Jason Corbett /// Part 2 /// 392 | Forensic Files

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at the time of Jason's death Sarah was eight and Jack was only 10 years old now Molly was the only mother in their lives
since the death of their biological mom Sarah was three months old and Jack was two when their bio mom passed away now
the kids remained with Molly while the courts figured out who should get them Molly initiated custody proceedings to
formally adopt both children but Jason's Will Made for other arrangements handing
legal guardianship over to his sister Tracy Lynch and her husband David notably Jason's will was written prior
to his marriage to Molly but you have the will and the facts are the kids were born in Ireland and were not U.S
citizens and Molly was not their biological mother in response to the custody dispute
custody hearings were held the Corbett side of the family started a Facebook page called bring Jack and Sarah home to
call attention to what they considered an injustice the kids stayed with Molly despite their
father having mysteriously been killed in her presence there were allegations that Jason had
not desired that his wife adopt his children that looked to be accurate according to the reports anyway court
papers revealed that Corbett never consented for his second wife Molly to formally adopt the children during the
custody proceedings the court heard that in the Autumn of 2014 Mali spoke to her
attorney about her rights to the children possibly in the case of a divorce looks like Molly wanted the kids and for
some reason Jason did not want her to adopt them eventually Sarah and Jack were returned
to Ireland in the custody of David and Tracy Lynch after the kids were sent away Molly
moved back in with her parents in Knoxville she enrolled in interior design classes and got back into
swimming however on January 4th of 2016 it was announced that a grand jury had indicted
Molly and her father Tom Martins on charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter
Tom was allowed to turn himself in but Molly was arrested and cuffed the two were released on two hundred
thousand dollars Bond and order to surrender their passports and not have any contact with Jason's family
they both entered not guilty please at the end of January 2016 Molly was required to appear in court again to
respond to a summons requiring her to explain why she had removed personal items from the couple's home in
violation of a consent order per that order Molly was not to sell or remove any quote tangible personal
property end quote the court issued a temporary restraining order preventing Molly from continuing to remove property
while they sorted out what was going on what had Molly removed from the house well according to court documents
everything except Jason's clothing and the kids stuff and items brought over by Jason from Ireland in the course of this
inquiry it was revealed that in April of 2011 Jason Corbett transferred a very large sum of money
reports vary somewhere between fifty thousand dollars and maybe upwards of eighty thousand dollars to Molly's
parents this was supposedly for wedding expenses the Court ruled that Molly had to return
all of the items that she took because there was a quote high probability that the money transferred from Jason to the
Martins was the source of the funds that paid for the items that she eventually took the funds from a life insurance
policy on Jason which amounted to six hundred thousand dollars as well as money from the sale of Jason's car were
to be held in escrow pending probate proceedings and what is going to be a criminal trial
but before we get into the criminal trial David Lynch brother-in-law of Jason and executor of his will filed a
wrongful death suit alleging that Molly and her father intentionally willfully and maliciously assaulted Jason on
August 2nd 2015. and so but just to be clear this insurance money Molly would receive
yes she is to that's that's my understanding and she sold his car so this has to sit in escrow until they
determine where this money should go where is the appropriate place for it to go because if she killed him she doesn't
get the insurance buddy right so we know that she wanted custody of the children
but if this is premeditation there's not guarantee that you're going to get custody of the children but it's
guaranteed that you're going to receive this large sum of money six hundred thousand dollars and whatever assets he
might have at the time the house cars things like that but part of this wrongful death suit
also includes Sharon Molly's mother and Tom's wife who never faced any criminal charges in this case but the wrongful
death suit claims that she assisted aided and abetted in the defendants in killing of Jason Corbett and in the
concealment and destruction of evidence related to Jason's death finally we have
the criminal trial which was set for July 2017 and I want to see the trial evidence because we are only getting
such a small piece of the pie to this point from both law enforcement and the two suspects
and if the authorities have more well then it's going to be at the trial when we learn what real evidence they have
