Today is Thursday, August 6th, 2015.
I'm about to do an interview
on Sarah Corbett.
Well, Sarah, did you know
why you're here today?
Yes.
Tell me why you're here today.
Because my dad died.
Okay.
Just have a seat for me.
And, Jack, my name is Brandy,
and it's my job to talk to you today.
You said your dad died.
What's your dad's name?
Jason Paul Corbett. C-O-R-B-E-T-T.
What is your mom's name?
Molly Martens.
And what is your grandpa's name?
His name is Tom Martens.
Okay. And what do you call him?
I call him Grandpa Tom.
Grandpa Tom. Okay.
Davidson County 911.
What is the address of your emergency?
My name is Tom Martens.
I'm at Panther Creek Court,
and... we need help.
Okay, what's going on there?
My... My daughter's husband,
um, my son-in-law,
uh, got in a fight with my daughter.
I intervened, and I...
I hit him in the head.
- With what?
- With a baseball bat.
- With a baseball bat?
- Yes, ma'am.
Help!
- Is he conscious at all?
- No.
Is he breathing?
I can't tell.
I'm dead asleep in bed
when the phone rings.
As a detective, you know when that phone
rings at three o'clock in the morning,
it's never good.
So, I'm out of the bed,
and I'm out the door,
and I am headed to Meadowlands
in North Carolina.
I go into the house,
and I look inside the master bedroom,
and it's pretty horrific.
It's one of the bloodiest crime scenes
I've seen in a long time.
The female resident tells me
that her name is Molly Corbett...
...and that the victim
is her husband, Jason Corbett.
These offices are really cold.
- Thanks.
- You're welcome.
All right. Tell me what happened tonight.
We were fighting.
- Who was fighting?
- My husband.
My daughter had a nightmare.
She or I woke him up, so he was angry.
He choked me.
How did he choke you?
First, with his hand
pressed really hard right here.
He let go for a second,
and I screamed really loud.
I can't remember next
until my dad came in.
Okay.
I heard arguing and thumping going on
on the floor above me.
And it-- it sounded bad.
I grabbed the bat, and I ran upstairs.
So, I open the bedroom door,
and he's got Molly
by the throat like this.
And he sees me coming,
and he goes around the throat like this.
And I said, "Let her go."
"I'm gonna k*ll her."
- "Let her go."
- "I'm gonna k*ll her."
And he started to drag her
towards the bedroom,
into the, uh, bathroom.
And I hit him.
I hit him with the baseball bat.
And he reaches out, and he grabs the bat.
Jason got the baseball bat.
And... he tried to hit my dad.
I think he might have missed, and...
I...
Um...
I hit him on the head.
You hit him on the head with what?
With... With a brick on my nightstand.
Okay.
I'm not sure.
I hit him on the head or the shoulder.
How many times did you hit Jason?
I don't know.
Okay. You don't remember?
I don't know.
I can't tell you how many times I hit him.
I can't tell you
how many times he shoved me.
I can't tell you. I...
'Cause it was a battle.
These two people are telling us
they just were in a fight for their life.
Her husband has horrific injuries.
And they don't appear to have any.
In North Carolina,
they have a right to defend themselves.
But are they the victims,
or is he the victim?
You know your husband
didn't survive his injuries, right?
I didn't... I didn't think so.
No, he didn't survive his injuries.
How long have you been together?
Probably seven years.
My children
aren't biologically my children.
They're his first wife's children,
and she died.
Is there anybody that you need for us
to contact from your husband's family?
Oh God.
What if I'm scared of his family?
I'm scared they'll try to take the kids.
Um...
- You guys are legally married?
- Yes.
- Did you adopt the children?
- No.
Okay, then that's a real possibility.
Oh!
Oh!
My brother got a call
to say that Jason was dead.
He and Molly had an argument.
She pushed him,
he fell, hit his head, and died.
So I immediately started to call Molly,
um, and I got no answer at that time.
I can't comprehend. I can't process.
You know, I just couldn't believe it.
Jason and I, we were super close.
We had a really big family.
We grew up in Janesboro in Limerick.
And Jason and Wayne and myself
are the three youngest.
Jason remained a constant best friend.
When I had learned the news,
my first thought
was to the welfare of Jack and Sarah.
And so, within hours,
I'm packed and on the road
to fly to America in order to find out
what happened to Jason
and to make sure Jack and Sarah are safe.
We just knew that we needed to get
to North Carolina as quickly as possible.
Myself and Tracey were named
as guardians in Jason's will.
I went straight
to Jason's solicitor's office.
I collected the will and flew out
to America a couple of hours later.
We start coordinating
with the district attorney's office
about where the investigation
needs to go from here.
What immediately strikes me
is that this is going to be a case
outside the normal of what we deal with.
I'm a retired FBI agent.
What did you do with the FBI?
First half of my career was Criminal.
Second half of my career
was Counterintelligence.
Tom Martens is a retired FBI agent,
and he has been schooled in
and has schooled other officers
on the art of interrogation.
We would be remiss in our duties
if we ever just accepted,
wholesale and without examination,
what any person
who's k*lled somebody has to say.
Perhaps it would be helpful
if I just kinda launched into the story.
Okay.
'Cause it will contribute
to my state of mind.
Okay.
I see Tom attempting
to control the narrative
and present things
the way he wants to present them.
Tom never admits
that he saw Molly hit Jason at all.
At any point,
did Molly join in on the volley?
When I lost control of the bat
and she wiggled out,
she somehow distracted him,
but I don't know.
I'm scrambling. I don't know.
We find that hard to believe.
The night of the incident,
I'm at the house,
I learned that Molly's mother
was in the basement.
So, we get a statement from her.
Sharon Martens tells us
that they got awakened
in the middle of the night to a ruckus,
and she hears her daughter scream.
Her husband gets out of bed,
goes upstairs
to take care of whatever the ruckus is,
and she rolls over and goes back to sleep.
I'm... dumbfounded.
Like, what grandmother does that?
What mother does that?
Sharon Martens is telling us
she never responded in any way
to this horrible, violent, expl*sive event
that was happening right upstairs
in a house full of people that she loved.
It just doesn't quite add up.
We are also looking at the 911 call.
...three, four.
- One, two, three, four. Good.
- One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four. One...
EMS workers are listening
to this recording and saying,
"I don't think
those people are doing CPR."
It's too hard.
You can't count out loud like that
with that precision, that rhythm.
One... I'll count. I'll count.
One, two, three, four.
EMS personnel also describe
that Jason's body was cool to the touch,
and one of them even looked
at another and said,
"When did they say he went down?"
This is not scientific evidence,
and there are sufficient variables
in how quickly a body cools,
but it was compelling information for us.
Now there's a possibility
the Martens were thinking,
"I've got to sit down
and get my story straight
before I call the cops."
We found out
that within hours of Jason's death,
Molly and Thomas Martens returned home,
and at this point,
the children are in the care and control
of Molly Martens and her family.
Within 48 hours,
the Martens had filed for guardianship,
adoption, and custody of Jack and Sarah.
I asked to speak to them,
you know, on the phone,
to have a supervised visit, uh, anything.
I just wanted to put my arms around them.
They had lost their father.
And Molly would not allow it.
There's all these things happening,
all at once, all colliding,
and I want to see my brother.
We spoke to the funeral director,
trying to get to see Jason,
and he apologized profusely,
but he had been given clear instructions
that we were not allowed to view Jason.
I believe that Molly's trying
to cremate Jason's body
before I got there.
I thought to myself, "What have you done?"
Then we get the results from the autopsy.
And the autopsy findings...
are horrific.
Jason has abrasions on his forehead,
under his eye,
his shoulder blades,
and then... we get to his head.
