Northern Ireland

Molly and Tom Martens: Eight-year saga over beating to death of Irishman Jason Corbett ends

Jason Corbett with wife Molly Martens
Jason Corbett with wife Molly Martens

A wife and her father are back behind bars after being ordered to serve further prison time for beating to death Irishman Jason Corbett.

Molly Martens (40) and her father, Thomas, a 73-year-old retired FBI agent, must spend at least another seven months and possibly as much as two and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to the voluntary manslaughter of the 39-year-old Limerick businessman.

It should be the end, legally at least, of a more than eight-year-old saga that has periodically gripped Ireland since police were first called in the early hours of an August morning to the $350,000 home on the outskirts of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Mr Corbett shared with his two young children from his first marriage and his wife, Molly Martens Corbett.

The North Carolina home of Jason Corbett, where the terrible events of August, 2015, occurred
The North Carolina home of Jason Corbett, where the terrible events of August, 2015, occurred

Since, there was an early custody battle over the children, Jack and Sarah, then 10 and eight, overturned murder convictions, a very public battle to control the narrative, the not entirely unexpected plea deals and then, over the last week, an extraordinary sentencing hearing during which an attempt was made to thoroughly trash Mr Corbett's reputation.

He was a drunken bully, emotionally and physically abusive, while the defence even managed to find people to allege he may have murdered his first wife, Mags, a claim her family dismissed as complete rubbish. 

Mr Corbett, then 30, was still grieving the loss of his wife, who died as a result of her chronic asthma, when he met Martens in 2007. 

She was a 20-something, hugely attractive American, originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, one of four children to a university lecturer and FBI agent, who was also a trained attorney. 

Read more: 

  • Jason Corbett: US wife and father-in-law of Limerick man sentenced to additional jail time for manslaughter
  • US wife and father-in-law of Limerick man admit manslaughter over 2015 killing
  • Jason Corbett: Wife and father-in-law of Limerick man found guilty of his murder

She had replied to an online advertisement for a nanny to the two then toddlers, then she flew to Ireland. 

Jason Corbett pictured with his children Jack, then 10, and eight-year-old Sarah
Jason Corbett pictured with his children Jack, then 10, and eight-year-old Sarah

He did not know that this vivacious, young American had a history of psychiatric issues and had only recently been released from hospital after treatment.

More, she was engaged in the US, with her fiance later recounting how he kissed her goodbye as she left for Ireland. He thought she would return within weeks but never saw her again.

Mr Corbett was, by all accounts, quickly smitten by Martens and they soon became a couple. After a time, she wanted to return to the US.

He managed to secure a transfer with his company and they moved in 2010, to the home on Panther Creek Road North Carolina he reportedly bought for cash.

They married in 2011, a lavish affair by all accounts, paid for by Mr Corbett. 

Neighbours remembered Molly Martens for her baking skills and the attention she lavished on the two young children.

He was a popular individual with an attractive personality who worked hard and also fitted in the well-to-do golfing community. 

But, as it became clear later, there were tensions within the relationship, with the Corbett family and prosecutors arguing she wanted to adopt the children.

He did not, whatever his concerns at that time. He was also expressing a desire to return home. 

Social media posts from before the killing happened and evidence delivered afterwards would suggest Martens was extremely attached to the children, arguably overly so.

There was testimony she even claimed to be Sarah's birth mother at one point.

Molly Martens in a Facebook picture with Jack and Sarah Corbett just weeks before their father was killed
Molly Martens in a Facebook picture with Jack and Sarah Corbett just weeks before their father was killed

This, prosecutors argued, both in the first murder trial and the sentencing hearing, was what led to increasing friction, ultimately ending in the events of early August, 2015. He was thinking of going home with the kids; she was desperate to keep them with her.

Tom Martens phoned the police, though it is still not clear how long they waited. The former  federal agent who did not really do emotion, according to later testimony, Martens senior quickly admitted he killed Mr Corbett.

He claimed to have come upon Mr Corbett, naked, attempting to strangle his daughter, that there was a struggle, that it was self-defence. He used a baseball bat, she came in with a brick.

The criminal proceedings would come later, including the fact there was little physical evidence the pair had been involved in any struggle, with no marks or torn clothing, a delicate bracelet still on Molly Martens wrist.

There was a custody battle for the two children, Jack, then 10, and Sarah, eight.

The Corbett family, led by Mr Corbett's sister Tracey, were successful and the children returned to Ireland.

In the US, most criminal cases at both state and federal level end with plea deals.

If this case had not attracted such attention, locally, from Ireland and even nationally in the US, that might have happened before any trial took place.

But the local prosecutor, who is elected, has to take into account the wishes of the victim's family.

The Corbett family have always been absolutely adamant their loved one was murdered that morning. The prosecutor went for the second degree murder charge. 

In 2017, the Martens went on trial and were convicted of second degree murder. The elder Martens was sentenced to 25 years, his daughter to 20 years. They appealed.

Thomas Martens, center, stands with attorneys Jones Byrd, left, and Jay Vannoy as he swears on a Bible, pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter during a hearing, Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, for Martens and his daughter, Molly Corbett, in the 2015 death of Molly's husband, Jason Corbett at the Davidson County Courthouse in Lexington, N.C. Picture by The Winston-Salem Journal, AP
Thomas Martens, center, stands with attorneys Jones Byrd, left, and Jay Vannoy as he swears on a Bible, pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter during a hearing, Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, for Martens and his daughter, Molly Corbett, in the 2015 death of Molly's husband, Jason Corbett at the Davidson County Courthouse in Lexington, N.C. Picture by The Winston-Salem Journal, AP

Those convictions were overturned due to issues over blood spatter evidence and the failure of the judge to include as evidence initial statements made by the two children following the killing.

In the immediate aftermath, the children told a counsellor that their father was abusive towards Molly Martens.

As soon as the children returned to Ireland, they retracted those statements and have continued to publicly defend their father while also attacking Molly Martens, to the point where the now 19 and 17-year-olds described her in court this week as a deeply manipulative  "monster".

Early last week, it emerged the pair had indeed struck a plea deal with prosecutors, more than eight years after the terrible events of 2015.

Prosecutors argued for a sentence of six to nine years for the pair.

Molly Corbett, second left, arrives with family at the Davidson County Courthouse, Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, in Lexington, N.C., for a hearing before her retrial in the murder of Jason Corbett. Picture by The Winston-Salem Journal, AP
Molly Corbett, second left, arrives with family at the Davidson County Courthouse, Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, in Lexington, N.C., for a hearing before her retrial in the murder of Jason Corbett. Picture by The Winston-Salem Journal, AP

Judge David Hall said there were some mitigating factors but not exceptional ones that would allow him to set the pair free.

He did rule there was no evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of the aggravating factor that the children could have seen or heard the crime taking place. 

He sentenced them to between just over four to more than six years, but both had already spent more than three years in prison following the murder conviction.

He ordered Molly Martens Corbett to undergo a psychiatric assessment and be given psychiatric and psychological care available in prison.

Judge Hall said: "I do not know the truth. I have listened so intently and I have searched for the truth. I have strained with everything I have."

Only three people will know for certain what happened in the early hours of August 2 2015 - and one of them is dead, he added.