Attorney for Molly Martens claims she feared Jason Corbett could kill her
Judge David Hall addresses Molly Corbett as she pleads no contest to voluntary manslaughter during Monday's hearing. Picture: Walt Unks/Winston-Salem Journal/Pool
A US judge is determining sentences for Molly Martens and her father, Thomas, after the pair agreed plea deals over the killing of Limerick man Jason Corbett.
Retired FBI agent Thomas Martens, 73, who was accused of beating 39-year-old Jason Corbett to death with a baseball bat in 2015, today pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
Molly Martens, 40, who was accused of striking her husband with a concrete brick, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter. However Superior Court Judge David Hall said that a no contest plea is treated as a form of a guilty plea.
Prosecutor Alan Martin told the court that the plea agreement took months to negotiate and had only recently been fully resolved.
Father and daughter had been facing second degree murder charges, but those charges were dropped on Monday.
The voluntary manslaughter conviction carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, but only if there are extensive aggravating factors that are unlikely to come into play in this case.
Judge Hall said in court on Monday that he has the option of giving what would be the much more lenient sentence of probation without active time in prison.
Jason Corbett’s children from a previous marriage, who were in Corbett’s Davidson County home the night he was killed, sat in the courtroom and quietly watched the proceedings. Jack Corbett, who was aged 10 when his father died, and his sister Sarah, then 8, are now in their teens.
No interaction could be seen between the Corbett siblings and either of the defendants.
After the death of his first wife, Margaret 'Mags' Corbett in Limerick in November 2006, and while the children were small, Jason Corbett hired Molly Martens to help with the children. The couple then dated and married in Tennessee in 2011.
Jason Corbett was found dead in the home he shared with Molly Martens on August 2, 2015.
She and Thomas Martens were accused of brutally beating Jason Corbett to death with a baseball bat and a concrete paving brick.
Molly Corbett and Martens claimed self-defense, saying Jason Corbett attacked them and threatened their lives. They said Corbett choked his wife and that Martens came to her rescue with a baseball bat he had intended to give his grandson Jack.
As the sentencing hearing got under way Monday afternoon, one of Martens’ attorney, Jay Vannoy, told the court that Martens “is accepting responsibility that his actions were excessive” as he repeatedly struck Corbett with a baseball bat until his skull was crushed.
“We don’t deny that he hit multiple times,” Vannoy said.
“The question at sentencing is why?”
And the answer, Vannoy argued, is that Martens was so emotionally distraught by seeing Jason Corbett assault Molly Corbett that his perception and cognition were impaired. Vannoy said that at one point in his questioning, Martens told authorities, “I can’t really explain what it is like seeing your daughter being strangled.”
Molly Corbett’s attorney, Doug Kingsbery, said his client was given evidence that Jason Corbett had killed his first wife and that she could share the same fate.
As well, Kingsbery said that Molly Corbett was still trying to revive her husband when emergency responders arrived, and told a firefighter, “Help him, please.”
Molly Corbett was crying, had fingernail marks on her throat from her husband’s assault and was seen assuming a fetal position on the ground outside the house. Corbett also said afterwards that it wasn’t the first time her husband had assaulted her.
For his part, Martens, through his attorney, is claiming at least 10 mitigating factors that the lawyers say warrant a lower sentencing. Those mitigating factors were not fully explained in court on Monday, but included Martens being under duress.
Noting that Martens had spent 44 months in prison until he won a new trail, Vannoy said that if someone searches Martens’ name, “all you read about is him is being a murderer, a cold calculated murderer.”
However, the NC Court of Appeals later overturned the conviction, finding that the trial judge made prejudicial decisions that prevented the two from mounting a defense. The NC Supreme Court affirmed the lower appellate court’s ruling, sending the case back to Davidson County for a re-trial.
The second trial for father and daughter was scheduled to begin on November 6 with jury selection in Forsyth Superior Court. Judge Hall set that trial date in late April, after granting a request from the attorneys of Corbett and Martens in mid-February to move their trial from Davidson County to Winston-Salem.
It’s a case that has attracted intense and widespread media coverage, including international news coverage.
Hall had imposed a gag order on everyone involved in the case, including prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys and potential witnesses, prohibiting them from making any public statements.
Hall lifted the order on Monday, since there will be no jury trial. Molly Martens, through her attorney, declined comment during a break in the proceedings, and Martens said before the hearing he would have no comment. Jack and Sarah Corbett also declined to speak.
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