And in... 30 years of prosecuting...
I've never seen photographs like these.
He had...
so many blows to his head
that the pathologist couldn't count them
because they overlapped,
and a chunk of Jason's skull
fell out onto the table.
It takes an incredible amount of force
to cause that kind of injury.
It's taken me four days
of legal action to see Jason's body.
It's horrendous to see
what one human being
can inflict on another.
His children lay in a bedroom
just feet away from him,
and I know his last thoughts
would have been with them.
I hold his hand, and I promise him
that his children would be okay,
and I promise that I would get justice
for what happened to him.
Jack and Sarah were in the home,
in bed asleep,
when this event occurred.
We need to have them interviewed
by people that are trained
to interview small children.
So, they're taken
to the Dragonfly Child Advocacy Center.
Let's just start with the very first thing
you told me, that your dad died.
How did your dad die?
Well, my sister had a nightmare
about insects crawling.
She had fairy blankets
and insects all over her bed.
My dad got very mad,
and he was screaming at my mom,
and Mom let out a scream,
and my grandpa came up
and started to hit him with a bat.
And then my dad grabbed a hold of the bat,
and hit my grandpa with the bat.
And so my mom... put her... like...
We were going to paint a brick
that was in there, like, a cinder block,
and it hit his temple right here,
and he died.
Okay.
Now, your sister had a nightmare.
How did you know that?
My pare... My mom told me.
Okay.
Did your mom and dad fight before this?
He gets very angry at my mom
for leaving one light on.
- What would he do?
- He would... he would scream at her.
Okay. Did you ever see him hit her?
Um...
Once.
He just got very mad about simple things.
- And who would he get mad at?
- My mom.
- Did you see him get mad at her?
- Yes.
And when he would get mad,
what would he do?
He would physically and verbally hurt my...
physically and verbally hurt my mom.
Did you see him physically hurt her?
Um, once or twice.
What did you see?
Um, punching, hitting, pushing.
The children do both
make some statements about Jason.
We have to pay close attention to that.
But they also use a lot of words
that eight-year-olds and ten-year-olds
don't generally use.
He would physically and verbally hurt my...
physically and verbally hurt my mom.
That's unusual and stands out.
And... And how do you know
she's afraid of him?
She told us.
No. My mom told me about that.
And who told you about that?
Uh, my mom.
My mom told me.
She told me.
Your mom told you.
There's a possibility
the kids may have been coached.
There's a lot of, "This is
what my mom told me about that night
and about things
that had happened in the past."
My mom told me,
not when I was four, not when I was five,
but she told me when I was six,
"Your dad is not that good of a dad."
Why is she saying that to Sarah?
What is the truth and what's not?
We went back
to Molly and Tom's interviews.
I know he's got me outmatched.
I know he's a martial arts guy.
I know he's a boxer.
I am trying to stay
a bat's length away from this guy.
Right.
I'm scared to death.
We're trying to verify
any training that Jason may have had
in karate or martial arts,
any boxing training that he may have had.
Within one week of Jason being k*lled,
I am contacted by
the Davidson County Sheriff's Department
asking questions like,
"Was Jason an MMA fighter?"
"Was he a professional boxer?"
"Was our family
in the Irish Republican Army?"
But, of course,
these things are ridiculous.
They were just doing everything they could
to destroy his character.
I want the world to know
the truth about Jason.
He was the most kind-hearted
person you could meet.
You'd never not see the man smiling.
Everybody loved him.
Everybody loved Jason. He was just...
He was everybody's friend.
He was very charismatic,
and he had a loud voice as well.
You knew when Jason was around.
Family meant everything to him.
I never thought
he was a romantic growing up,
um, until he met his first wife, Mags.
We were out socializing one night,
and I introduced Mags to Jason.
And from the start,
they were just meant for each other.
They were very, very happy.
I, Margaret, take you, Jason,
as my husband,
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
all the days of our lives.
They'd built their house.
Mags had opened a new crche,
and Jason had got promoted in work,
so life couldn't have been better.
It was like a fairy tale.
And Jason's kids were everything to him.
When they were born,
he was just the happiest he's ever been.
That's it. Good boy. I love Sarah.
- Aw! You're the best boy, Jack.
- Who's that, Jack?
Jack, do you know what...
do you know what Sarah told me?
She said she's getting Jack
a tractor and a trailer as a present
because you're her brother.
'Cause she loves Jack.
Get off my chair. Get off my chair.
This was the beginning of his whole life.
What you doin'?
You dancin'?
All that changed drastically
when I got a phone call
at home one night, telling me
that Mags had had an asthma attack.
Myself and my husband
managed to get to the hospital.
And Jason was with Mags,
and we could hear him...
He just begged her not to go
and leave him.
Jason, in that moment, was just...
broken into pieces.
He would write letters to Mags
and then leave them at the grave site.
All of our family rallied around,
but obviously,
he had very little space to grieve.
He was a single parent of two babies,
and he had to go to work every day.
So, he advertised for an au pair,
and that's when Molly Martens
came into our lives.
I was in my early 20s, and I'd been
in a relationship for several months
and, um, unexpectedly got pregnant,
and, um...
shortly thereafter,
suffered a miscarriage.
And I think anybody
who's suffered a miscarriage
can understand that
that is devastating at the time.
I, um...
was in that relationship with someone,
and I realized I didn't want
to spend my life with that someone,
and I felt like
that might be easier if I got away
and enjoy the world.
And for me, working with children
was a natural choice.
And so, I joined an au pair agency.
And when Jason reached out to me,
he indicated on his profile
that he had lost his wife.
I guess that just pulled
on my heartstrings.
There were these two babies
without a mother,
and maybe I had an ache to fill that need.
It was only natural
that she would develop a talent
for taking care of young children,
in that her two younger brothers
came along as she was nearing the age
where she could help her mother.
She was very good at engaging them.
I arrived in Ireland
on, um, a traditional rainy day.
And I met Jason, and he put me at ease.
He was charming, funny.
He made me feel very special.
Molly hadn't been in the country too long
when I began to pick up on things,
just little signals
between Jason and Molly.
We were walking on the beach,
and they were dropping behind us,
and I think Tracey mentioned to me
that, you know, she thought
there was more to the relationship
than employer-employee.
I felt like I was bringing joy
into Jack, Sarah, and Jason's life.
Okay, go get your sandal.
You gotta put them on over your tight...
Hello.
...'cause it's the warmest day
in Ireland and you still need tights.
Sarah, how old are you?
Two.
- Two and a half.
- Yeah.
How old are you?
Four and a half.
- Are you sure you're not one and a half?
- No.
Are you sure?
But that noise you make,
sometimes it kinda sounds like this...
That's kinda like
a one-and-a-half-year-old.
And it was in the very early days
that Sarah started calling me "Mom."
I was really becoming
a mother to those kids
before I became a mother to those kids.
It was just wonderful.
Molly made Jason smile,
and he hadn't in a very long time.
But it was clear
from emails from Jason to Molly
that Jason wanted to slow the pace
of their relationship down.
"My concern is for Jack and Sarah."
"They have had enough
tragedy in their short lives,
and while I know that they are resilient,
I'm nervous about putting them
through anything further."
"I'm really scared, Molly."
"I don't want to lose you,
but more so,
I don't want to risk Jack and Sarah
losing another mother
if we don't work out."
But Molly always wanted
the relationship validated.
And she's pushing, pushing, pushing.
Eventually, Jason began
to talk about the opportunity
to begin a new life for Jack and Sarah,
to allow them to have
a stable family environment
with a mother and father.
I was on a regular night out
with my friends.
Jason walked in first,
and Molly walked in behind,
showing the ring on her finger.
