Local US media paint different picture of the Martens family
MEDIA in Molly and Thomas Martens’s home state of Tennessee are presenting a sympathetic picture of the pair just days after they were charged with the murder of Jason Corbett.
TV station Local 8 News carried a report from Thomas’s brother-inlaw, Mike Earnest, who spoke very highly of Mr Martens.
He said: ‘Integrity could be his middle name. Tom is just someone [who is] very reliable. At the same time, a loved one, who is in danger, he will do whatever he could to protect them.’
Mr Earnest also claimed that Ms Martens and her father acted in ‘self-defence’ on the night that Limerick man Jason was killed. He said: ‘I can tell you that they [Molly and Thomas] acted completely in self-defence and their actions were justified and necessary.’
The report informed viewers how Thomas and Molly are at home in Farragut in Knoxville after they bonded out of jail on Tuesday.
They were bailed on individual payments of $200,000 and are due to appear again before the court in Davidson County on January 19.
Mr Earnest also gave a very different account of what transpired when Jason’s sister Tracey Lynch was granted legal guardianship over the Limerick man’s two children Sarah, nine, and Jack, 11.
Mr Martens’s brother-in-law said: ‘It was one of the most horrible scenes I’ve seen. They were screaming, “Don’t take me away from my Mommy!” The text of an article on the Local 8 News website also said: ‘They [Jack and Sarah] even wrote her a heartfelt letter after the death of their father; that we got from Molly’s Facebook page. Now she’s not allowed to talk to them.’
Local 8 News also talked to a former FBI agent in Knoxville who knew of Mr Martens. Kendall Shull said: ‘People have told me he is a real role model.’