Crime & Law

Molly and Tom Martens released from prison after killing Limerick man Jason Corbett in 2015

US woman and her father were jailed last year for voluntary manslaughter of her husband

Molly Martens leaves the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh. Video: Keith Duggan

Keith Duggan in Raleigh, North Carolina
Thu Jun 6 2024 - 21:10

Father and daughter Tom and Molly Martens, who killed Limerick man Jason Corbett in 2015, have been released from prison in North Carolina.

Molly Martens (40) exited through from the brown-bricked release room at the edge of the women’s complex in Raleigh at 8.40am local time on Thursday morning, preceded by a corrections officer who carried her personal belongings in a green carrier bag and a plastic bag.

Martens wore a striped blue and white summer dress. She smiled briefly as she stepped away from the prison room and walked quickly towards the rear seat of the car.

Tom Martens was released from a minimum security prison near Lenoir, 185 miles away in Caldwell County. He hugged a man who stood waiting. Photograph: WGHP - North Carolina

A few hours later, her father, Tom Martens was released from a minimum security prison near Lenoir, 185 miles away in Caldwell County. He hugged a man who stood waiting.

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Television cameras recorded one of them saying “let’s get the hell out of here” before they departed in a pale blue Ford pickup.

Martens Sr (73), a former FBI agent, lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. His daughter will not be permitted to live in the same dwelling under North Carolina prisoner-release regulations, though she is expected to return to Tennessee.

[ What US police think really happened in the run-up to Jason Corbett’s killing ]

Martens and her father will be expected to report to the post-release supervision officer in their locality.

While the NC Correctional Facility for Women could not specify the specific terms of the Martens’ supervision, typically former inmates will report at regular intervals and accede to periodic home searches.

If they do not violate their terms over a 12 month period, then the supervision ends.

The presence of American television crews and reporters attested to the extraordinary media attention and public interest in what was a shockingly violent assault in which Mr Corbett was killed by his wife and father-in-law.

The 39-year-old Irishman had moved to North Carolina in 2011 after his marriage to Molly Martens, who entered the lives of the Corbett family after applying for a job as a nanny to care for Mr Corbett’s young children, Sarah and Jack.

His first wife, Margaret ‘Mags’ Corbett, died tragically from a severe asthma attack in 2006.

[ ‘There is a monster lurking underneath’: What Jason Corbett’s children said about Molly Martens ]

Tom and Molly Martens were charged with second degree murder and the jury in the original trial returned a guilty verdict after deliberating for less than four hours.

However, that verdict was overturned after an appeal by the Martens’ solicitors was eventually upheld by the state supreme court on a 4:3 decision.

They accepted a plea-deal of voluntary manslaughter a week before the new trial was set to begin. The father and daughter served a total of four years incarcerated.

At the highly emotive sentence hearing that followed, the enduring grief suffered by Mr Corbett’s children was made plain through their testimony.

A statement released on Wednesday evening on behalf of members of the Corbett family condemned the “heinous actions of Tom and Molly Martens” who, it said, “not only took Jason’s life in a malevolent, cruel and vicious manner but also set about to tarnish his reputation and use his children in a self-serving attempt to evade accountability.”

Garry Frank, the district attorney for Davidson County, told The Irish Times this week that it was “difficult to come to the conclusion” that a plea deal was the advisable course after the original verdict was overturned. He said that of all the cases he had prosecuted in four decades, the killing of Jason Corbett is one he will reflect upon in years to come.

Keith Duggan

Keith Duggan

Keith Duggan is Washington Correspondent of The Irish Times

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