And I said, "I am delighted.
I want you to be happy."
"Mags wouldn't want you to be miserable."
Ultimately, we decided
to move to the United States.
Mostly, it was the lifestyle,
and in particular, the lifestyle
in regard to raising children.
I was excited
about a new beginning for our family.
My first time seeing the house,
I thought it was like a mansion.
It was so cool.
Everything was much bigger than Ireland,
which I loved.
I remember when I first went in,
I went into my room
and started running around in circles.
And I loved how big the garden was,
'cause my dad told me
we could get a trampoline and a dog.
It was just really happy.
Everyone was excited
for this new adventure.
We just moved to America.
I feel like we fit in straightaway
when we moved over
to Meadowlands in North Carolina.
We got straight into activities
like swimming,
joining teams.
Everyone there was so nice, so friendly.
It was a great community to be part of.
After Molly, Jason, Jack,
and Sarah moved to North Carolina,
within a couple of weeks,
there was going to be a wedding
and just a joyous occasion
that we were looking forward to.
We just wanted Jason to be happy,
and we traveled to support him.
When we arrived, everyone was excited.
Jason and Molly had loads planned for us.
We went to NASCAR,
barbecues,
loads of games, loads of fun.
We have Molly from Knoxville, Tennessee...
...and we have Jason
all the way over from Limerick, Ireland!
It's my duty as the best man
to introduce everybody,
and we all hit it off straightaway.
...caught in a trap
Can't walk out...
We sang, and we drank, and we danced.
The atmosphere was fantastic.
He looked happy.
The next day, at the wedding,
it started to become apparent to me
that there was something amiss
when I had a conversation
with the maid of honor, Susie.
I had a speech prepared.
Before I was supposed to give it,
I was talking to Tracey,
just telling her, you know,
it's just like a fairy tale.
She starts to say how amazing it all is
and how romantic.
You know, Molly goes over there
to be the godparent to Jason's kids,
since she was childhood friends with Mags.
What?
And now, like, you know,
she's gonna be their stepmom.
I... I don't know what you're talking about.
Uh, she was the au pair.
I'm like, "What?"
Like, "You gotta be kidding me."
We're just in disbelief
that this is what the American contingent
of the wedding believe.
Why would anybody create
this fabricated story?
In the course of the investigation,
we are interviewing people about Molly.
Her friends, her family, her neighbors.
And what we are learning
becomes full-on bizarre.
One of the neighbors tells us
that she was part of a book club,
and one of the ladies comes in
and is just excited
about finding out she's pregnant.
Allegedly, Molly starts telling everybody
this whole drawn-out story
about how she gave birth to Sarah.
And some of the people in the room
already knew that wasn't true.
And yet, the story was being told
to other people in front of them.
And she had told her college roommate
about a dead sister,
and that her sister had died of cancer.
We found that's also not true.
So, she is fabricating a story
about a sister that doesn't exist.
Why does it matter that,
on so many occasions,
Molly has told so many things
that are clearly not true?
It matters because there were
only three people in that room that night.
Jason can't tell his story.
The two people who are left
are Tom and Molly.
And we come to the conclusion
that Molly is not credible.
Another thing that comes to light
is Molly's consistent demand
to be able to adopt Jason's children.
Just months after the wedding,
she had visited a divorce attorney
to explore her rights to the children.
I wanted to adopt them
because they were my children.
I mean, I was their mommy.
I was their mama. They were my kiddos.
Jason and I had spoke previously
of an adoption ceremony
being part of the wedding ceremony.
There were a lot of promises
that were broken,
but that was a big one.
I brought it up several times
and say,
"Where are we on the adoption process?"
"Anything I can do to help out?"
And he would say,
well, you know, he's working on it,
and, um, then nothing would happen.
Looking back on the correspondence
that we got access to after Jason's death,
we realized Jason was trying
to follow through on his promise
to allow Molly to adopt the children.
We saw an email from Jason to an attorney.
I think one line stands out
in the email from the attorneys.
Jason would never take that risk.
Behind closed doors in Davidson,
a custody battle began yesterday.
At its center
are ten-year-old Jack Corbett
and his eight-year-old sister, Sarah.
The children are in the care
of this woman,
his second wife, Molly Paige Martens.
I remember Molly telling me that
Tracey and David
were trying to take us away,
and that she was going to court.
And she told me that she was winning.
Molly was telling us
about the new life we're going to have.
She was already looking at apartments,
looking at new cars,
new schools we were going to.
It shouldn't even have got to this.
These children are two Irish citizens.
Their father was an Irish citizen.
There's nothing. There's no adoption.
There's no dual citizenship.
They're solely Irish citizens.
We presented evidence that I was a mother,
and clearly was the mother.
I'm the one that took them
to all their appointments,
and took care of meals,
and did all the day-to-day activities.
and I feel like we proved that
without a doubt,
and their home environment was with me
and that they were safe and stable.
We're here on the matter
of the guardianship
of the minor children,
Sarah and Jack Corbett.
The parents of Sarah and Jack,
I'm almost certain,
would want their children to be raised
in the land of their origin,
where the culture,
the religion, the customs,
and their extended family on both sides
are prepared to nurture them in a manner
that will be in the child's best interest.
These children will be
returning to Ireland.
All these people, you know, have said,
"Well, Jason wanted his children
to be in Ireland with their family." What?
Jason wanted to be alive.
Jason didn't think he was gonna die.
I didn't think he was gonna die.
And I don't know, if some crazy world
where he thought he was gonna die,
I believe he would have wanted
the children to be with their mother.
That is something I do believe.
I remember the day
that I was taken from Molly.
A police car pulled up outside the house,
and two policemen hopped out,
and a van came up behind them
with two people in it.
They told me that there had been
a court order to remove the kids.
You know, Jack was kicking
and screaming and saying,
"I'm not leaving with you.
I'm not leaving with you."
"I'm not going,"
and "You can't take me."
And Sarah was crying.
I remember I was holding Jack's hand,
and I asked them, "Where are we going?"
"Who are you? Take us back.
Where are you taking us?"
And I was... I was melting down,
and, you know, I was crying,
um, but I was trying to hold it together.
I was trying to make sense of this,
and I was trying to... I don't know.
How can this possibly be happening?
I love you so much.
I remember just saying goodbye
and saying "I love you" to her,
and she was saying that she loved me.
I was a ten-year-old kid,
and this was the only person
that had been there every single day.
I'm saying goodbye
to someone who'd been my mom
for as long as I can remember.
I loved Molly.
It was not a goodbye for me,
it was just a visit,
and I was going to see them soon,
but it was the last time I saw them.
Eleven-year-old Jack
and eight-year-old Sarah
arrived back in Ireland yesterday.
Molly Martens and her father,
65-year-old Thomas Martens,
are described by police
as persons of interest
in the death of 39-year-old Jason.
When I came back to Ireland,
there was just a huge media frenzy
around our family and my dad.
It was just a shock
to see so many people interested,
and it being such
a high-profile case back home.
I had made a promise to Jason
that I would make sure
that he would be buried with Mags.
There were so many people there
that loved and supported my dad,
and supported all of us.
And for the last, like, 200 meters,
we walked behind the casket.
It was just hard to know
that I'm never going to see him again.
I remember holding Sarah in my arms
in bed at night, and she's asking me,
how did she lose, you know, three parents.
I wanted to trust Tracey and David.
I really did.
And I remember thinking about that.
I remember thinking to myself,
"You should just trust them.
You know they love you."
But I found it really hard to let myself
because I didn't want to get hurt again.
We were dealing with just two
completely traumatized little children.
And they just needed me to be a mother,
and that's what I did.