right at the commencement of the trial the prosecution informed the court that it was dropping the voluntary
manslaughter charge and intended to pursue only the second degree murder charge which required a showing that the
crime was committed with malice the prosecutors appeared confident that they could make the more serious charges
stick our summation of the trial comes mainly from the extensive coverage in the West
Salem Journal now during opening arguments the assistant district attorney told the jury
six foot tall 260 pound Jason Corbett was beaten to death in a brutal bludgeoning attack by his wife and her
father and that the killing was deliberate and possibly motivated by money Molly and her father were
represented by two separate attorneys working in tandem Tom's attorney spoke first he said that
Tom had acted in defense of his daughter after seeing her you know she's about half Jason's size being violently choked
and threatened by her husband telling the jury quote he was not only defending his daughter he was defending himself
next Molly's attorney told the jury that the investigators missed several pieces
of evidence that would show that Molly and Tom were telling the truth he said that they never collected or
tested the long blonde hair that was found in Jason's hand if they had it would have shown that he was violently
gripping her Molly had a bloody mark on her neck that was not tested either this
must be that little red dot further Blood on the bottoms of Jason's feet indicated that he continued to move
around even after the blows began countering the prosecution's suggestion that Jason had been waylaid y-prone the
picture being painted by the prosecution as the defense says was not accurate right
well what the what they're trying to say is one of the theories is by investigators is that she actually hit
Jason and his sleep and that's why there would be a lot of blood on the pillow now the pictures
I've seen I have not seen this blood-soaked pillow I see some blood splatter on the bed and a little bit of
blood splatter on the pillow so they're saying that she went in there either there was an argument or he was asleep
and she said you know what I'm going to take this concrete block and smack him on the head with it and then
you get smacked with a concrete block well now fight's on well we state that the defense is saying that the narrative
put forth by the prosecution is just not accurate you kind of know what that's going to be
what that narrative will be but let's let's hit some of the highlights real quick here one that Molly and Jason's
marriage was in trouble with Jason making plans to return to Ireland without his wife he had not allowed her
to adopt his children Jason was found naked and blood spattered but there were no evident injuries to
either of the defendants they both refused medical treatment at the scene that night there was blood covering the
walls of the master bedroom hallway bathroom and both sides of the door to the room
Jason Corbett was killed by multiple blows to the Head including two devastating blows to the back of the
head and at least one blow that was delivered when he was already deceased his skull quote was like a hard-boiled
egg that had been dropped on the counter end quote the murder weapons were a Paving stone
and a metal bat that had been wielded by both defendants which were covered in blood hair and brain matter blood
spatters indicate that Jason was subjected to a sustained series of blows with blood spray patterns indicating
that he was at one point near the ground when his head was struck they say quote that leaves us with why
why didn't they stop end quote Yeah but okay one we do have Molly stating that during
this struggle her father goes to the ground and that Jason's on the ground and she strikes Jason before he could
then strike her father so we have that and then his possibility at the end of the struggle he is on the ground
and possibly getting up and then he's hit again and I also think that there could be certain things that
maybe they're not being a hundred percent truthful oh he started moving or who's shaking on the ground and so we
hit him again so I I don't think that just because there was extra hits that that is not a
sign of self-defense so we have the defense that's going to argue look they don't argue that Molly and Tom didn't
kill Jason right rather as you just said self-defense they said that Tom and Sharon Martin's made a last minute
decision to visit their daughter and her family on that Saturday because they had
not seen the kids in quite some time in several months Jack was at that nighttime birthday party that went super
late remember he's not picked up till like 11 o'clock and that's why Tom says Hey the bat that
we brought to give to Jack we didn't give it to him that night because he got home so late Tom says that he was
awakened by screams now this is a little different than the story we heard before
but this is what we're going to hear at trial this is when it seems to me to be the most important
and when he heard the screams he armed himself with the bat so that he could fend off anyone attacking the family
upstairs and found Jason choking Molly at that time he says that he told him to stop but
