Jason Corbett killing: accused asks for change of location to receive 'impartial trial'
Limerick man Jason Corbett was beaten to death with a baseball bat. File picture: Brendan Gleeson
Attorneys for Thomas Martens, who is going to trial for a second time over the 2015 death of Limerick businessman Jason Corbett, wants the court proceedings moved out of Davidson County, alleging that "he cannot obtain a fair and impartial trial," according to a motion filed in Davidson Superior Court late last year.
Martens, 72, a former FBI agent, and his daughter, Molly Martens, 39, are both facing a charge of second-degree murder. They are scheduled to go on trial on June 26.
Davidson County prosecutors have alleged that the two brutally beat Jason Corbett, Molly's husband, to death with a 28-inch Louisville Slugger baseball bat and a concrete paving brick in the morning hours of August 2, 2015. Davidson County sheriff's deputies found Jason Corbett's naked body in the master bedroom of the couple's house at 160 Panther Creek Court. Molly Martens was Jason Corbett's second wife and the two met when Jason hired Martens as an au pair to look after his two children from his first marriage.
Both father and daughter claimed self-defense, with Martens testifying in a 2017 trial that he beat Jason Corbett to protect himself and his daughter from a physical attack. A Davidson County jury convicted the two of second-degree murder and they were sentenced to 20 to 25 years in prison. But the North Carolina Court of Appeals and then the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned the convictions, concluding that the trial judge made prejudicial errors in the case.
Now, prosecutors are re-trying the case.
Jay Vannoy and Jones Byrd, attorneys for Martens, allege in a motion they filed on December 28, 2022, that media coverage had a negative impact on the first trial and could potentially harm Martens' chances of getting a fair shot in the new trial in June.
Pre-trial publicity has been such a concern that in September, David Hall, a Forsyth County superior court judge assigned to the case, issued a gag order. Hall amended the order at a December 1 hearing, making clear that prosecutors, defence attorneys, their staff, and anyone who could be called as a witness in the case were prohibited from making any public statements about the case. Hall said he had considered a number of options, including moving the case out of Davidson County or bringing in an outside jury pool, but ultimately decided that a gag order would be more appropriate.
At that December 1 hearing, Molly Martens' attorney, Douglas Kingsbery, accused Jason Corbett's family members, particularly Jason's sister, Tracey Corbett Lynch, of continuing to make public statements about the case. Corbett Lynch has been outspoken about the case and published a book, My Brother Jason, which went into detail about her belief that the father and daughter plotted to kill Mr Corbett in cold blood. She now has a new book, Loss and What It Taught Me About Living: A Memoir About Love, Grief, Hope and Healing. Kingsbery said Corbett Lynch has done interviews with radio stations, TV stations, and newspapers in Ireland to promote the book.
He alleged that her statements that Mr Corbett was a good man are false. He also said that at trial, he would contend that Mr Corbett murdered his first wife and would have killed his second wife in almost the same manner if her father had not beaten Jason to death with a baseball bat.
He offered no evidence to back up the claim. An autopsy report said that Mr Corbett's first wife, Margaret Fitzpatrick Corbett, died in November 2006 from a cardiac arrest stemming from an asthma attack.
Kingsbery also said he would contend that Mr Corbett was a violent man who physically abused Molly Martens for years.
Kingsbery has not yet filed a similar motion to change venue.
Vannoy and Byrd allege in their motion that before the first trial in 2017, there was an incredible amount of media coverage.
"A substantial amount of the media coverage was generated by Jaosn Corbett's family and the Irish media, which would be re-reported in the United States and North Carolina media," they said in court papers. "Virtually all of this media coverage portrayed the Defendants as murderers without reporting the true facts and circumstances of the case."
The motion doesn't offer any specific examples of alleged inaccurate media coverage.
Vannoy and Byrd said in court papers that after Molly Martens and Martens were convicted in the first trial, "it became clear through post-trial press interviews and social media posts of certain jurors, that juror misconduct occurred throughout the proceeding, which directly violated the Court's repeated jury instructions."
"This misconduct included the jury foreman and several other jurors who admitted that they had discussions about the case (outside of jury deliberations) despite repeated instructions by the trial judge not to do so," they said.
After the first trial, attorneys for Molly Martens and Thomas Martens filed a motion and then a supplemental motion to overturn the convictions based on alleged jury misconduct. The motions included an affidavit from one of two alternate jurors. Brian Graham said in his affidavit that he overheard jurors talking about the case during breaks in the trial. He also said that the jury foreman, Tom Aamland, approached him after the first closing argument, expressing his opinions about the state's case.
Stacey Blue, a Randolph County resident who attended the first trial, said in an affidavit that she saw Aamland and another juror, Miriam Figueroa, talking to each other in a car after court ended for the day on August 8, 2017. They also pointed to Aamland's comments to the media after the verdict in which he said there were "private conversations," appearing to imply that the jurors talked about the case outside jury deliberations.
Vannoy and Byrd allege that because of the extensive coverage and what they say happened with jurors in the first trial, "there is no way they could receive a fair and impartial jury in Davidson County, and no way their constitutional rights as guaranteed under the North Carolina and United States Constitutions to due process and a fair trial can be adequately protected in Davidson County."
A hearing had been scheduled for January 9 but Davidson County prosecutors filed a motion on December 22, 2022, to continue the hearing until February 13. It was not immediately clear whether that request was granted.
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