Molly Martens and father Thomas reach plea deal over death of Jason Corbett

Molly Martens and her father Thomas Martens have agreed a plea deal with prosecutors in the United States to accept a lesser manslaughter charge over the killing of Limerick man Jason Corbett in 2015.

At a hearing in Lexington, North Carolina, on Monday, Molly Martens entered a no contest plea on a charge of voluntary manslaughter in relation to the death of her husband.

Thomas Martens pleaded guilty to a charge of voluntary manslaughter. Voluntary manslaughter is considered a class D felony under North Carolina law.

Prosecutors said as part of the plea agreement the state of North Carolina would dismiss the charge of second-degree murder which Molly Martens and her father had faced in relation to the killing of Mr Corbett in 2015.

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The plea agreement means there will not be a re-trial in the case which was ordered by the supreme court in North Carolina after it upheld an appeals court ruling that quashed earlier convictions.

Judge David Hall said he would now commence a sentencing hearing. This could run for a number of days.

The judge told Molly Martens that a no contest plea represented a form of guilty plea. He said if she accepted the plea she would be considered to be a felon under law in the state.

Prosecutors are expected in the sentencing hearing to argue that there was an aggravating factor in that Mr Corbett’s children were present in the house on the night he was killed.

Defence lawyers are likely to maintain there were mitigating factors that should be taken into account.

The judge said that a defendant with the worst record could face up to 204 months, or 17 years, in prison.

He suggested the sentence in this case could range, depending on whether he found ultimately there was aggravated factors or extreme mitigation, from imprisonment to probation.

Assistant district attorney in Davidson County in North Carolina Kaitlyn Jones told the court on Monday that 39-year-old Jason Corbett had died in the master bedroom of his home in Panther Creek, North Carolina, on August 2nd, 2015.

Ms Jones said the postmortem had found he had died from blunt force trauma to the head.

She said Thomas Martens had told police that he had hit Mr Corbett with a baseball bat.

Molly Martens said she had hit her husband with a landscaping paving brick that had been in her bedroom.

Thomas Martens had said he awoke during the night to hear a commotion in the master bedroom. He said he entered the room and saw Mr Corbett with his hands around the neck of his daughter.

He said Mr Corbett had said he would kill his wife.

Ms Jones said Molly Martens had told police that her husband had been angry after being awakened by his daughter during the night.

The assistant district attorney said first responders on the scene had found a lot of blood in the room and that Mr Corbett had severe injuries to his head.

She said first responders had said there was a lack of visible injuries and that they noticed Molly Martens repeatedly rubbing her neck.

Molly Martens and her father had claimed they had acted in self defence and that they feared for their lives.

[ Plea deal could avert new US trial over killing of Limerick man Jason Corbett ]

A jury in Davidson county in North Carolina convicted Molly and Thomas Martens of second-degree murder in a high-profile trial in August 2017. Both were sentenced by a judge to 20-25 years in prison.

However, the North Carolina court of appeals overturned the convictions, finding that the trial judge made prejudicial decisions that prevented the two from mounting a defence.

The supreme court in North Carolina later affirmed the lower appellate court’s ruling, sending the case back to Davidson County for a re-trial.

The re-trial was due to commence in Winston Salem in North Carolina in early November.

In February a judge had granted requests made by lawyers for Molly and Thomas Martens to move their trial from Davidson County to the city of Winston-Salem.

However, after weeks of discussions between prosecutors and defence lawyers, a plea agreement was reached which avoided a re-trial.

The agreement was presented to the judge in the case at the hearing in Lexington on Monday.