I suppose we were lucky that myself
and Tracey had trained as foster parents.
We knew what needed
to happen to the two kids
in order for them to move forward,
and counseling was going to be
a very important part of their healing.
The family wouldn't allow any contact.
They wouldn't answer any calls.
And so, I used social media
to send messages to my kids.
I have not spoken...
spoken to them
since my visitation with them...
...um, under which
we were all under the impression
that it was a visitation, not a goodbye.
I want someone to tell them
that I love them.
And happy birthday, kiddos,
with all of my heart.
They tried to fly a plane over our school.
And Molly was asking people
on social media websites
to just tell us that she loved us.
It was just a constant barrage.
We were trying to build
a safe environment for them,
and they were attempting
to undo everything.
We don't want them
contacting these children.
These are the people
that have k*lled their father.
We were waiting
for the results of the toxicology report
because we had been told
in the initial stages of the investigation
that Jason was quite drunk.
I know he'd been drinking.
I mean, he was wild.
Would you say
that you thought he was drunk?
Yes, he was drunk.
It wasn't just sloppy drunk.
Now we have definitive scientific evidence
that this was not true.
The number is .02.
It's legal to drive
in North Carolina to .08.
At the time he died, he was not drunk.
In addition to a little bit of alcohol,
Jason has some
of Molly's sleep medication tranquilizer
in his system.
Did he take it voluntarily,
or was it given to him
without his knowledge?
That's a question that we probably
will never be able to answer.
But it's setting off flags for me
as to what really happened here.
Reviewing Tom's interview
about where this fight happened
and how it happened,
it didn't make any sense.
It turned out to be defensive
to have her in front,
to have her between us.
He's holding her in front of him.
I'm afraid I'm going to hit her.
I kept trying to get around
and distract him,
and get him to let her go.
Most of Jason's injuries
were to the back and side of his head.
How do you swing a baseball bat
and hit somebody in the back of the head
if you're standing in front of them?
It makes more sense
that they were either running from you
or you came up behind them.
At the crime scene, there was
blood spatter in more than one room.
The master bedroom.
In the hallway.
In the bathroom.
There's defects in the walls
from weapons being swung.
The blood spatter expert points out
there are places
that appear to be consistent
with Jason being hit as he goes down.
There's one place in particular
where Jason was hit
when his head was inches from the floor.
Clearly, Jason was still being struck
in the head after he was down.
Also, he points out that there is blood
on the back of the bedroom door.
That means there's a possibility there was
deadly violence going on in that room
before Tom got there,
and the door was closed.
Did Molly start something
that Tom got pulled into?
Even if it started as self-defense,
at the point that Jason
is no longer aggressive toward them,
they have to stop beating him,
and they didn't.
And they beat him to death.
As a result of all that examination,
we decide that it is appropriate
to charge second-degree m*rder.
This isn't just excessive force.
This is m*rder with malice.
The case of a former model
and her father, an ex-FBI agent,
both now charged with m*rder
for the k*lling of her husband.
They're due back in court
later on this month
and are expected to plead not guilty.
If convicted,
they could face up to life in prison.
A $200,000 security
must be paid for each of them.
They must surrender their passports,
and they must agree to cease
all contact with the Corbett family,
specifically Jason Corbett's
two young children.
In the first few months
I was back in Ireland,
I just felt I was very out of place.
I just felt very alone.
I didn't trust anyone.
I didn't have
a lot of friends at the time,
and I missed my friends over in America.
We miss everyone in Meadowlands.
And to tell everyone that we miss them.
Bye. Love you.
Me and Sarah
had really different experiences,
even though we came
from the same situation.
She fit in a lot better.
She was a lot more chatty than me.
She was more outgoing.
Now, let's go over
and see what Sarah's doing.
Hi, guys. I call this the baby swing.
Okay, let me try that again.
She was able to find friends
a lot quicker than I would have been.
And she kind of was
able to open up easier.
So, you see her nails.
They haven't been painted, have they?
Not for a while.
No, they're not really
working out very well.
And I missed my life,
I missed all the sports that I did,
I missed, um, school,
and I did miss Molly.
Hi, Mom, this is Jack.
This cannot go public.
I miss you, and I love you.
Keep fighting really hard.
I want to know how you are.
I love you so much.
Call me, pretty please.
And then it was
just released to the press,
which was just a huge betrayal.
And that was kind of
when my perspective changed,
and I started to look things up,
and I started to find out
what really happened
and gain my own opinions
and see what the truth really was.
As we are preparing for trial,
we get word from Ireland that Jack needs
to come forward with the truth.
So we set up
a live video-conference interview
between our office and Jack in Ireland.
Molly made me lie, uh,
to the people who were interviewing me.
And how did Molly make you lie?
Um...
She made up a lot of stories about my dad.
Um, that he was...
She said that he was very a*usive,
and she wasn't lying.
Then she started crying,
and she said, "I'd never see you again."
I didn't know what was going on.
There has been this weight
on my shoulders for so long, of guilt.
Molly told me,
"You need to say that your dad hit me,
or they're gonna take you away."
"And you're never going to see me again."
Tell me why you're here.
My aunt and uncle from my dad's side
are trying to take me away from my mom.
The judge hears
the Dragonfly House recordings,
he also is given the information
about Jack's recantation,
and at this point,
the judge agreed with us
that Jack and Sarah's statements
at the Dragonfly House
are inadmissible hearsay,
and now the jury will not hear them.
I said what Molly told me to say.
I had just lost my dad,
I had already lost my mom,
I didn't want to lose anybody else,
um, so I lied.
I never saw my... my dad ever lay hands
on Molly, not once in my life.
I was scared and afraid,
and I was so young,
and I had no one else in the world,
and I was afraid of losing Molly.
I have so much guilt
because, in a way,
I felt like I let my dad down.
I described someone
that was the complete opposite of my dad.
Boom!
I want people to know the truth,
and I want people to know
my dad as a person.
Um, my dad was a really amazing person,
and what happened to him
shouldn't have happened to him.
My dad was k*lled
the way no person should be k*lled.
He was beaten to death
with a cinder block and a baseball bat,
and no... no person should ever have
to go through that... that sort of pain.
And, like, in the evidence,
you see that
he tries to get away from them,
and they keep hitting him.
They... They won't stop.
And it's just really hard
to... to even think about.
I'm trying to establish
why Jason was k*lled.
There's a lot of email exchanges
between Jason and Molly
that are concerning.
There seems to be red flags
in the relationship.
I'm also getting messages
from members of the Meadowlands community.
This one in particular
came on Facebook Messenger.
It says, "Jason and Molly were at a party
the Friday before his death,
and she was belittling him,
calling him a fat a*s,
saying that he must have taken
all the nutrition from his twin
because he looked like
he had eaten for two."
Jason actually left the party early
and seemed down, not like himself.
He had spoken to me
about coming back to Ireland
because the marriage
wasn't in a good place.
And he had sent a text to his friend.
Putting the pieces of the jigsaw together,
I believe the relationship was over,
and he wanted to move home,
and it was going to happen really quickly.
And Molly couldn't let Jason leave
with the children,
because if she does,
she's lost everything.
Developing tonight,
a m*rder mystery
getting national attention now
as a former model and her father,
a former FBI agent,
find themselves facing life behind bars
for the death of the woman's husband.
I did not commit a crime.
I had one moment in this altercation
where I protected my father,
and if I hadn't done that,
I believe that he would be dead,
and then I would also have been k*lled.
I don't know
if a father can see something worse
than watching his child die
in front of him.
I was going to save her life
or die trying.
And I have no regrets.
Tom's number one priority
is to protect Molly.
He wants to save Molly,
so he has to say that he k*lled him.