Jason continued to choke and the fight ensued to which Tom says he lost his glasses
and then he lost control of the bat after Jason roughly pushed him Tom was able to regain control of the
bat and he hit Jason until he released Molly and then he says that's when he started
CPR the witness testimony phase of the trial commenced the state's first witness was
Karen Capps the 911 operator who had taken Tom's call she gave much of her testimony on the
record but outside the presence of the jury because much of it was opinion and speculative
she told the court of the 911 surprisingly calm demeanor she also said that she was surprised
that Tom wasn't out of breath from administering CPR since this life-saving Aid is very taxing
she said that the female which we know to be Molly in the background was yelling her compression counts out so
loudly it was clear she was trying to be heard attempting to save the victim the
jury was permitted to hear the 9-1-1 call but again not much of Karen capp's testimony because it was so much of her
just opinion rather than fact well what's your opinion of of his demeanor on the 9-1-1 call
it's difficult it's difficult to decipher we talk about this so many times where it's like how is someone
supposed to react you said yesterday when we were talking about it that he sounds defeated I had not thought of it
that way and I can agree with that he does sound very matter-of-fact to me and and if in fact
I took um well you got a Sprinkle something else into his character where this is not a this is not an attack uh
you know where we have a husband finding their their wife attacked or or something like that we have a a former
FBI agent that has probably been in more difficult situations than this having to make the call yeah I don't
know what situations he's been in I couldn't imagine one more difficult than this beating a man to death with a bat
you're right I I can get it get behind the he sounds defeated well I just mean that if you have to make this call and
you're you're law enforcement that you know that it's not going to do you any good to be panicking
correct that's what I'm saying yeah yeah your spot on there and then the other thing you can throw into that mix
not only does he sound possibly defeated he could also sound tired like maybe that's why he comes off as sounding so
calm because one he's trying to calm himself to deliver the appropriate information
and on top of that he's tired from this this fight that broke out right physically exhausted but then here
here's then if the Suspicious Mind where I run to is did she want her retired FBI father
there as kind of proof positive the the uh proof is in the pudding type statement
of well if this man who spent so much time as an FBI agent who's still working for the government with top secret uh
clearance if he sees a situation assesses the situation and determines then and there that this is an act of
self-defense is that going to is that going to Echo throughout the whole investigation is it going to you know
you know what I mean is that is that the almost like the FBI putting a stamp on this was self-defense so don't question
it I think initially that's why they didn't have them come back several times when you're investigating this and you
go okay well it could could be self-defense and we don't have any markings on them so let's
just bring them in 24 hours later unless again investigate their persons investigate their body take more
pictures do it again another 24 hours later but yeah is this could this be premeditation where she knows that that
this investigation could be painted with a certain rose petal glasses you know of
the FBI right and then we have this is this is where we need somebody to come on the blog and educate
us a bit because we talked about the the toxicology report we have this statement this is from
Sergeant Barry alphen he is one of the Davidson County EMS workers big shout out to the EMS workers out there thank
you for everything he said that he found Jason to be cold to the touch and with dried blood on his
body the cold to the touch is the thing I want some education on because one thing
that we stated right Captain was that the the 9-1-1 call was a almost 15 minutes long and I'm
imagining a few minutes took place between the end of the fight and when the call was placed
how quickly is this man going to start to feel cool to the touch well he has no clothes on so how right that's going to
speed things up and also what is the temperature of the house it's a cool 32 degrees Yeah I mean like
no I'm serious though no I know I'm I'm just being an ass um here's the here's the gross part is
and this is a statement from his dong was this his testimony this is the the EMS worker says that when he placed his
hands on Jason's head you know he's trying to move him when he place his hands on his head it's his here's a
direct quote I put my hand under the scalp my left hand went all into the skull and that that's just
affirmation of the of how badly the the wounds and the the the destruction to the skull was now EMS workers remember
we had at least four at the scene that we are aware of from the newspaper reports EMS workers testified how they
