'My dad got very mad': Recanted interviews with Jason Corbett's children played in court

Molly Martens and her father Thomas Martens at their original trial in 2017. File picture: Jerry Wolford

Jack and Sarah Corbett told social services in America that their father, Jason Corbett from Limerick, had pulled Molly Martens' hair, rolled a car over her foot, and hit her in the face.

The previously unseen videos of interviews, the contents of which were later recanted by the children, were shown on Wednesday at Martens and her father Thomas Martens' sentence hearing for killing the Limerick man.

Jack Corbett, who was 10 at the time, told an interviewer with the Dragonfly House Children’s Advocacy Centre in the US, that his father, Limerick man Jason Corbett, died after Thomas Martens hit him with a baseball bat, and Molly Martens hit her husband with a concrete brick.

“My dad got very mad,” Jack Corbett said about his father. “My parents didn’t get along very well.” 

In an interview with a Dragonfly House official, Sarah Corbett said her father had been drinking with a friend before the incident. Prior to the deadly August 2 encounter, Sarah Corbett said her father pulled Molly Martens' hair, rolled a vehicle over her foot, and hit her in the face.

Both interviews were recanted by the children after they were returned to Mr Corbett’s family in Limerick after a custody battle with the Martens family.

Tracey Corbett-Lynch arrives at Davidson County Courthouse in Lexington with Jason's children Sarah and Jack.

Prosecutors played the videos of interviews with Jack and Sarah Corbett during the sentencing hearing on Wednesday for Thomas and Molly Martens in Davidson Superior Court. Molly Martens and her father entered arranged pleas on Monday in Jason Corbett’s death.

Jack and Sarah are now in their late teens, and they were in the couple's home when Jason Corbett died.

Molly Martens was the second wife of Jason Corbett, who had Jack and Sarah with his first wife, who died in 2006.

Jason Corbett, 39, was found dead in his Davidson County home in the early hours of August 2, 2015.

Thomas Martens, 73, who is accused of beating Jason Corbett with a baseball bat, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Martens is a retired FBI agent.

Molly Martens, 40, who is accused of striking her husband with a concrete brick, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter. Judge David Hall in Davidson Superior Court indicated that no contest plea is treated as a form of a guilty plea.

Judge Hall will determine the sentences for Molly and Thomas Martens.

Judge Hall said on Monday that he has the option of giving what would be the much more lenient sentence of probation without active time in prison.

On Wednesday, Molly Martens said in a video interview with an investigator that she struck her husband with a concrete brick during their fight.

She said that her husband was angry because Sarah had awoken from a nightmare. During their fight, Jason Corbett was choking his wife, Molly Martens said.

Jason Corbett, 39, was found dead in his Davidson County home on August 2, 2015. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

In a video played in court on Tuesday, Thomas Martens admitted he struck Jason Corbett with a baseball bat after he saw Jason Corbett choking Molly Corbett.

Both father and daughter were charged with second-degree murder after they were accused of brutally beating Jason Corbett to death with a baseball bat and a concrete paving brick.

They both claimed self-defence, 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 intended to give his grandson Jack.

A Davidson County jury convicted Molly and Thomas Martens in a high-profile trial in August 2017 of second-degree murder. A judge sentenced each of them to 20 to 25 years in prison.

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 defence. The NC Supreme Court affirmed the lower appellate court’s ruling, sending the case back to Davidson County for a retrial.

The second trial for Molly and Thomas Martens  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 the father and daughter in mid-February to move their trial from Davidson County to Winston-Salem.

The sentencing hearing continues on Thursday.