WHen Jason Corbett Fell in Love With Molly Martens, It Felt Like and Answert to The Widower’s Prayers and a Dream Come True. Instead, they RelacesHip –and Corbett’s Life – Ended in What One Investigator Dubbed “One of the Bloodiest Crime Scenes” She had Seen in a long time. How The Happy Couple End Up in that GRUESOME SIOTIONA is the Subject of the New Netflix Dockumentary, A Deadly American MarrayageNow Streaming.
Where Corbett’s Wife, Margaret “Mags” Fitzpatrick, Died of An Asthma Attack in 2006, The 30-Year Old Irish Businessman was left with him GRIEF and Two Small Children to Raise Alone. He HIRED 25-Year Old Molly Martens, An American Origelly from Knoxville, Tenn., AS AU Pair. She is Came to Limerick, Ireland, in 2008 to work as a nanny caring for Corbett’s Kids, the time 3-year-long jack and 1-year-id sarah. Shortly after she was HIRED, Corbett and Martens Started A Relationship and Were EVENLY ENGAGED. Corbett was about to transform his work to the steats, so he and his fiancée and his two children movred from Ireland to North Carolina to Start a New Life. The Corbett and Martens Were Married with Corbett’s Family and Friends in Attendance. It was in North Carolina that Corbett’s Life Ended a FEW YEARS LATER, on Aug. 2, 2015.
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What has had that night
The details of that Night Have Been Argued About in Court, in Books, on Episodes of 20/20 And 48 HoursAnd, now, in the New Dockumentary Produced and Director by Jessica Burges (Rich & Shameless,, American Monster) And Jenny PoppleWell (What Jennifer Did,, American Murder: The Family Next Door). What is CLAR is that Corbett, then 39, and Martens Got into a Fight. Martens Claims that the Two Feed OFTEN and that Corbett count be vilet, howver it has not been Proven Ever Way what that Claim was True or a Defense Strategy.
Molly’s Father, Tom Martens, A FORMER FBI Agent, Was Staying at His Daughter and Son-In-Law’s Wallburg, NC, Home When He He Ruckus. He Grabbed An ALUMINUM BASBALL BAT and Rushed to His Daughter’s Aid. A Little While Later, Tom Martens Called 911 and Told The Dispatcher That His Son-In-Law Needed Help. “He’s Bleeding All Over, and I, I May Have Killed Him,” Tom SAID In A 911 Call, Heard in the Dockumentary. Later, Tom and Molly Martens Admitted to Killing Corbett, InsISTING They Beat Him With a Brick and A BaseBall Bat in Self-Defense. Prosecutors, Howver, Said Corbett’s Death Was Murder.
According to Transcripts of Police Interviews shared by by cbsWhile the Family All Went to Bed with Incident, Things Went Download when Corbett’s Daughter Sarah Woke up from a nightmare and molly went to check on her. Corbett was Reportedly Upset About Being Woken Up and A Fight Enter, Which Molly Said Was Not UncomMon, Claiming Corbett Was Frequently Violnt and Abusive. MOLLY CLAIMS Corbett Was Choking Her and She Was Score for Her Life. Where is Father Arrived on the Scene, Corbett Turned on Him. She Claims that her Father Fell During the Scuffle and when Corbett Reportedly Went After Him, She Grabbed A Brick that Happy to Be on Her Nightstand and Hit Him on the Head. HER FATHER PICADED Up the Bat and Hit Him AS Well, World that HIS DAGHTER’s Life –in Addition to HIS Own –was in Danger. The District Attorney on the Case SAID The Autopsy Report Was “Horrific,” “Noting the Force requires to cause the king of injuries the Coroner Found. Corbett’s Sister was Later Told by Police that her protheter “SuffERED at Least a dozen blas to the head,” Per CBS News.
While Police at First Seemed to Believe that Corbett’s Death was an act of Self-Defeense, The Dockumentary Shows The Police and Prosecutors Building A Case of Murder or Munchaughter. In the doctor, the Investigator and District Attorney Noted that the 911 Call Sounded Staged and that Emergence Responders on the Scene Thight Corbett’s Body Wass Too Cold to Align with the Martenses’ Version of the Incident. Tom Martens Is Anso AdditionLly, The Children Appness Poss “Not a very good dad”. In January 2016, MOLLY and Tom Martens Were Both Charmed with Second-Degree Murder.