found the two children sleeping on the second floor and told the children to close their eyes as They Carried Jason
from the house the medical examiner Dr Craig Nelson testified that Jason was hit at least 12
times like we said but the damage was so extensive that the exact number of blows
could not be determined he said that when he took the scalp off the head for examination chunks of skull fell out
onto the examining table he testified that Jason was hit in at least 10 different places on his
body including his torso his hands and his knees several of the wounds were quote complex lacerations meaning that
he was struck in the same spot more than once autopsy photos were shown causing one of
the jurors to throw up in a trash can Dr Nelson went on to say that the talk screen run on Jason showed that he had
traces of trazodone in his system this was a powerful sleep aid prescribed to Molly on July 30th just three days
before Jason's death Jason was not known to suffer from any sleep issues the prosecution hinted that perhaps Molly
had attempted to drug Jason and actually implied that Molly had put the trezidone
into a Mojito that Jason drank a former Davidson County Deputy who responded to the scene testified about
his observations said that he escorted Molly to his patrol car and stayed with her he said
Molly appeared upset testifying that quote she was making crying noises but I didn't see any visible tears speaking of
forensic evidence all forensic analyst with the state crime lab served as state Witnesses and they
testified that both the bat and the concrete paving brick were covered in blood hair and Jason Corbett's DNA
was found on both of the items this makes sense obviously Molly and Tom admitted hitting Jason with both of
these items although we go back to Molly's written statement only admitted to attempting to hit Jason
with it 12 hairs belonging to Jason Corbett were found this was taken from the concrete paving brick the pictures I
saw Captain showed the brick just covered in blood and hair well like I was saying to you I think off record was
this brick is going to be it's gonna have a some pores to it so it's going to soak
up blood differently than the bat would right now one of the final Witnesses for the
prosecution was the blood spatter expert his name is Stuart James who was introduced as a specialist in
blood stain pattern analysis he testified that dents were visible low down on the wall of the master bedroom
where Jason died he said that these dents indicate that Jason was beaten at one point while he
was close to the ground or on the ground and a pattern of blood spatter low on the wall suggests that Jason was struck
more than once while he was falling to the ground James also testified that dried blood
spatter on the inside leg area of Tom's boxer shorts and on the bottom of Molly's pajama pants suggests that the
two were above and over Jason Corbett's head as he was being struck James said a vacuum cleaner was sitting
upright at the West Wall of the master bedroom as seen in the crime scene photos the one that I was talking about
he said there were blood spatters behind the vacuum and a pattern of blood spatter flowing from side to side on the
vacuum cleaner he says quote it tells me that the vacuum cleaner was on its side
when the blood was deposited on the vacuum cleaner and it was long enough for it to dry
it shows an alteration in the scene prior to these photos being taken end quote the implication was that Molly and Tom
had moved some things around in the room possibly staging the scene prior to calling 9-1-1
and we do know some of this timeline and rather great detail and so if they were to Stage anything
the staging has to go on prior to the 9-1-1 call or during the 9-1-1 call again much of that 9-1-1 call is them
it's thought that they're administering CPR during that call but they could be pretending to do so
and the reasons why I state that we we know this that that could be an option here is that we have the statements of
the EMS workers and the statements of police officers that say look they were on 9-1-1 for 14 minutes and 27 seconds
on that call at the end of the call we can hear EMS the first crew of two arriving and they are going into the
master bedroom to which you can hear Tom and Molly leaving the room as the 911 operator tells them let them do their
jobs when the police arrive within just like it's like two minutes later when the police arrive they find the two of
them that being Molly and Tom on the front porch so we have that little detail that part
of the timeline is is known to be fact it's known to be true because we have others to tell us
uh what what took place back to the blood guy he also pointed out that impact blood
spatter on part of the bed and large blood stains were on the bed skirting he said that this evidence suggested
that Jason was first struck at or near the bed also Sharon Martin's Tom's wife and
Molly's mother remained in the guest bedroom in the basement despite all of this commotion
and the kids seemingly remained asleep that's a that's kind of weird too in this
and when we go through the crime scene as well if there's this big fight going on upstairs
Sharon didn't do anything yeah this well yeah she didn't call 9-1-1 that's what I
