Irish Examiner March 09th 2016
Murder accused must return items taken from US home
A consent order agreed between Mr Corbett’s estate and Ms Martens last September stated that she was not to remove any “tangible personal property” owned either solely by Mr Corbett or jointly by the couple.
However documents filed by the Superior Court of Davidson County in North Carolina this week show that, on January 21, Ms Martens “took a majority of the tangible personal property located in the home and placed that property in storage”. The documents state that after Ms Martens had removed items from the house “the only property left in the home was Mr Corbett’s clothes, property that Mr Corbett brought to the home from Ireland, and items owned by Mr Corbett’s children”.
SHIPWASH RULING ON ESTATE LINK
The Irish Daily Mail 16th March 2016
MOLLY Marten’s lawyers have lashed out at the courts over the handling of the Jason Corbett murder case. A motion was filed on Monday by attorney Walter Holton and asked that Clerk of Superior Court Brian Shipwash be removed from the case. The legal team has accused the clerk of court and a lawyer representing her late husband’s estate with hiding unethical, secretive conversations.
The motion has also asked for Mr Shipwash to hand over all his communications about it and for a judge to re - examine decisions about the guardianship of Jason Corbett’s two children.
Mr Holton claims that ‘conduct by the Clerk is so egregious as to necessitate the disqualification of Mr Shipwash from any future proceedings in this matter’.
Irish Daily Mail March 31st 2016
JASON’S FAMILY: MOLLY SENT US AMBULANCE BILL
THE ambulance bill for the night that slain Jason Corbett was taken to hospital has been sent to his family by lawyers for Molly Martens, the wife accused of murdering him.
Distraught relatives of the father, whose death left his two young children orphaned, are said to be ‘shocked and saddened’ by the arrival of the invoice.
They received the bill over the Easter weekend, a time when the family were sure to have been trying to buoy the spirits of Jason’s bereft children, Jack and Sarah. The letter was described as a ‘very blunt and cold’ reminder to the family of the father of two’s death. It arrived just ahead of the murder co accused Ms Martens, 31, and her father Thomas, 65, appearing in court next Monday.
A source close to the family said they were deeply upset by receiving the bill. ‘It came as a devastating blow,’ said the source. ‘It was very " Heartless’ and ‘vindictive’ and upsetting to read an invoice for an ambulance, very blunt and cold.’
Mr Holden said: ‘That is absolutely 100% false. Absolutely nothing has been sent by Molly or her lawyers and if anybody is saying that they are fabricating the story. ‘I’m not saying the invoice is fabricated, I’m telling you, neither Molly nor her lawyers sent that invoice.’ However he later admitted in fact they had sent the bills to the Lynch estate attorney Edward Griggs. Speaking to the Mail, Mr Holden added: ‘Apparently, about a month ago, Bryan Thompson on behalf of Molly [Martens], handed to Mr Griggs a number of bills and that’s been several weeks ago. So, Mr Griggs must’ve just mailed them to his client.’
When asked if the bills would have included the ambulance invoice, he said: ‘Yes. Sent in November or December to Edward Griggs [estate attorney for David Lynch].’ Mr Holden said: ‘Any medical bill would be sent to the estate, it’s up to the estate lawyers to notify the medical providers, like the ambulance, of their address and where the bills are to be sent. They have to send a notice to all creditors, which would include medical providers, of the address, where to send the bill.
‘David Lynch [Jason Corbett’s brother-in-law] is the executor of the estate, he is responsible for all bills of the estate. That’s the one that is legally responsible for any and all bills of the estate. Including medical bills.’ Efforts to contact the Lynches’ attorney, Edward Griggs, proved unsuccessful
News and Record April 7th 2016
LEXINGTON — Attorneys for Molly Martens Corbett and her father, Thomas Michael Martens, said after an administrative hearing Wednesday they are concerned that their clients may not get a fair trial in Davidson County. During the hearing at Davidson County Superior Court, attorneys Walter Holton and Cheryl Andrews, who represent Molly Corbett, and David Freedman, one of Martens’ attorneys, voiced concerns that the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office may have seen and used information that is inadmissible because of attorney/client privilege.