But he leaves Molly completely out of it.
Molly is guilty of m*rder too,
the state contends.
She was angry that she'd not been
allowed to adopt the children.
Situation has been described
where he bought the house.
He makes all the money.
She's stuck.
Malice feels like, when delivered
with the bat from Tom Marten...
..."I hate him!"
That's what malice feels like.
You know what malice feels like
when it comes from the brick
that Molly had?
It feels like...
..."I hate him! And I want those kids!"
That's what malice feels like.
You know what malice looks like?
Malice looks like all of those pictures
of what they did to his skull.
The wife and father-in-law
of Limerick man Jason Corbett
have been sentenced
to between 20 and 25 years in jail
after being found guilty
of second degree m*rder.
I was in a state of complete shock.
I believed in the system,
and I believed
that the truth would matter.
And I felt like if I hadn't screamed
that night, if I...
You know,
maybe he would've just strangled me,
and maybe I would've been okay.
And I felt like...
that after my dad, you know,
lived this life serving his country
and being a wonderful father,
now the rest of his life was over,
and it was my fault.
We worried the jury might not find
the two accused guilty,
but they did, and we thank them for it.
For us, it's the beginning of healing,
of rebuilding our lives.
Life has possibility for us again.
It's the first time
where I just felt so free
and so just empty, but in a good way.
How dare you disapprove?
There. You still lose.
I started to settle
into my family properly.
Happy birthday
Dear Sarah and Grandad...
This is my mum, this is my dad,
and these are my brothers.
Show us how it's done!
- No, Jack.
- You're just moving your arm.
Come on, show us how it's done.
Sarah!
I can remember the first time
Jack called me "Dad."
He was going up the stairs one day,
and he just answered, "Okay, Dad."
And you know, it was very...
It was a very emotional moment for me.
It was very much
a coming together of our little tribe,
our blended family.
Everything was going well,
but then it took a turn for the worst
and everything went wrong again.
We know how Jason Corbett died.
Now we're gonna tell you why he died.
We are gonna tell this story.
It did not get told at the first trial.
By gosh,
it is going to get told this time.
Molly Corbett's family come to me
and asked me to review the record
to convince the North Carolina
Court of Appeals to award a new trial.
One of the first things
I come across is an interview
that Molly gave
the morning that this happened.
How many times before tonight
have you guys had physical altercations?
I don't know.
Too many to count?
A lot.
And the next thing I see
is that the authorities
interviewed the children,
starting the very next day with a visit
by the Department of Social Services,
and they both describe their father
as controlling and a*usive.
And then three days later,
at the Dragonfly House,
they repeat the initial statements.
He just got very mad about simple things.
It's gotten worse
over the past two months.
Now he's been cussing and screaming
a lot more, getting a lot angrier.
Unbeknownst to anybody,
two weeks earlier,
Jason has gone to his doctor,
and he complained
that he found himself getting angry
for no reason.
Almost Jack's identical words.
So, now I'm thinking,
"Wow, maybe there's something to this."
I just came up with a keyword.
Tell me about that.
Um, "galaxy," that's mine,
and my sister's is "peacock."
And who told you to set up these keywords?
My grandma.
I could just say, "peacock,"
and then I hang up the phone,
and she would come over to our house.
- From Tennessee?
- Yeah.
Do you remember
when she came up with that?
A few weeks before my dad died,
the peacock thing happened.
What about their phone numbers?
Did you have those written down?
Yeah, we have one under a doll.
Their grandmother,
Sharon Martens, was concerned
'cause of things she knew
about what's going on in the house,
that she had the kids create a code word
and gave the kids her phone number
and hid it from Jason
because they knew how he would react.
Tell me about this cinder block
that you're talking about,
or the brick that your mom used.
Um, we just got flowers
that we were going to plant
in our front yard or backyard.
And we were gonna paint it
so it looked pretty.
And it was in my mom's room
because it was raining earlier.
You have a brick on the nightstand?
The kids and I were gonna paint...
Paint these bricks and flowers
around the mailbox.
It's not a coincidence
that all the physical evidence
and the circumstantial evidence
all corroborate what Tom and Molly
told law enforcement from the beginning.
I was stunned to read that the state
had successfully persuaded
the trial judge to exclude
everything that the children had said.
How could there have been a fair trial
when the jury never heard
the very evidence that supports
what Molly said happened that night?
One of the arguments the state made
was that the children were
now recanting their original statements.
And is it true
that your father was a*usive, or false?
Um, false.
I believe that this is
just a gross miscarriage of justice.
When I watched the interview of Jack,
it looks very rehearsed.
They appear to be brainwashed.
I know the truth.
I know that what they state
is not the truth.
What's going on inside their heads?
I don't know.
One is conducted
by a trained child interviewer
in a sterile environment.
One is not.
She told us that that's how my dad died,
and to tell the DA...
Uh, you're gone.
It's okay. Are you... Are you back?
I'm going to have to call David.
If this is such an important interview,
uh, why can't Davidson County
fly somebody to Ireland
and conduct a proper interview?
- Hi.
- Okay. Is that better?
I'm gonna go ahead and back out.
You guys carry on.
Molly Corbett is sitting
in the women's prison
with a sentence of 20 to 25 years.
And I don't think she did this.
Good morning, everyone,
and welcome
to the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
I've got to convince these three judges
that an injustice was done.
Your Honor,
I wanted to address the decision
to exclude the children's statements.
The trial court in its conclusions,
in my judgment, were clearly erroneous.
I got the decision
from the Court of Appeals that we had won.
And the judge ruled that Jason Corbett
was the aggressor that night.
But the state is appealing the decision
to the full Supreme Court
of North Carolina.
And so, I begin again.
The children were uniquely positioned
to know the truth
of whether their father
had an irrational anger problem.
And therein lies the problem
with excluding the children's statements.
The Supreme Court of North Carolina
is in recess.
God save the state
and this honorable court.
The Supreme Court has ruled, and we won.
They have awarded a new trial.
And this time, the children's statements
are going to be heard by the jury.
The m*rder convictions
of Molly Corbett and Thomas Martens
have been overturned on appeal.
North Carolina Supreme Court
upheld an appellate court's ruling,
granting Tom and Molly a new trial.
There had been
serious problems with the trial,
and it was going to be rectified.
It was exhilarating. I was going home.
Well, tonight, Molly Corbett
and her father, Tom Martens,
are free on bail.
Mr. Martens, how does it feel to be out?
I'm glad to be back with my family.
The father-daughter pair
left the Davidson County Jail
just an hour apart.
For the first time
in over three and a half years,
Molly walked out of that jail free.
It's not fair...
...that they're out and walking.
I can't focus.
And there's no trial date set.
There's no...
There's nothing to say,
"Okay, this is when it's gonna be over."
I just have to sit here
and let my life pass me by again
because of them.
Very hard to see the people
that took so much from you
and took your dad's life,
that are able to walk free and be able
to hug their dads and their moms
when we have to go down to a little patch
of grass with a headstone to see my dad.
Now we have to prepare
for a new trial in front of a new jury.
All of the evidence is gonna be presented,
and the whole story will finally get told.
Domestic abuse
was going to come into the light.
I mean, my domestic abuse,
the abuse that I suffered and endured,
it was... it was going to come out.
I think we appeared
as a pretty perfect family,
but things were not great
in regard to Jason's treatment of me.
Just every day,
there would be kind of an interrogation
of what I did that day,
who I talked to, and what I was wearing.
And if I wore my hair a different way,
there would be,
"Why did you wear your hair that way?"
"Were you hoping to talk
to someone specific?"
Everything was just fraught with peril.
