Drop in car registrations
MARTENS PAIR REMAIN FREE AFTER APPEAL
NEW car registrations in Ireland have declined by 17 per cent in the past year, figures have shown.
Brian Cooke, director general of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), described the registrations as “disappointing”.
“This means the new car market is now four per cent behind year to date and 17 per cent behind pre-Covid 2019,” he said. July is typically the industry’s second highest sales period.
THE family of Limerick businessman Jason Corbett yesterday demanded a retrial date be set for his wife and father-in-law on the seventh anniversary of his violent death.
Father-of-two Jason’s second wife Molly Martens and her father Tom were convicted of the second-degree murder of the 39-year-old at his North Carolina home at Panther Creek on August 2, 2015.
The pair claimed they had acted in self-defence despite both of them being found uninjured at the scene.
Jason was found beaten to death with a baseball bat and a concrete paving slab in the bedroom of his home.
Retired
Molly (38) and her 71-year-old father, a retired FBI agent, both served four years of a 20-25 years of their convictions for second degree murder after they were found guilty at the end of their 2017 joint trial.
However, the pair were released last
March after winning appeals before North Carolina’s court of appeal and supreme court on grounds of juror misconduct, and the failure to allow testimony to be heard.
They have been living in the family home in Knoxville, Tennessee, since being released.
A retrial is expected to take place within the coming months but no date has yet been set.
Yesterday, on the seventh anniversary of Jason’s death, his daughter Sarah (15) paid tribute to the late businessman and highlighted her pain as his killers remain free.
Writing on Instagram his daughter Sarah shared a picture of her and her father and said she misses him every single day.
“Today is the 7th anniversary of my dad’s death. I miss him every single day of my life.
“He was beaten to death by Molly & Tom Martens, Everyone tells me the retrial date will be set.
“How many children in the world are made to carry this burden like me — waiting?”
Jason’s sister Tracey Corbett Lynch also took to Instagram to remember her late brother.
Meds
“Seven years ago Jason was beaten to death by Molly and Tom Martens with a paving brick and baseball bat.
“They are free — no retrial date, no hearing date to set a retrial date. We love and miss you J,” Tracey wrote.
Witness statements from Jason’s teenage children, Sarah, and Jack (17) are expected to be crucial in the prosecution’s case during the retrial as neither child gave evidence during the first trial.