don't like because you would assume well my husband is in danger because Jason's
a bigger man but you don't call 9-1-1 the children don't wake up but also when you see a
picture of this house this is a large house yes and and um my former stepsons you could vacuum
in their room and they wouldn't wake up that might explain away why the kids didn't hear anything
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cheers to you a lot going on me cheers to we cheers to everybody all across the land this case is really
frustrating I mean a lot of them are but this one it's like what is the truth because we do have things of evidence
that that suggests the story that they're telling Tom and Molly what they're telling is not true
but there's so much of when Tom talks that I believe what he's saying yeah I was talking with somebody last week and
they were saying Hey listen to your your case last week and it was a it was a difficult one it was a tough one and I
said yeah the the easy cases don't make it on the show right so now Captain we have the time where
the defense gets the fight back right the prosecution has rested its case the defense is going to fight back for one
thing they say while the that drug prescribed to Molly was in Jason's system they did a good job of managing to
create some doubt as to whether Jason could have been self-medicating maybe he's dipping into her pill bottle
they produce records detailing multiple recent doctors visits and tests the physician's assistant who treated Jason
observed signs of depression and Jason had been treated for a thyroid condition and notes from the from a visit just two
weeks before Jason's death state that Jason said he this is his words Jason said quote recently became angry
for no reason defense lawyers had already decided that Molly would not testify but in what can only be described as a
gamble Tom Martins took the stand to testify in his own defense it's likely that his lawyers were hoping that his
pristine reputation as a decades-long Lawman would have some Sway With the jury why and like I said I I just find
him to be believable I I will not disagree with that Tom said that he woke up that night because he heard thumping
loud thumping loud foot falls and heard screams and loud voices there was an obvious disturbance going on
above me he says I grabbed the bat ran upstairs and I heard that the noises were coming from the master bedroom in
front of me I would say seven or eight feet in front of me Jason had his hands around Molly's neck facing each other he
says she was a little to the right he was a little to the left he said at first Jason had his hands around Molly's
throat but then as you described very well earlier now he's he's manipulated that a bit and he's trying to drag her
off to which Tom says he Jason is stating I'm going to kill her Tom saying let her
go he's threatening again here's the thing that that's troubling with the whole Tom
portion of this I don't know if it's his calm demeanor his defeated demeanor whatever we want
to call it or a combination of the both but you're right it his delivery is believable his delivery of the story I
don't want to get too much into the words because that's where I have some questions about it but his delivery of
the story feels to me like a guy like I'm looking at a guy that's telling the truth well
and even if they're waited a little bit because this is a a big deal that just happened
your son-in-law which you might have liked maybe you disliked don't know it was choking your daughter and then you
and then you have to attack him you have to you know fight you know and like he says at one point
when you're in a fight it might go to death and you have to know that yeah and again I think that's
more of something that's coming from law enforcement or the his FBI background whether you you might have disliked him
but you have a guy that is dead and and by your hands and you you're the one that has to call
9-1-1 so I I believe him more because they called 9-1-1 there's other things they
could have done to try to cover this up if it was premeditated well and he describes a motion too in
his recanting you know when he's trying to tell us what's going on that night you know he says Jason was really angry
I Tom was really scared and he does go on to say that he was worried that if Jason made it to that
bathroom like you pointed out in yesterday's show with his daughter and close the door
there would be some real trouble that he wouldn't be able to gain control of the
situation or even save his daughter right you know he goes on to say that I I hit Jason I hit him until he goes down
and I stepped away I don't know how many times I hit him I hit him until I thought he could not kill me as I felt
both of our lives were in danger I did the best I could he did choke up while on the stand well again part of his
story goes with what the medical examiner is telling us he was hit multiple times
so when he did he he's not giving you a number he's not saying why I whacked him
he's telling you I whacked him a few times when he was up but when he was down I hit him so many
times that I knew he wouldn't be able to move under how hard were those hits you know