Sometimes he would
just be kind of seething and angry
because I hadn't abided by something
or I'd been somewhere
I shouldn't have been.
And sometimes that would lead, uh,
to a violent situation.
Molly was becoming a shell
of what she had been.
She was definitely not as happy.
She was definitely not as confident.
She was acting beaten down.
I did not realize the extent
or the seriousness of the domestic abuse
that I do now.
Not letting me adopt the children
was a method of control.
And it was something
that I didn't recognize early on.
He would always say, "Why does it matter?
It's just a piece of paper."
He knew that a divorce and custody
was just in the realm of possibility
if I adopted the kids.
And so, he wanted to make sure
that didn't happen.
If I had left at that time,
the kids were not old enough
to have a say in court
and I would most likely lose the kids.
And I... I wasn't willing to lose the kids,
and he knew that.
He knew I couldn't ever leave the kids.
And so, my friend in the neighborhood
who was the family attorney,
she recommended that I keep a record
of not only the abuse
but also just general motherhood.
You know, so if there was a divorce
when the kids were older,
that there would be a record
that I was their mom.
And she recommended
that I make recordings.
I was trying to have
a conversation with Jack.
Could you just give me
two minutes to talk to my kids
when you're with them all the time?
- Could you do that?
- Yeah, I'm sorry.
You should be.
They were little recording devices
that were voice activated,
and I put them around the house.
Underneath the coffee table.
Underneath the counter.
One on the nightstand.
My plan had been to control the situation
until they were old enough
to have a say in court.
And there were times when I thought
that I'm gonna die before that happens.
Um, but there was never a time
where I thought that Jason might die
before that happens.
I get a call from Doug Kingsbery
saying that he has a case that he thinks
I might be able to help with.
We have a man who is
a very successful businessman.
He gets along with everybody.
Does not have an angry bone in his body.
The thing is,
abusers can appear one way n public
but very different in private.
And so, Doug sent me an audio recording
of the family during dinnertime.
Could I have dinner with the kids?
That's what I asked, but you ignored it
and went and fed them anyway.
I was on the phone with you
ten minutes ago,
I said, "I'm gonna make some soup.
Do you want some?" And you said no.
I said no
because I thought we'd have family dinner.
But you ignored it, honey,
because you just do,
because it's not what you wanted to do.
I said, "I'm making soup for the kids."
"Do you want some?"
The reason I said no
is because you ignored what I asked.
I didn't ignore anything.
You forgot what I asked.
You couldn't care less.
One of the characteristics of abusers
is they like to take on the victim role.
And no matter how much Molly tries
to appease him or reassure him
that she was offering
to do something for him,
he does not want to be pleased.
He doesn't want a solution to the problem.
He wants a problem to complain about.
I said,
"I'd like to have dinner with my family."
That's what I said to you. You decided--
Jack, stop hanging off
the banister. Go to your room.
No, don't go up to your room,
Jack, come down here, please.
Don't tell them to go
when I'm talking to them.
- I gotta go to the bathroom.
- You can stay there, please.
Can you look at me? Have some respect?
Asked you to have dinner with my family.
You said you were feeding the kids.
That's why I said no, because you ignored
what I said about dinner with my family.
- Sit down, finish your food.
- Who cares what he says.
Don't send them out when I'm talking.
You don't have the right.
"You don't have the right."
I mean, yeah, she's not...
she's not their adoptive mother.
According to Jason,
this is further ammunition
to letting Molly know where she stands.
It's Pancake Tuesday.
Why don't I make some pancakes?
I don't want anything from you.
I asked you over and over again.
You made it clear you want
to try to separate me from my kids.
No, I don't, J.
I'm gonna do the same to you.
The difference is,
I will be able to do it.
That's a very clear threat from Jason.
"If you try to take the kids from me,
I'll just take the kids from you."
I shouldn't have to say it over and over...
Can you guys get out
the stuff for pancakes?
There you go again!
I'm talking to you,
and you're talking about something else!
- Stop slamming your chair!
- Stop fighting!
Go up to bed.
- Up to bed. Go.
- She just got scared, J.
- Up to bed.
- She did, Dad. She got scared.
Go to bed. Go to bed. Go to bed.
If a jury hears this evidence
of domestic abuse,
they will find Tom and Molly innocent.
Because Molly told a story five years ago,
or maybe two stories,
does that mean
that she was not abused by Jason?
My daughter's not a liar.
I'm not a liar.
And if you think we are, go for it.
Prove it.
We learn that there are secret recordings
that Molly has made of Jason.
Molly was the only person who knew
the recording was being made,
which creates a scenario
where she can control the narrative.
Molly was preparing
for divorce and custody proceedings.
I'll be able to do
what you're trying to do.
- I'm not trying to do anything, J.
- You are.
She clearly is trying to do something.
Anyone who's making secret recordings
in a personal relationship
can manipulate the context
and make Jason look bad.
In the last months
before my father was k*lled,
the mood was kinda different in the house.
There wasn't as much activities
with us as a family going on.
When I kinda
really started to notice it was
when I found the recording device
in my dad's car, and I showed it to him.
And he was absolutely shocked
to see it in there.
And he said, "How do you feel
about moving back to Ireland?"
And Sarah said, "Without Mommy?"
And my dad said, "Yes."
And I knew Molly would not like that.
She knew he'd be able to take us away,
and she'd be able to do nothing about it.
It appears from everything
we learned about Molly
that things are coming to a head
as it relates to the marriage
and to, most importantly,
to her custody of the children.
We look back at Tom's statement
the night Jason was k*lled,
and the reason for the visit
from Tom and Sharon.
I mean, we're fairly social people.
And we didn't really have
anything going on this weekend.
That Saturday morning, we decided,
"Hey, why don't we go on over to Molly's?"
It's a four-hour drive,
and it's a beautiful day.
But we learned from people in Tennessee,
where Tom and Sharon live,
that Tom and Sharon had plans
that night with his boss,
which they canceled at the last minute.
We do not believe
that Tom came to North Carolina
to beat Jason to death
with a baseball bat.
Our theory is that Molly
had devised some expl*sive event.
If Molly could get Jason to blow up
while her parents were there as witnesses,
she could apply
for a domestic violence protective order,
which would remove him from the house.
And then she can file
for emergency custody of the children
and take his children away from him.
But when the plan went awry,
and it got violent,
it appears she quit caring
whether or not he lived or died.
Now, everyone's talking
about Tom and Molly Martens.
This case has caused a big divide
between the US and Ireland
for a long time.
The situation now is that
they are expected to go for a retrial
on the same charges in 2022.
How difficult is it
to listen to all the things
that you know have been said
about your dead brother
to make him look as if he deserved it?
I think that's one of the reasons
why I wrote the book,
because we weren't able to defend Jason.
I've been fighting
for justice for Jason for seven years.
Now I face a retrial,
and I expect
that the defense will call me.
I believe they're going to try and claim
that I brainwashed Jack and Sarah,
which is utterly... untrue.
Telling a child what to say,
or telling a child to lie,
would go against every fiber of my being.
That is never going to happen.
I'm just packing, getting ready,
'cause we're leaving in the morning
for the pre-trial hearing.
It will be the first time
we see the Martens since 2015.
So, that's going to be very hard.
The reason they were granted a retrial
is a lot to do
with my Dragonfly interview,
where I said that my dad hit Molly.
It's always in the back of my mind.
We all just hope that the retrial is set
as soon as possible.
These people have been out
for over a year,
and that I think it's time
for this book to be closed
and that justice to be served.
I just want to be there
to support my father and my family.
The family of Jason Corbett,
the Irishman found beaten to death
in his North Carolina home in 2015,
have said they hope a date
for Molly and Tom Martens's retrial
will be set at a hearing today.
