The sister of an Irish businessman who was brutally murdered by his American wife and her ex-FBI agent father in 2015 denies their claims that the killing was in self-defense.
Tracey Lynch has accused Molly Corbett and her father, Tom Martens, of ‘destroying the character’ of her late brother, 39-year-old Jason Corbett.
‘Jason was an amazing human being,’ Lynch tells CBS’s 48 Hours.
‘They claimed it was self-defense…The Martens didn’t just murder Jason.
‘They tried to destroy his character.’
Tracey Lynch, the sister of an Irish businessman who was brutally murdered by his American wife and her ex-FBI agent father in 2015, denies their claims that the killing was in self-defense
Lynch has accused Molly Corbett (right) and her father, Tom Martens, of ‘destroying the character’ of her late brother, 39-year-old Jason Corbett (left)
In August 2017, Molly Martens Corbett (left) and her father, Thomas Martens (right) were convicted of second-degree murder for the killing of Jason Corbett
Tom Martens told a 911 dispatcher that his son-in-law got into a fight with his daughter and he needed to intervene.
‘He’s bleeding all over, and I, I may have killed him,’ he told the dispatcher.
Molly Corbett told investigators that her husband was ‘screaming “I’m going to kill you”.’
Lynch, however, says this was not the brother she knew.
‘I just couldn’t process it,’ Lynch tells CBS News of her brother’s death.
‘It was that, you know, he was my best friend.
‘We were just two of the closest people in the world to each other outside my husband and children.’
The pair first met and became romantically involved when Molly worked as a nanny for Jason’s two children after his first wife Margaret (right) passed away
Molly said Jason became more controlling and physically and verbally abusive as time went on
Molly took on the role as mom to the kids after Jason’s previous wife passed away
Before the murder, she says her brother confided to her that he was unhappy in their marriage and thinking of returning home to Ireland.
‘He said she was acting strange,’ Lynch says of Molly Corbett.
‘He would open up and say they were having difficulties, and then he would change the subject.’
This past January, lawyers for Tom Martens and Molly Corbett asked a three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals to overturn a second-degree murder conviction from August 2017.
The lawyers said that the jury in the case was not permitted to hear evidence that they say would have corroborated their claims of self-defense, according to the News & Record of Greensboro.
A ruling on the matter is expected sometime this year.
Molly Corbett met her Irish spouse back in 2008 when he hired her as a nanny to care for his two young children after his previous wife passed away from an asthma attack.
The two quickly grew romantically involved, and eventually relocated their family to North Carolina.
With time, Molly said Jason became more controlling as well as physically and verbally abusive — a claim his two children also admitted during questioning.
Martens Corbett alleged Jason choked her the night of his death, when her father, who was present at the home, intervened with a baseball bat and a brick paver.
Molly and her dad testified during the month-long trial in 2017 that they were trying to protect one another in the violent event that turned fatal.
Members of the jury believed the pair’s story that they were acting in self-defense was fabricated
Members of the jury told ABC in a 20/20 interview that some events suggested by the two from the night never seem to have occurred.
Juror Miriam Figueroa believes the choking incident did not take place, as an autopsy report confirmed Jason died from blunt force trauma and had been hit several times after he had already been down on the ground.
Molly also never had any reported injuries from the hospital at the time.
‘The evidence to me did not suggest that the story that was fabricated ever occurred. There was no doubt in my mind that I made and my fellow jurors made the right choice,’ Figueroa said.
‘Once you hit a certain point and you do not stop, manslaughter or self-defense goes off the table. Once that point was matched where you could have stopped then and there, once the person was no longer an aggressor, if that were the case, and you continue, it’s no longer self-defense.’
Figueroa claimed the duo allowed some time to pass before contacting 911, suggesting that, if they were victim in the event, the call would have been their top priority.
‘I think at some point dad came to help out and cover it up. There was blood on the pillow and on the comforter. That may have been the first blow, and then it progressed from that point where he got out of bed and she might have struck him more than one time in bed,’ Figueroa added.
Martens Corbett (right) and her father (left) both received a sentence of a minimum of 20 years in prison with a maximum of 25 years
Juror Nancy Perez revealed the crime scene photos showing Jason’s battered body were so horrendous, she ‘vomited in the courtroom.’
Martens Corbett, a former model, and her dad, a former FBI agent, did not have a past criminal history.
It has been confirmed that Martens Corbett was previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but the illness was not a matter discussed during trial.
Prosecutors said a possible motive for the gruesome slaughter may have been for Martens Corbett to adopt the kids and to collect a $600,000 life insurance policy.
In the several hour-long jury deliberation, jury foreman Tom Aamland said several members were visibly upset while the difficult decision was underway.
‘There were tears. I even had a few tears there while the verdicts were being ran through, and it wasn’t an easy decision. Somebody’s life changes,’ Aamland told WFMY-TV.
Martens Corbett was previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but the illness was not discussed in the trial
Martens Corbett, who also spoke out in the 20/20 interview, said there were other past instances of choking from Jason, and even alleged that at one point, she passed out.
‘Sometimes he would be angry and choking me would turn into something sexual. Or sometimes the other way around,’ she said. ‘Everything always felt so real and so scary in the moment when it was happening.’
During the shocking interview, Molly revealed she sometimes questioned if the kind of abuse ever happened to Jason’s first wife, who passed away due to asthma complications in the middle of the night.
‘I knew it wasn’t an accident… The first time and second time and the third time and twentieth time that you are suffocated or strangled or someone holds their hand over your mouth, or a pillow over your face, and you can’t breathe for an extended period of time, you know, you think oh, well, his first wife died at three o’ clock in the morning and maybe that’s going to happen to me,’ Martens Corbett said.
Martens Corbett and her father both received a sentence of a minimum of 20 years in prison with a maximum of 25 years.