Molly Martens hearing: The dramatic evidence from the week in court

Every day this week, Jason Corbett’s two children walked silently across the car park to the court building in Lexington while photographers and camera crews ran in front of them to get their shots.

Accompanied by relatives from Ireland, Jack and Sarah, now aged 19 and 17, sat in the front row of the public gallery – just metres from where relatives of Molly and Thomas Martens were seated.

They listened as harrowing testimony was given about their father’s death on August 2nd, 2015, at the hands of the woman they then called “Mom” and the man they referred to as “Grandpa”. There were medical reports on the terrible injuries Corbett sustained after being hit with a baseball bat and a brick in their home near Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Words the children had spoken, in the US and in Ireland, formed a central part of the proceedings with prosecutors at one point arguing that they were being “weaponised”.

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Then, on Thursday, a forensic pathologist commissioned by prosecutors conceded that the teenagers’ birth mother, Margaret Corbett, who health authorities in Ireland said died from an asthma attack in 2006, could possibly have been murdered.

It was one of a number of dramatic moments as the case of the state of North Carolina versus Molly and Thomas Martens reached a courtroom for the fourth time this week.

Molly Martens, who initially came to Ireland as an au pair to look after the Corbett children following the death of their mother, later began a relationship with their father. After they married, the family moved to North Carolina.

She and her father, Thomas, were originally convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to between 20 and 25 years in prison over Corbett’s death. However, an appeals court found the trial judge had erred in disallowing some testimony and the convictions were quashed and a retrial ordered.

However, the case would never again go before a jury. In the first dramatic turn this week, the court heard that a deal had been reached between counsel for Molly and Thomas Martens and prosecutors.

He would plead guilty to the voluntary manslaughter of Corbett while his daughter would not contest a charge of voluntary manslaughter. In return, the state would drop the original second-degree murder charges. The state of North Carolina conceded that the Martens believed defensive force was necessary, but contended that, at some point during the fatal row, this belief became unreasonable and the force used became excessive.

Once the deal was accepted by the judge, the hearing became only about the sentences. In a worst case, such offences can lead to 17-year jail terms but, on the other hand, probation can also be applied.

Prosecutors would argue that there were aggravating circumstances – the two children were in the house on the night – while defence counsel would contend there were mitigating factors as Molly and Thomas Martens maintain they acted in self-defence.

The defence sought to portray a troubled marriage beset by domestic abuse.

In interviews recorded with police and a social worker, Molly Martens maintained she was verbally and physically attacked by her husband. She said she and her husband had been fighting “forever”.

Her mother, Sharon Martens, told police she suspected her daughter was being assaulted. She said she set up a system of codewords that the children could use when they called her to alert her if things got out of control.

There was no one in the court specifically to defend Corbett’s reputation. Comments made by his two children became crucial in the case. In 2015, they essentially agreed that their mother and father fought regularly and that Corbett had hit his wife.

Later, back in Ireland, they completely recanted those statements. They said they never witnessed incidents of domestic violence and only made those comments after being warned “they would be taken away” if they did not. Both sides in the case contended that the children had been “coached”.

In another dramatic development, it emerged that secret recordings were made in the house. In one played to the court, Corbett was heard angrily arguing with Molly Martens about having already eaten when he had wanted to dine with the children on his return from work. The children urge them to stop.

Defence counsel maintained this corroborated the evidence given by the children in their 2015 interviews.

The court also heard a voicemail and was shown a text message from Jack Corbett to Molly Martens in 2016 telling her he missed and loved her. In one, he urged her to “keep fighting”. The defence pointed out that this was after she had been indicted for murder.

The most sensational claim made by the defence was related to Molly Martens’ belief about Corbett’s first wife Margaret having been killed by him, and that same fate could befall her.

With this claim having been made by the defence, the prosecution had its own medical expert, a forensic pathologist from Kentucky, assess the postmortem report and medical records relating to Margaret Corbett’s death in Ireland in 2006. However, the pathologist did not rebut the claim in evidence. He criticised the original Irish postmortem report as deficient and maintained it was possible that Margaret had been the victim of a homicide rather than an asthma attack.

Next week, the court is likely to hear from defence witnesses before the judge makes a ruling on the sentences to apply to Molly and Thomas Martens. The Corbett family, who have sat in silence for the last week, are likely to speak once the proceedings conclude.