They walked into the courtroom
and I saw Molly, and I saw Tom.
They had their heads down.
They wouldn't look at me.
And I thought, "I'm not afraid anymore."
I'm not the one who should be afraid.
I... I did nothing wrong.
I lied, that's true.
Um...
But I was eight.
And I do believe that justice
will be delivered for my dad.
We're going
to some breaking news in the last while
as the K*llers of Irish businessman
Jason Corbett will face a retrial
on m*rder charges next summer.
The family had been hoping
that the retrial would take place
before Christmas.
Unfortunately, that is not to be.
Right now,
it's really just a waiting game.
It's stressful having to deal with
this hanging over us.
But if I get to testify,
which I hope I do,
I feel confident I'll be able to portray
what really happened inside the house,
and tell people and the jury
what Molly was really like,
and the real version of events, the truth.
I've been waiting a long time
to say everything,
and I didn't have the words to explain
what happened to me,
and my brother, and my dad before.
On the outside of the house,
the house looks like
sunshines and rainbows.
And on the inside, it's dark and heavy.
My relationship with Molly
got progressively worse
as we moved over to America.
Myself and Sarah used to have pictures
of our biological mother in our rooms,
and she took the picture off me
and hid it.
I feel that Molly wanted to be
the only mother that existed,
that there was no one else before her.
Sarah had a lot closer relationship
with Molly than I did.
They did everything together.
She was like the... the star child.
I was closer with my dad.
I remember when my father
was on a work trip,
and I said, "Goodbye, I love you."
She chased me up to my room,
she destroyed my whole room,
pulled all my clothes out, flipped my bed,
turned over my dresser.
I was in the car with Molly,
and I asked her,
"Could I start tee-ball?
Dad's the coach, so he can bring me."
And Molly turned around and said,
"Do you not love me?"
"Do you not care about me?
You don't want to spend time with me."
"Why do you want
to spend time with your dad?"
I felt awful
because I thought I really hurt her.
I couldn't even tell my dad
things that happened,
and that made it really hard for me
to know what was right and what was wrong,
because I only had one person
whispering in my ear the whole time.
I was constantly fighting
to be loved by her.
I did everything I could
to just feel attention off her,
not even love,
and I loved her.
Me and Jack both loved her.
But I think that she pitted
me and Jack against each other
to fight for her love.
I think if it had gotten to a case
where we had been brought
before a judge at 13,
I would have chose my dad
every day of the week.
But Sarah would have picked Molly.
Molly took Sarah away
from my dad constantly.
She never got...
She never got the relationship
that she wanted with him.
That's Molly's fault.
In my opinion, that's Molly's fault.
As we are preparing for a retrial,
I find out that
Molly has a handful of close friends
that heard Jason in fits of anger,
threaten her,
or who witnessed
Jason's controlling behavior,
supporting what Molly has described to me.
One of the women says,
"Molly has told me Jason
has strangled me before in the bedroom."
And she said,
"Molly was afraid
that Jason had strangled his first wife,
and she was growing concerned
that it could happen to her."
And I'm... I'm thinking, "What?"
It's been there all along,
since the first interview
with law enforcement.
His first wife died
in mysterious circumstances.
Um, the finding was
that she had an asthma attack.
This didn't just come up.
Tom had concerns
from when he talked to Mikey Fitzpatrick.
We had the maternal grandparents over.
They're at our house.
I have occasion to have a conversation
with the father
of the deceased first wife.
His name is Mikey Fitzpatrick.
He's not a well-educated man.
He's very hard to understand.
Got a heavy Irish accent.
I asked him what he thought of Jason.
He said, "I think he k*lled my daughter."
I found that pretty shocking.
I didn't know if it was just a bitter man
who... needed somebody to blame
for his daughter's death,
or if he had a basis for this.
He was deadly serious.
He wasn't joking around.
Nobody investigated
any further into Mags' death
and the circumstances
surrounding Mags' death.
Everybody accepted the autopsy findings
until Doug started digging further.
I obtained a copy
of the official autopsy report
of Jason's first wife.
I have a medical expert look at this.
He says, "Jason Corbett's first wife
did not die from an asthma attack."
"The evidence to me shows
that she succumbed
to injuries from manual strangulation."
We had learned that Mags' sister
was there that night.
And she reported, "Mags kept saying,
'I'm going to die. I'm going to die.'"
That's what happens
to victims of manual strangulation
that survive the event
but dies from those injuries
within the hour.
But according to
Mags Corbett's autopsy report,
there were not visible marks
on the outside of her neck.
My expert says, "You don't die from
what's on the external part of the neck."
"You die from the injury
that can't be seen
on the inside of the neck."
This is important.
The state is making an argument
that Molly couldn't have been
strangled that night
because there's a lack
of injuries to her neck.
And he says to me, "Take a look
at the photograph of Molly Corbett
taken in the early morning hours
right outside the house by the police."
"Do you see that linear mark
on the left side of Molly's neck
below her ear?"
I hadn't noticed it before.
He says, "That's a nail dig."
It's what happens
during manual strangulation
when either the assailant's nails
dig into the side of the neck,
or sometimes the victim
is trying to pry the hand away.
And he says to me,
"Have you examined her pajamas
that she was wearing that night?"
"No. What am I looking for?"
"If the victim loses consciousness,
uh, they lose control of their bladder."
"I'll bet you dollars to donuts,
you're gonna go down there
and find a urine stain
in the crotch area of her pajamas."
And there it is.
I believe the only reason wife number two
was not victim number two
was because that night
her 65-year-old father
was there to intervene and stop it.
There are numerous expert witnesses
for the state and for the defense.
Every expert who looks
at the autopsy of Mags
agree that she did not die
of an asthma attack.
But our experts said
that you could not extrapolate from that
that Jason or anybody else had k*lled her.
That is a reckless conclusion
and is not supported by the evidence.
There is a long list
of possible health conditions
which would have looked like
an asthma attack in a known asthmatic.
However, the claims
that Jason must have strangled her
is not the kind of testimony
we want to get in front of a jury.
We're concerned that a jury hears that,
they may stop listening.
Jack and Sarah are absolutely convinced
that their testimony will fix everything.
But even if they testify brilliantly
and carry their share of the load,
and more,
it could still go sideways.
And so, we are willing
to consider plea negotiations.
Today, Molly Corbett and Thomas Martens
appeared in a Davidson County courtroom
to plead for a reduced charge
of voluntary manslaughter.
Molly Corbett, she pled no contest
to that charge of voluntary manslaughter.
And Thomas Martens, he pled guilty
to the charge of voluntary manslaughter.
Now, they also say his exemplary career
in the FBI in upholding the law
should warrant an easier sentence.
I had no interest in taking a plea.
I was ready to go to trial.
I was ready for the truth to prevail,
and I was ready to fight back.
But the possibility of us losing at trial
and my father being incarcerated
for what would be the rest of his life,
I couldn't handle that responsibility.
The state and defense teams,
they're gonna go through
all of the evidence from a case
that this area knows very well
and present that to a judge.
And then he'll make the determination
of how long their sentences should be.
My whole world has just been
flipped upside down again
for I don't know how many times
over the last eight years.
They could walk out at the end
of the sentencing hearing for time served.
It's just a complete injustice.
This is not what my dad deserves.
This isn't what I deserve.
It's not right. It's not fair.
The court has been hearing
testimony from friends and neighbors
of Molly Martens Corbett
who said they were aware of arguments,
physical violence and controlling behavior
in the Corbetts' marriage.
Questions were raised about
the cause of death of his previous wife,
Margaret Corbett.
The defense brought in pathologists
who say it's possible
that someone could've k*lled her.