yeah yeah and under cross-examination the prosecutors did try to suggest that Tom
and Molly faked the CPR that they were giving to Jason now closing argument summed up both
sides of the case for the jury prosecutors emphasized that Tom and Molly bludgeon Jason with a metal bat
and a concrete paving brick crushing his skull and continuing to hit him after he
had fallen and then had cooked up their tale of self-defense there were some courtroom Dramatics as described in the
Winston-Salem Journal assistant district attorney Alan Martin grabbed the 28-inch
Louisville Slugger bat and slammed it over and over onto the prosecution's table
in the courtroom with ever increasing Force asking jurors to imagine that the table was Irish
businessmen's Jason Corbett's head every slam to the table was described as a shock to the ear
he also slammed the table with a concrete paving brick that along with the bat prosecutors say killed Corbett
Martin walked over to the defense table and pointed to Tom and Molly and said quote
they killed him he killed Jason with a bat and she killed him with that brick they literally beat the skin off his
skull with that bat in that brick in their closing arguments attorneys for the defendant said prosecutors failed to
provide any compelling evidence that disproves what Tom and Molly told investigators in other words the
prosecution had not met their burden of proving Beyond a reasonable doubt that Molly and Tom were lying I mean again
this is why it's so tricky because they're trying to say you killed this man and then their defense is yeah yeah
we we did we told you we did yeah we're not trying to cover that up we we killed him how
many times you hit him in the head I don't know I hit him until I thought he couldn't hurt me or my daughter it's
very tricky they also pointed out the defense pointed out that Jason had been verbally and physically abusive for
years this in their closing arguments I don't I there was tapes of this and I don't know if you heard some of the
clips um but I don't think this was allowed to be heard by the jury yeah I heard there
there were some of these tapes this was from when she look she's trying to gain some kind
of custody of these kids she's telling her attorneys that this man is abusive physically and verbally so they tell her
why don't you record some things when he doesn't know that you're recording him right so that we
can prove later if needed that that he is abusive be it verbally and or physically so yeah there were some there
was some tapes of this and some proof of that and we'll get into that in a bit but the the jury deliberated for less
than four hours before returning with a verdict the state of North Carolina versus Molly Martin's Corbett and verse
Thomas Michael Martins both were found guilty of second-degree murder as Molly was led out of the courtroom
she said I'm sorry Mom I wish he had killed me later when she was given the opportunity to speak before judge Lee
sentenced her Molly statements statement was quote I did not murder my husband my
father did not murder my husband the events of August 2nd happened on a regular basis the difference is that my
father was there yeah and there was also a I believe a statement from the son that was which I don't think they were
again I don't think this was um either given to defense or defense was able to use this but it was the
statement saying that his father was verbally and physically abusive Judge David Lee sentenced Tom and Molly to 20
to 25 years in prison each the judge who had reviewed the psychological report on
Molly submitted by the defense team stated that Molly should seek psychiatric help in prison there was no
real explanation to this part of the trial what my guess is because she had Molly had a past history of some issues
that maybe her defense team quietly submitted this to the judge for his review as a possible
I don't know as a as some kind of possible defense that wasn't presented to the jury now remember that wrongful
death civil suit that was filed against Molly and Tom this settlement was reached in March of 2019 it called for a
payment to Sarah and Jack Corbett to the children in the amount of seven hundred
and fifty thousand dollars this gets a little complicated but I'm just going to simplify it Molly and Tom
did not admit any liability as part of the settlement they did not have to admit liability right and further Molly
was dismissed from the lawsuit after she filed documents renouncing her claim to
Jason's life insurance money so basically the life insurance money goes to the kids yep probably the sale of the
house goes to the kids at any of the property sales goes to the kids yeah so not admitting any guilt but just
reallocating all that those funds taking herself out of it freezer up from that there's a whole lot of legal minutia
involved in this and you were getting into it a bit there um one thing is the conflicting
narratives that we saw throughout this case at trial and before and even after basically you have the story told by Tom
and Molly that they they did all this in self-defense and the defense of his daughter and the defense of himself you
know and that ongoing part of that narrative is the abuse and the verbal abuse that took place for years as she
