Chapter 3

SECOND DEGREE MURDER

WHEN the 911 call was made to the Davidson County emergency centre in the early hours of August 2, a number of things immediately began to happen.

Dispatcher Karen Capps, while dealing with the 14-minute call from Thomas Martens and Molly Martens-Corbett, instructed paramedics and Davidson County Sheriff ’s Department officers to attend the scene.

Paramedics were dispatched first before, when Ms Capps was informed there had been a reported assault, advising a police patrol unit to immediately attend Panther Creek Court as well.

At 3.13am the first emergency medical services officers arrived at the scene, Sergeant Barry Alphin and David Bent followed by a second unit of Amanda Hackworth and Carla Lane.

One later described the blood-soaked scene to an arriving police officer as: “Bad in there – real bad. Horrible scene.”

Paramedics moved Jason Corbett’s naked and blood-soaked body from the dark and cramped master bedroom to an ambulance outside. No heart rhythm was ever detected despite their desperate efforts to revive the Irishman.

Two paramedics commented on how cool the body appeared and queried whether there was any delay in calling 911.

At 3.16am the first Davidson County Sheriff ’s officer arrived at the scene, Corporal

Clayton Dagenhardt.

By 3.24am, life-saving efforts on Jason Corbett had ceased and he was pronounced dead at the scene, lying in the back of an ambulance parked on his driveway.

His body was later removed to a coroner’s complex for a full post-mortem examination. At 4am, crime scene examiner Lt Frank Young arrived at Panther Creek Court and began to photograph and video the scene. He also took photographs of Jason Corbett, Molly Martens-Corbett and Thomas Martens.

Two items were immediately identified to be preserved and kept by forensic officers – a large concrete paving brick and a metal Louisville Slugger baseball bat.

Between 4am and 5am, Thomas Martens and Molly Martens-Corbett were brought by police to a Davidson County Sheriff ’s Office.

They were interviewed about the precise events at Panther Creek Court, photographed again and had their blood-stained clothing taken for forensic analysis.

Molly will later claim that police informed her that, as the case was most likely selfdefence in a domestic violence scenario, she would have nothing to worry about. After signing a brief handwritten statement, Molly was released from custody. Similarly, after making a statement to two detectives, Thomas Martens was released.

Jason’s two children, Jack and Sarah, were at this point in the care of Molly’s mother,

Sharon Martens.

However, within days, a custody issue will arise between the Martens family and

Jason’s family in Limerick.

Jason had nominated his sister, Tracey, and her husband, David, as guardians of his two children in a will he made out in 2007.

That will was not changed despite the fact he had re-married in 2011.

The Limerick businessman had also been very careful to ensure that both his children had retained their Irish passports.

Davidson County social services will, in a fraught series of hearings over the coming weeks, rule that the children are citizens of Ireland and allow them to return to Limerick in the custody of Tracey and David Lynch.

The Limerick couple were given custody of the children in concluding hearings on August 19 and 20. Preparations were immediately made to fly them back to Ireland.

This was vehemently opposed by Molly and her family with the young woman later waging a social media campaign in a bid to maintain some form of contact with the children.

Less than 24 hours after Jason’s death, North Carolina pathologist Dr Craig Nelson conducted a post-mortem examination on his remains.

The findings of the post-mortem examination will subsequently prove crucial in the police investigation.

The day after the post-mortem examination, August 4, a Tuesday, Molly, accompanied by her mother and uncle, arrived at the MPS plant where he was manager to take possession of Jason’s personal belongings.

One plant executive, who had not yet heard the precise circumstances in which Jason died, noticed no sign of injury, scratch, bruise or abrasion to the young woman as they offered her a comforting hug.

Molly was wearing a T-shirt, jeans and had her hair tied up.

Having concluded their post-mortem examinations, Jason’s remains were released by Davidson County officials back into the care of his Irish family.

His remains were flown back to Ireland and, on August 26, Jason was buried in Castlemungret in his native Limerick.

The Davidson County Sheriff ’s Office investigation team, on the basis of the postmortem findings, blood analysis and a study of the crime scene photographs, decided to hire an outside expert on blood spray patterns to try to interpret precisely what happened in the bedroom and hallway of the luxury home that morning.

As further evidence is examined by the North Carolina detective team, the more suspicious they become of the precise circumstances in which the father of two died.

The matter was discussed with the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office and, on January 4, 2016, Thomas Martens and Molly Martens-Corbett were charged with secondary degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.

The prosecution was listed to come before the Davidson County Superior Court the following year.

Infuriated by the charges, Molly launched a social media tirade over “the level of slander, harassment, lies and absolute utter corruption”.

Despite repeated attempts, however, she was unable to resume contact with Jack or

Sarah in Ireland.

The painstaking trial preparations continued and, in December 2016, it was confirmed that the trial will most likely be dealt with in Lexington the following summer.

As both the prosecution and the defence legal teams argued over what evidence should and should not be allowed, Judge David Lee was assigned to hear the case and he set a pre-trial hearing date for June 8, 2017.

The outline of the prosecution case is confirmed and it emerges that two key defence issues will be the admission of statements taken from Jason’s children, Jack and Sarah, before they left North Carolina in August 2015.

Critically, these statements are largely recanted and contradicted by statements given by the two children in Ireland to social workers and solicitors.

Another key area of legal argument is whether Thomas Martens will be allowed enter a statement claiming he was informed by Michael Fitzpatrick, the late father of Jason’s first wife, Mags, that he held his son-in-law responsible for his daughter’s death.

That claim by Mr Martens is crucially contradicted by a sworn statement made by Mr Fitzpatrick to a Limerick solicitor in the months before his death.

Judge Lee also made a number of key rulings on how the trial will proceed, ruling out all cameras and photography from inside Courtroom C of the Davidson County courts complex for the entire duration of the trial.

He also ruled that while journalists may make social media postings and internet updates about the trial, only iPads and not laptops will be allowed inside the court.

In accordance with normal North Carolina court security protocols, everyone entering the court building must do so via a metal detector.

Jury selection for the trial was scheduled to begin on Monday, July 17 and the Davidson County Jury Commission was instructed to assemble a large panel of prospective jurors. A key difference between Irish and US law immediately emerged.

Whereas in Ireland a jury is allowed, after several hours of deliberation, to return a majority verdict of 11-1 or 10-2, in North Carolina a verdict must always be unanimous amongst all 12 jurors.

If just a single juror disagrees with their 11 colleagues, a hung jury is declared and the

State must then decide on a retrial.

Two days after the trial opened, on July 19, it emerged that Tracey and David Lynch had commenced civil proceedings against Thomas and Sharon Martens, as well as Molly Martens-Corbett, over the death of Jason Corbett.