Irish Daily Mail August 9th
GUILTY: MOLLY TAKEN AWAY IN CHAINS
HOW A TRANSATLANTIC LOVE AFFAIR ENDED IN MURDER
JASON Corbett’s family broke down in tears yesterday... on a dramatic day that saw his widow and her father found guilty of killing him, sentenced to up to 25 years in prison – and eventually led away in chains for his brutal killing. Finally free to express themselves openly, the Corbetts told of the pain inflicted on them by Molly and Tom Martens. In one powerful hand-written victim impact statement, Jason’s ten-year-old son Jack said Molly ‘would be remembered as a murderer’. He added that the burden she had put on him and his family would not be lifted until she was ‘put away’. Jason was beaten to death inside his family home in Wallburg, North Carolina. Molly, 33, collapsed into tears when the jury found her and her 67-year-old father, a former FBI agent, guilty of the second-degree murder of her Limerick husband on August 2, 2015. Sobbing, she turned to her family in the public gallery and said: ‘I’m really sorry Mom. I wish he’d [referring to Jason] have killed me.’ She and her father were sentenced to a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of 25 years. But with good behaviour they could be out up to seven years earlier.
RTE News August 9th 2017
Tracey Lynch statement following trhe convition of Molly and Tom Marten's
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1775749399120721
The Dispatch August 9th 2017
Jason Corbett’s sister, Tracey Lynch, speaks to media outlets after the trial ended with guilty verdicts on Wednesday.
Irish Mirror August 10th 2017
Victim’s family tell of relief that two-year ordeal is finally over
A SMILE appeared on the face of Jason Corbett’s twin brother as multiple text messages confirming the jury’s verdicts came through to his phone. Pausing briefly, Wayne Corbett took a deep breath as he absorbed the dramatic moment. Speaking at his parents’ home in Janesboro, Limerick, he said: “It’s been a long two years. “We’re just delighted as a family that the whole ordeal is over and done with and they have been found guilty.” The moment, Wayne agreed, was “bittersweet”. He added: “We’re delighted it’s finally at an end. It’s not a celebration — Jason is still gone — but finally people have been found guilty, and justly so, for murdering Jason.” His 76-year old mother Rita was too emotional to talk to reporters. Wayne added: “She’s delighted. “It’s been a great relief for my elderly parents [Rita and John] that this has finally come to an end, that we can all now grieve for Jason without having to worry about the court case. “Hopefully we can start to try to put this behind us and start to concentrate and grieve for Jason. “I’m overwhelmed [with emotion] but I’m not shocked with the verdict. I was totally confident the jury would find them guilty. “I was at the trial for three weeks and for me, it was the only conclusion they could come to.” Wayne revealed he received the initial contact from the Martens family about Jason’s death. However, he claimed the phone call made to him was 10 hours after his twin brother’s murder. Wayne said: “It’s surreal. It’s like we were living a nightmare for the past two years, ever since I personally got that phone call on August 2, 2015. “I remember walking down the road here and getting a phone call that Jason was dead.” He added the news was delivered bluntly before the line was cut. Wayne said: “When we got in touch with the police they told us he was killed from blunt-force trauma. It was 10 hours after Jason was killed that we heard. “As far as I know the police asked Molly Martens did she want them to contact us and she said no on a number of occasions.” Wayne added Martens and her father “finally got their just deserts”. He said: “Justice has been done.” Jason’s sister Tracey, along with her husband David Lynch, were granted full custody of his children Jack and Sarah following a bitter legal battle in the US before Molly and Thomas Martens were charged with murder. The kids’ mother and Jason’s first wife Margaret “Mags” Fitzpatrick tragically died of an asthma attack in 2006. He later hired Molly Martens as a nanny and they got married in 2011, but he refused to allow her to adopt his children. Wayne added the kids were being well taken care of by their family in Limerick. He added: “Our prime focus going forward is the welfare of Jack and Sarah, that’s what Mags and Jason would have wanted.”
