Martens wanted children to testify
Jurors didn’t hear that Jack was ‘coached’ to say Molly was scared of Jason because ‘mom told me’
MOLLY Martens, who is accused of murdering her husband, Jason Corbett, tried to summon his two young children to North Carolina to testify in her defence.
Ms Martens’s legal team filed a motion to ‘determine the availability’ of Jack, 12, and Sarah, 10, to appear at her trial with her coaccused father, Tom.
There were also claims that Jack had been ‘coached’ to say Ms Martens was afraid of her late husband.
MOLLY MARTENS tried to summon Jason Corbett’s two young children to North Carolina to testify in her defence.
Ms Martens and her father Tom are charged with second-degree murder of Jason Corbett on August 1, 2015. Both deny the charges and allege they were acting in self-defence.
During legal argument on Friday, it emerged that Ms Martens’s legal team had filed a motion to ‘determine the availability’ of Jason’s son and daughter, Jack and Sarah, to testify as witnesses.
The Irish Mail on Sunday understands the Corbett family met her efforts with sustained resistance in a desperate bid to shield the children from the trauma of a trial.
Judge David Lee said that it was a ‘jurisdictional issue’ and that the children could not be subpoenaed because they were in another country.
Ms Martens’s legal team had tried to get statements made by Jack and Sarah, now 10, to specialist care workers entered as evidence in the trial. Both children had given interviews to various agencies in the days after their father’s death. There were allegations that the children had been ‘coached’ prior to the interviews taking place.
Jack, then aged 10, was asked if Molly was afraid of his father and he said he knew this because his ‘mom told him’. Judge Lee concluded that the statements did not meet the ‘trustworthiness’ requirement. He noted that both children had since recanted their statements. He ruled that the statements were ‘inadmissible for any purpose’ in the trial.
On Friday, during a dramatic day of evidence, Tom Martens, 67, took to the stand to testify in his own defence. He told jurors he hit Jason Corbett with a baseball bat ‘until he went down’ in a bid to save himself and his daughter.
He gave dramatic testimony as he took the stand, where he was accused of using his FBI training and legal qualifications to try and ‘outwit’ detectives.
The court heard that Mr Martens had ‘no knowledge’ of a brick found in the master bedroom where the Limerick man was killed, or of it being used as a weapon. He said he didn’t see his daughter using any brick on the night Jason Corbett, 39, died.
The trial also heard Ms Martens , 34, is the sole beneficiary of a $600,000 insurance policy in Jason’s name. Before that, her father stepped into the dock and gave an account of an extraordinary struggle between him and his son-in-law involving a baseball bat he had brought to the house that day for as a gift for Jack.
He said he was woken by a disturbance and heard screams coming from Molly and Jason’s bedroom. He grabbed the bat and went to investigate the commotion.
The man with over 31 years of FBI service sobbed as he recalled begging Mr Corbett to free his daughter from a ‘chokehold’.
The father-of-four from Knoxville, Tennessee, told the court that he had never witnessed Jason Corbett being physically violent towards his daughter before that night.
He said he, Jason and Molly did not utter a word during the deadly struggle in the couple’s bedroom.
The witness said all three remained ‘silent’ after he initially asked Jason to ‘let her go’ in the room. They did not speak at all while the fight continued into the hall, through the bathroom, back into the hall and again into the bedroom, Mr Martens said.
In relation to his wife, Sharon, who was in a downstairs bedroom while the alleged struggle was going on upstairs, Mr Martens said she did not ‘come running up’ to see what was going on. This was despite the loud noises created when Jason threw Mr Martens to the floor and when Mr Corbett himself fell to the ground due to blows.
During cross-examination by prosecutor Greg Brown, Mr Martens said that despite his CPR training he did not try to resuscitate Jason until an 911 emergency operator told him to.
The prosecution rested its case on Thursday. Jason Corbett’s sister, Tracey Lynch, was one of the last witnesses to testify for the State.
She told the court her brother was extremely homesick and had been making plans to have a surprise birthday party for their father, who is in his 80s. The party was planned for September, Ms Lynch said.
She testified that in March 2015, Molly Martens texted her about looking for flights to go to the birthday party in Ireland. She said Jason never mentioned to her that Molly was coming to Ireland with Jason, Jack and Sarah. ‘Jason never told me. It was Jason and the children.’
Outside the presence of the jury, Ms Lynch testified that Jason had expressed to her a desire to return to Ireland. The initial conversation was in August 2014, she said.
‘He had good friends there [in Ireland] and appreciated them. He planned to go back there before Jack started secondary school.’
Tomorrow, Molly Martens’s two brothers will testify in her defence. The judge has said he hopes the jurors can begin their deliberations tomorrow or Tuesday morning.
‘Hit Jason with baseball bat until he went down’ ‘Tom did not try to give Jason CPR’