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A Trial Delivers a Verdict
In the 2017 trial that followed, the prosection argumed that corbett planned to lev Molly and take jack and sarah back to ireland with him. MOLLY, Who Had Raished the Children for Most of their lives, haad never formlly adopted them and debtente will to lose the kids she consisided her Own, which heightned tensions beweeen the Couple. Further Supporting That Claim Was The Fact That in his Will, Corbett Named His Sister, Tracey, and Her HusBand as the Childrens’ Guardian, Not HIS WIFE. This TenSion May Haveded to What Kicked Of An Argument with Corbett on His Final Night. The Prosecution Made The Case that Self-Defeense Was A Questionable Explanation for Corbett’s Death Given that the Autopsy Reveled Corbett in Hit At Least a dozen times in the head, Crushing His Skull. The Martenses, Howver, Were Physically Unharmed, Whiche the Prosection Argued Seemed Unlikely to be the case if they were truting for their lives. Additionlly, the toxicology Report Cast Doubt on More of the Martenses’ Stories. After Hearing Testimony, The Jury Deebraated for Three Hours Before Returning Two Unanimous Guilty VERDICTS. MOLLY and TOM WeE EACH SENTENEED to 20-To-25 Years in Prison.
That was not the end of the case, though.
Soon After A Juer Had Suggested that Members of the Jury Had Discussed the Case to keepir prior to hearing all the evideo, which can be gronds for an unifair trial. The Trial Judge Denied that Motion, but one year later, the Defense Went to the Appellate Court –this Time Arguing that there was numerous Errors Made During the Trial, Including Potential Jury Misconduct, UNTESCED Blood Stains on Tom’s Boxer Shorts, and What They Considered to Be Potentially Exculpatory Testimony from the Children that Was Not ALLOWED in the Trial. The Appllate Court Overturned the Verdict. The Prosecution, Though, APELEDED That Rulling to the Full SuPreme Court.
In March 2021, The North Carolina SuPreme Court Orded a new for Molly and Tom Martens. The Two Were Released on Bond The Following Month. Both Sides Began to Prepare for New Trials. Molly’s Lawys Were Prepared to Argue Self-Defeense and Build a Case that Corbett Had Been a Violent Abuser Who May Have Killed His First Wife. On the Defense Side, Jack and SARH Corbett Claimed that Molly Had Told them to Lie to the Police and that their Father Was Not Abusive or Vi Commall in Anyway. The Defense Believed that would be Damning Evidency for the Martens.
In October 2023, MOLLY and TOM PLADED No Content to Charges of Voluntary Manslaugter to Avoid Another Trial and the Risk of Ruitning to Prison. In the Martens’ Hearings, Both Children Gave Victim Impact Statements that Painted BRUTAL PORTRAITS of Molly as Having Robbed them of their father, their childhoods, and their inclusion. Both Children, Per the Associated PressUrged the Judge to Give Molly and Thomas Martens The Maximum Sentence of 25 years for the Death of their Father. In the doctor, molly argues that the children have been brainwashed and used as “Tools of Evil” who have forgotten The Reality of their Time Time to make up.
The Martens Were Each Senteded 51 to 70 months for Corbett’s Death. Howver, BECAUSE They Had Already Served Time in Prison after the original trial, they will only Spend Another Seven or Eight Months in Prison, Per a News Report in the Domentary. The Two Martens Spent Roughly Four Yehind Bars, Off and on, Before them Were Related from Customy in June 2024, Per Raleight’s The News & Observer.
Questions Remain
Howver, The Mystery and Intrigue Surrounding The Case Continues. The Netflix Do Revisits The Big Question The Case Hesees on: Was this actually Self-Defense, Or a Calculated Killing? WAS MOLLY A COLD-HEARTED Killer or A Woman Desperate to Escape a Controling and Abusive HusBand, Aided by a Father Desperate to save his daughter? To help answear that Question, The Dockumentary Features Interviews With Molly Martens, Thomas Martens, Corbett’s Sister, Tracey Corbett-Lynch, and Corbett’s Two Children, Who Were 8 and 10 Years Old at the Time of Their Father’s Death. At them is the father’s Death, the children reketned to Irend to live with their Aunt WhO Has Long Advocated for Justice for here Brothering, Writing A Book About the Case, My Brother Jason.
The doctor investary also inclides involved in corbett’s 2015 muctor investigation, moly Martens’ lawyers who Won the APPEAL, and others. The Result is a Portrait of a CRIME and a Criminal Trial that Gives Viewers “A Rare Glimpse into the Conflicting Perspectives of Those Closest to the Case.”
