, it is claimed. It is understood that passports belonging to Mr Corbett’s two children — Sarah and Jack — may have been kept in his office.
While Mr Earnest has denied the allegations, his employer confirmed the inquiry. A spokesperson said: ‘SIGAR is conducting an administrative inquiry. We take all allegations seriously and review them thoroughly. Since this is a personnel matter we cannot comment further.’
THE TRIAL
TODAY the trial begins to determine what really happened in the master bedroom of 160 Panther Creek Court on August 2, 2015. Many members of the Corbett family are travelling to the US while, on the other side of the courtroom, the Martens family want vindication for their loved ones.
When all the evidence has been laid out in a trial that looks set to grip the nation, a jury in a small courthouse in Lexington, North Carolina, will ultimately decide the fate of Molly Martens and her father Thomas...
‘The evidence shows that the use of force was excessive’