Freedman said the defense attorneys have extended openness to the sheriff’s office, and he hopes he can expect the same from them.
“We’ve had Tom and Molly available for interviews, and they haven’t interviewed them,” Freedman said. “We said there wasn’t any need for search warrants because we’ll give them any information they want, but they went and executed all these warrants.”
Lexington Dispatch April 12th 2016
Judge grants stay in Irish man’s estate case
A Davidson County Superior Court judge has granted a stay in the clerk of superior court’s decision from March in an estate matter of the Irish man killed in Wallburg last year.
Judge Mark Klass granted the stay Tuesday after hearing from the attorneys of Molly Corbett and Ronald R. Davis, an attorney for the estate of Jason Corbett. Corbett and her father, Thomas Martens, were both indicted Jan. 4 by the Davidson County Grand Jury on the charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter in the death of Jason Corbett.
“I thought it was a fair and the right thing to do to just stabilize the situation,” Walter Holton Jr., an attorney for Molly Corbett, said, referring to Klass’ action.
Klass’ decision to stay essentially means that Davidson County Clerk of Superior Court Brian Shipwash’s order not be enforced at this time, Holton said. The motion to stay surrounds an appeal to Shipwash’s order. There is no court date set for the appeal.
As part of the stay, Klass ordered that $600,000 in funds be held by the Davidson County Clerk of Court’s Office. Those funds, which according to courtroom remarks Tuesday are from a life insurance policy, were in a trust account.
″(Klass) also ordered that a car that was subject of the previous order be sold and those funds (placed) into the clerk of court as well,” Holton said.
Shipwash previously ordered that all assets, including all insurance proceeds, be turned over to the court and be held by the court until the court or other courts with jurisdiction order otherwise.
Evoke.ie April15th 2016
Lawyers for Molly Martens make new claims in Corbett murder case
Lawyers for Molly Martens claim her husband was drunk and on antidepressants, which caused him to fly into a violent rage on the night he was killed. An ABC report in the US this week said the defence were claiming the medical autopsy report had found traces of an antidepressant drug in the father of two’s system. The autopsy report did find that Mr Corbett had a blood alcohol content of 0.02%, below the legal limit of 0.08% for the state. Walter Holton, attorney for Ms Martens, said: ‘The medical examiner report indicates that some 30 hours after his death they drew the blood and that blood had an alcohol content of 0.02% but it’s not indicative of what the content of his blood would have been on the night that this incident happened.’ Mr Holton told ABC: ‘[Mr Corbett] was violent that night, what caused that, whether alcohol contributed to that or whether a drug contributed to that is for experts to opine about.
Speaking to EVOKE.ie previously Molly Martens lawyer David Freedman said Molly had been on ‘antidepressants’ when she was very young but had ‘not been on medications for years and years.’ It followed allegations by Molly’s sister in law Tracey Lynch in court filings after her brother’s death that Molly had been ‘diagnosed with bipolar disorder from a young age, and claimed the children’s stepmother left her lithium medication lying around, and also suffered from other medical conditions.’
Limerick Post May 10th 2016
Detectives investigating if Molly moved money to new account after Jason’s killing
Investigators, under the power of a search warrant, are checking transfers made after to a Bank of America account in Molly Martens sole name after August 2 last. The money is alleged to have moved from a joint account held by the couple before Jason’s killing. Detective Wanda Thompson applied to the US courts to launch the probe as she had “probable cause to believe that within days of her husband’s death Molly Martens may have moved monies from joint bank accounts held by her and her husband and these monies were used to open a separate bank account in the name of Molly Paige Martens”. Detectives became aware of the account after a trawl of the financial records and Google accounts obtained under a previous warrant. It is alleged that in the days after Jason Corbett’s death, large amounts of money were moved from the joint account. It is also alleged that up to $60,000 was moved from Jason’s account just days before his death. Detectives say that Jason Corbett’s financial status was being investigated as a motive for his killing.
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