Irish Daily Mail August 10th 2017
YEARS OF TEARS FLOW AS DIGNITY GIVES WAY TO GRIEF
AS each verdict came, two years of tears finally began to flow. Tracey Lynch was bent over, quietly sobbing. Next to her, Jason’s sister Marilyn began to break, and eventually his brother Michael. One by one their arms reached around each other, clinging tightly as quiet dignity eventually gave way to raw grief.
It had been more than two years since Jason was brutally taken from them. Two years of dignified silence. Two years comforting his orphaned children. Two years waiting for justice.
When it came, they embraced it with open arms.
They hugged each other, they hugged supporters, they hugged the prosecution team.
Over on the other side of the room, the stunned Martens family were reeling from what appeared to come as a shock result.
Sharon Martens, who was sitting a few rows back from the defence bench, was almost huddled into a ball. Her son Connor was beside her, ashen-faced and crying himself, willing her to calm down. Molly’s uncle Mike, who spoke on Tom’s behalf before he was sentenced, was shaking his head in disbelief.
The jurors, three men and nine women were crying too, watching on as the emotion of the day enveloped the loved ones in court.
Soon enough, Sheriff David Grice appeared from the wings with a set of handcuffs that he quickly placed on Molly. As she put her hands behind her back she sobbed and whimpered, looking back towards her mother.
Her father, who was cuffed minutes later, bore a look of disbelief, but still moved with an air of superiority.
He gestured to his lawyer as he was led away, briefly stopping to say something to his daughter.
The defence had requested a recess, one that would last over an hour. The prosecution was having none of it, urging Judge Lee to press ahead.
‘I would insist that both are taken into immediate custody if we recess for that length of time,’ said Assistant District Attorney Alan Martin.
In the end, Molly and Tom only got 15 minutes to gather themselves.
Soon enough, they were back before the court, listening to the heartwrenching words of Jack Corbett.
His dad’s death had been life-changing, he said in a hand-written victim impact statement.
He would never again be there to cheer him on while playing sports, he would never see him or his sister get married, he would never be there to give either of them fatherly advice.
As she listened to her stepson’s words, Molly Martens threw her head into her hands and began to cry out.
‘Molly Martens will always be remembered as the woman who killed her husband for no reason,’ wrote Jack.
‘She will be remembered as a murderer.’
There, in the voice of a ten-year-old, was the truth about Molly Martens.
She would never be a part of the Corbett family, he wrote.
She would never be forgiven for her crimes.
Irish Daily Mail August 10th 2017
‘I will never be able to give him a hug, or a present, or a card for Father’s Day’
This is the victim impact statement of Jason Corbett’s son, Jack. MY DAD’S death has been life changing for me and my family. My dad was there for me in every aspect in my life. My dad was always cheering me on in sport, school and just regular life. I don’t have that from him anymore. I always hoped that after that night that he would see me score a try in rugby, or score a goal, or just see me succeed in life.
He can’t see that anymore. He won’t be there for me if I get married or have kids. He won’t be there for me or help me when I’m down or had a rough day. He will miss everything I do in life, the good and the bad and he won’t be there to give advice. I will never be able to give him a hug or give him a present or a Father’s Day card. He won’t see me grow from a kid to a teenager and in to my adult life.
It changed my way of thinking in life. I can never go to the movies and pass a ball without feeling bad because that’s what me and my dad did. I just want to make my dad and family proud. I don’t know if I should call David dad because I don’t want my dad to be offended or feel like he was replaced.
This has affected my sister a lot as well. She knows her daddy won’t be there to walk her down the aisle.
She will never have a father-daughter dance and Sarah and my dad had been planning for ages.
My sister, Tracey, David, Dean, Adam, our family and I are not seen as we were before my dad was killed. We are seen as the family of the Irish man named Jason Corbett who was murdered by Molly Martens in his home in North Carolina, trying to make a new start, a new life for himself and his family.