“This was not something I or anyone on the staff was happy about,” says Garry Frank, the district attorney whose Davidson County office prosecuted the case trial against Tom Martens and his daughter, Molly Martens, for the murder of her husband, Jason Corbett, in 2015.
Both will be released from their respective prisons on Thursday having completed the manslaughter terms they agreed in a plea deal last autumn.
Mr Frank is 71 and has had a long, distinguished career, serving in the Lexington office since 1978. Whenever he does retire, he agrees that the one trial and legal case he will reflect upon above all others will be the killing of Jason Corbett.
“Absolutely,” he says gravely, before acknowledging that he never encountered a case like it.
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The facts of the death of Jason Corbett (39) are not disputed. In the early hours of August 2nd, 2015, the Limerick man was killed in his home by a series of violent and repeated blows from a baseball bat, wielded by his father-in-law, former FBI agent Tom Martens, and a paving brick, held by his wife, Molly Martens. He succumbed to catastrophic injuries, leaving behind children Jack and Sarah, from his first marriage to Mags Corbett, née Fitzpatrick, who died tragically from an asthma attack in 2006. Mr Corbett met Ms Martens when she moved to Limerick from Tennessee to work as a nanny for his children in 2008.
The Martens defence team argued that the blows were inflicted in self-defence and claimed that Mr Corbett had been abusive and controlling in his relationship with Ms Martens. The state prosecution, led by Greg Brown, told the court this was a fabrication: that the victim had suffered a “cruel, heinous and atrocious” death at the hands of his wife and father-in-law.
The jury of nine women and three men deliberated for less than four hours before finding Mr Martens and his daughter guilty of second degree murder. Tom Martens received a 25-year sentence. Molly Martens was given a 20-year sentence.
“I anticipated an appeal,” Mr Franks says now of his feeling immediately after the verdict.
“My folks on the staff all felt that it [the original case] was tried correctly. I was a little surprised by what the appellate courts did. But if you look at how that went: the North Carolina Court of Appeals decided in favour by two to one. The North Carolina Supreme Court was a single vote: four to three.”
The realm of a retrial presented a different proposition. Experience has told him that it is invariably more difficult to achieve a successful prosecution in a second trial.
“Everyone knew it would be tougher to retry the case a second time. The defence has got a dress rehearsal, if you like, the first time. They know what worked and what did not. There were multiple factors involved, including that Mr Brown, who tried the first case, had retired.”
The mechanics of the legal system moved slowly. It was February 2020 when the Appeals Court overturned the verdict; the Supreme Court decision followed in 2021. The judge, David Hall, decided to move the new trial from Davidson County to the neighbouring Forsyth County.
“I don’t want to get into the merits and demerits of it, but the logistics changed – it made it much tougher for us to try the case. Just a different process reaching a jury in a different county.”
The district attorney’s office understood that in the second trial, the defence would attempt to bolster their argument that Jason Corbett had been abusive, a prospect that would bring further pain to his family but also heighten the possibility of an acquittal.
“Well, that’s the problem. People can come to the jury box with their own backgrounds and stories. And you never know which juror might slip through and all it takes is one person. You need a unanimous verdict.”
It was with all of this in mind, Mr Frank says, that the decision to make a plea deal available to the defendants was made.
“It was difficult to come to the conclusion that it was the best way to proceed. What I tell families is that my job is often to prevent an injustice as much as to seek justice.”
A week before the new trial was set to begin, Molly and Tom Martens both accepted a no-contest admission of guilt to voluntary manslaughter; the charge of second degree murder was dropped. At the sentence hearing, there were character witnesses for the defendants and the court also heard powerful testimony from Mr Corbett’s children who spoke about the enduring trauma and grief after the loss of their father.
At one stage during the sentence hearing, Judge Hall admitted that he found it difficult to arrive at the truth of that night and said he was baffled that Tom Martens had not called for backup. But his ultimate sentence means that both parties walk free after a little more than seven months since the hearing.
“Within the plea deal, the judge could have given more time than he chose to,” Mr Frank says when asked if he was surprised by the perceived leniency of the sentencing. He thinks for a moment when asked if he has any retrospective regrets about the overall prosecution of the case.
“We tried from day one – the very first time that I had knowledge of the case, when the sheriff told me about it – we went forward vigorously and tried to seek justice. So, I have no regrets in that way. I don’t know of a case that has taken as many man hours as this one.”
The nature of his role means that Mr Frank has seldom been in contact with the Corbett family since the sentencing concluded the prosecution of the case. But he thinks about them frequently and they will be on his mind for obvious reasons on Thursday.
“I still have an affinity for and sympathy with the Corbett family. One of the things we fought so hard for in this was to protect the children. I admire the Corbetts for their strength and continuing to seek justice. Not every family can do that. Because it is exhausting. And it is painful.”
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