Molly and Tom Martens jailed for manslaughter of Limerick man Jason Corbett

MOLLY Martens and her father Tom Martens have been sent back to jail for the 2015 manslaughter of Limerick man Jason Corbett.

The pair will now serve between seven months and two-and-a-half years in prison having already served three-and-a-half years of a sentence for second degree murder that was imposed in 2017 before it was quashed by North Carolina Supreme Court.

Ralph Riegel from the Irish Independent reported that Judge David Hall found there were "holes in the evidence" presented by their defence at Davidson County Court.

Jason Corbett's children, Jack and Sarah, and his sister Tracey read victim impact statements before Judge Hall’s final decision.

Last week, Ms Martens and her father Tom accepted a plea bargain over the killing of the father-of-two Jason Corbett in 2015.

Since then, the court has been hearing evidence from the prosecution and the defence regarding the night that the 39-year old Limerick man was killed in his US home.

Tom Martens pleaded guilty to the charge of voluntary manslaughter while his daughter pleaded "no contest" to the same charge.

During the past week, a US police officer has described the moment he protected Sarah and Jack Corbett from the scene of their father’s killing.

Lt Clayton Dagenhardt said the two children, aged 10 and eight at the time, were upstairs in their bedroom when their father was beaten to death with a baseball bat and concrete paving slab downstairs in his home.

Molly Martens' 'primary focus' was to adopt Jason Corbett's children, court hears

Both children, now aged 19 and 17, were in court throughout to hear the testimony along with Mr Corbett’s sister Tracey Corbett-Lynch who they now live with in Limerick.

During the past week, Judge Hall was told by assistant district attorney Alan Martin during a cross-examination of a psychologist, that Ms Martens was focused on gaining custody of Jack and Sarah Corbett before her husband’s death.

Due to the plea bargain sentencing process, Ms Martens had undergone examination by a psychologist who found that before she married Mr Corbett, she was focused on adopting his two children and then divorcing him while having custody rights.

The Court also heard from a retired forensic pathologist who said that Jason Corbett’s first wife did not die of an asthma attack and that it is possible that Margaret 'Mags' Corbett’s death was a homicide.

The Court heard from former Kentucky chief medical examiner Dr George Nichols, who said that "in my opinion (the Irish pathologist) opinion is completely wrong."

In November 2006, Ms Corbett became ill and was driven by Mr Corbett towards an ambulance. She stopped breathing and was revived by the ambulance crew, but later passed away at University Hospital Limerick.

Her cause of death was listed as a cardio-respiratory attack with a bronco-spasm in a known asthmatic.

When it was put to Dr Nichols that the death could be a possible homicide he replied: "correct", but stressed that: "it is nowhere close to probable."

The first trial in 2017 heard how Tom and Molly Martens beat the father-of-two to death as he lay asleep and helpless in bed.
Tom Martens, a retired FBI agent, claimed he acted in self-defence and alleged Mr Corbett had attacked them.

However, the Corbett family maintained that the businessman was planning to bring his children back to his native Limerick amid increasing concerns over his wife's mental health problems.