I feel like my dad's on trial.
And I feel like all the focus
is on my dad's character.
Molly's lawyers say
that there's one common denominator
in my birth mother's death
and my dad's death.
My birth mother was feeding me
'cause I woke up crying
the night that she died.
And the night that my dad died,
I woke up and went downstairs.
How could you blame me for the reason
both of my parents are dead?
That's when I realized that
this is just a case for the defense.
They don't know my da-- my dad,
and they don't want to know him.
As painful as that news
could have been for them to hear
that Mags didn't die of an asthma attack,
which is the story that
they have been fed their entire lives,
um, I guess I did have some hope
that this would, you know, cause a break
in... in their brainwashing.
But, um...
they continue to believe she did,
and maybe that's what
they have to believe.
I'm angry because I know
my dad didn't k*ll my mom.
My Auntie Catherine was
in the house that night.
I do wish that
I had been asked to come over and testify,
because I'm the only one
who was there the night Mags passed.
Just after two o'clock,
I'd say, in the morning,
there was a knock on the bedroom door,
and it was Jason.
And he said, "Mags isn't well.
She's having a bad asthma attack."
Mags is in the kitchen holding her chest.
She had her inhaler in her hand.
I watched Jason
frantically do everything to save her.
Tom Marten was saying
that Mike and him had a conversation
about how Mag died on Jason's hands.
When we heard this, all my family
were enraged, my father especially.
He said, "No such thing happened."
"Until the day I die,
how would I ever believe Jason
had k*lled my daughter?"
They had a beautiful relationship.
They were a very loving couple.
And Michael loved Jason.
He was our son.
We decided Michael would make
a statement to the solicitor.
My father passed away from cancer,
so we're speaking on behalf of my dad.
"Statement of Michael Fitzpatrick."
"I wish to put it on record
that I only ever met Thomas Martens once."
"I can also state categorically
that we never discussed
my daughter Margaret,
nor did I inform Thomas Martens
that Jason had k*lled
my daughter Margaret."
"Such statements by Thomas Martens
are totally and utterly untrue."
The Davidson County judge
will hear closing arguments
from both the state and defense,
which could lead
to a final decision on sentencing.
The last thing that happens
before the judge enters his sentence
is victim impact statements
from Jason's family members,
and Jack and Sarah are
the most important of who are gonna speak.
I've written this,
not just for my dad,
but for myself as well.
I'm 19 years of age.
I haven't been able
to speak out for so long,
and I've had to listen
to lies over the last eight years,
and this is my opportunity
to say the truth.
I am old enough,
and I am brave enough now.
I've always had
someone else tell my story,
and it's important to me
that I can tell my story myself.
I'm going to start listening
to "Chicken Fried."
Do, yeah. Oh, we put it on?
- We put it on?
- Yeah, do. Yeah, do.
We used to always play it together.
It felt like he was beside me.
You know I like my chicken fried
A cold beer on a Friday night
A pair of jeans that fit just right
And the radio up
Well, I was raised up
Beneath the shade of a Georgia Pine
And that's home you know
Sweet tea, pecan pie
And homemade wine
Where the peaches grow
And my house
It's not much to talk about
But it's filled with love
That's grown in southern ground
And a little bit of chicken fried
A cold beer on a Friday night
A pair of jeans that fit just right
And the radio up
I love to see the sun...
We are the strongest,
most united together.
- Yeah.
- You know?
- And we're gonna do this together.
- Yeah.
- The last word is yours.
- Look at me. All will be okay.
Time for crying is over.
Now it's time to get angry.
In there, head up, shoulders back.
- f*ck these people. They're nothing to us.
- Yeah.
Come on, Sarah, give it to us.
What are we gonna do?
Let's do this!
So, yeah.
I used to pray at night when I was a kid
that I would wake up
and it would all have been a bad dream.
I've had to experience childhood,
adolescence,
and the beginning of adulthood
without my dad there to guide me.
Your Honor, don't be fooled
by this mask of civility of Molly Martens.
She systematically broke me down
and drip-fed me un-truths.
I want to be clear.
I have never witnessed
my dad hit Molly Martens, ever.
Who is the victim here?
The Martens made my pain so much worse
by trying to have the world think
my dad was a bad person.
What Molly and Tom Martens took from me,
I can never get back.
I've seen my father's bloody handprint
on the door of his bedroom.
There was nothing voluntary
about his death.
He did not choose to leave us.
He was taken from us.
He was the victim.
Luckily, my dad picked
two wonderful parents
to guide me through life.
It hasn't been easy,
but having them made it a lot easier.
It was only when I went to live
with Tracey and David in Ireland
that I knew the true meaning of family.
Molly Corbett and Thomas Marten
are going back to prison
for the death of Jason Corbett.
This afternoon, the judge sentenced them
to 51 to 74 months...
...when you factor in
the amount of time they already served
when they were previously found guilty
for second degree m*rder,
it only adds up
to about seven or eight months.
The judge made it clear
it was difficult for him
to find the truth in this case,
but made very clear
the kids were blameless.
That's Jack and Sarah.
I think Molly did the best job
she could do with raising those kids.
And it was just very difficult for her
to have to listen to them saying
that she somehow hurt them,
um, which I just don't believe is true.
I did not emotionally, or physically,
or in any way abuse my children.
The children have been used
as tools of evil.
Uh, they've been weaponized against me.
And, uh... they wanted to hurt me,
and they did.
Do I think those children know the truth?
I don't know. How do they remember
the times at the beach?
How do they remember
Molly as the school mother?
How do they remember
the meals that she made?
How do they remember the birthday parties?
How do they remember
her teaching them how to swim?
How do they remember?
How can you remember that and hate Molly?
Today, Molly Corbett and Thomas Martens
will walk out of their prisons free.
I am not allowed to attempt
to have any contact with the kids.
That's a court order.
When it comes to, you know, my feelings
about whether
I consider myself their mother,
uh, that would cause them
immense pain right now.
I think that they hate the person
that they think that I am,
and they think of me as an evil ab*ser,
and they think their father was wonderful.
I certainly am not their mother now.
Will I always think of myself
as having been their mother?
Yes, I was. I was their mother.
I was the mother to the Jack and Sarah
that existed in another lifetime.
Sarah, how old are you?
Two.
Two and a half.
Yeah.
How old are you?
- Four and a half.
- Are you sure you're not one and a half?
It is true that I loved Molly.
But just because I loved Molly
doesn't make her a good mother.
- Say, "Bye, camera."
- Bye, camera.
I have no feelings
towards her anymore. I don't...
I don't hate her.
I just don't want to give her
any power over me anymore.
Thank you.
I understand how a lot of people could say
he's been around people who loved his dad,
his dad's family,
his dad's friends for eight years,
that's why he's saying these things.
But I was always left to come up
with my own decisions, my own opinions.
My dad was my hero.
He was someone I looked up to.
He was my best friend.
There's a gorgeous boy.
Jack, blow Daddy a kiss.
Good boy.
Oh, another one.
What are you doing, Daddy?
Getting Sarah and Mum.
They're coming home to Jack's house.
Hi, Bubba! Give Daddy a kiss?
- Did you miss Daddy?
- Hi!
- See what Daddy bought ya.
- Oh, Daddy buy you presents?
My dad was an amazing person.
He was a good dad.
He was, like, my biggest cheerleader.
Go, Sarah!
I know my dad and my mom
would not want me to sit around upset.
So, you just have to keep
going forward and make them proud,
and live the life
that they wanted you to live.
My dad loved me and Jack.
We were his everything, and I know that.
And I'm really proud to say
that I am Jason Corbett's daughter.
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A Deadly American Marriage (2025)
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