Thomas Martens due to be released from US prison earlier than expected this year

Convicted killer Thomas Martens is due to get out of prison in North Carolina earlier than initially expected this year.

The North Carolina Department of Adult Correction confirmed Martens, the former FBI agent convicted of the killing of Limerick man Jason Corbett, will be released on June 6th, three weeks sooner than initially expected.

There was no initial indication of an early release date for Molly Martens, Corbett’s former wife who was also convicted of his killing.

The updated timeline, alerted on Tuesday, comes after some confusion last December about an early release date.

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The Department of Adult Correction had, initially on a website and later in a formal statement, said Thomas Martens was to be released on December 5th and his daughter the following day. Authorities later put the confusion down to “human error”.

Molly Martens Corbett had been admitted to the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh while Thomas Martens was admitted to Piedmont Correctional institution in Salisbury.

Later, the service updated both inmate release dates to June 27th, 2024.

Corbett was beaten to death with a baseball bat and a brick in a bedroom in his home near Winston Salem in North Carolina in 2016.

Molly Martens Corbett and her father had claimed self-defence but were initially convicted of second degree murder. Those convictions were later quashed by an appeals court.

They later agreed a plea deal, negating the need for a retrial. Martens Corbett did not contest a charge of voluntary manslaughter while Thomas Martens pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Following a 10-day sentencing hearing last November, the two were sent to prison for a minimum of 54 months and a maximum of 74 months.

As they had already spent 44 months in custody before the appeals court decision, it was expected they would face between seven months and two and half years of additional prison time.

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