said then we have the opposite side where we have the lynches who end up getting the
kids and the ones that filed the wrongful death suit that are saying completely the the opposite where Molly
was this terrible person and unbearable and you couldn't get along with her and she's spending large sums of money and
Jason was Fed Up and miserable and he was planning on leaving her and taking the kids and going back to to Ireland we
can you can really get lost in all of that crap if you want to there's a whole lot of it to digest and a whole lot of
it to go through and try to figure out who's right and who's wrong I don't like to digest crap no nobody
does and the thing is I I just find I want to know what your what you think of all this well I find it too hard to
believe that there's such a big swing in the truth I think maybe the truth somewhere in the middle because like you
said we have the kids that do do point out they they say man like they they said when they were interviewed by
social workers shortly after Jason's death saying yeah and they they called Molly mom so we'll just call her mom
yeah Mom uh dad would yell at mom we'd call her names would would I think that he said slap her pull her hair stomp on
her feet yeah when you hear the the tapes I mean he's he's blowing up over the dumbest [ __ ] well we have his words
at his at his doctor visit where he's saying I'm becoming angry for no reason then you have the reverse of that
where after the kids moved back to Ireland and they are under the watchful eye of aunt and uncle
that they're saying ah I made up all of that abuse stuff that stuff didn't happen my dad was just you know he was
miserable he wanted to get out of there there was no abuse it seems to me the problem with both of
these scenarios is these kids were young enough ten and eight they could have been coached either way for for either
one of these sit Downs yeah but you can't you can't fake the tapes no you cannot I mean you can manipulate the
situation and you and maybe you're not maybe there wasn't that many situations where Molly was trying to start an
argument but maybe she did you know I'll poke the bear poke the bear oh hit record you know right right that would
be easy to do yeah so but what what what's your take on everything like do you think that
this was premeditated or well I let's let's save that portion for the conclusion because I think that's what
we're going to be left with is is our opinions I do want to get into some of this legal minutia a bit and I'm I'm
really summarizing this but I think it's stuff that needs to be covered one thing
that was pointed out was that there was jury misconduct allegations this came out just a week after the verdict from
the criminal trial where Molly's attorneys and toms attorneys filed a motion asking the
judge to set aside the jury verdict alleging jury misconduct the defense motion asked the judge to order a new
trial or at the very least to hold an evidentiary hearing into this misconduct issue
now without getting into it too much I'll give my opinion on this there was jury misconduct at this trial
because what we will learn is through social media posts and through interviews that the jurors did right
after the trial they were saying things that were not presented at the trial but
were presented in the media so against the judge's orders they were paying attention to outside sources not just
what they were hearing at the trial right and so that is jury misconduct there's no way getting around that so
they're not supposed to be talking or listening to outside sources which we have proof that they did and they
weren't supposed to be discussing issues with one another which they did there's
there's proof of that as well so it's weird because despite all this evidence that the jurors were being influenced by
outside sources the the judge did deny the defense's jury misconduct motion and stated that there would be no new trial
it's a weird situation Captain because I don't know how much it actually I that I
actually think that it influenced their verdict it had it happened but I don't know that
it actually influenced their verdict right I agree with that because the outside sources that was obvious that
they were listening to were all those news magazine shows that we talked about 20 20 48 hours so on and so forth all of
those outside sources seem to present a pretty 50 50 argument in my opinion right it they weren't they weren't
structured like some documentaries to sway you one way or the other it was pretty
straight down the middle in my opinion there were there ended up being some appeals there was a three-judge panel
that heard arguments that the clients Molly and Tom did not receive a fair trial uh they maintained that the state
did not prove Beyond a reasonable doubt that Molly and Tom acted in self-defense
or had not acted in self-defense and they pointed out the certain evidence that was left out
of the trial it should have been disclosed to the jury and some of that was statements that you said like like
the the recordings and the possible statements from the children that were given to social workers shortly after
Jason's death the Appellate Court found that the state prosecutors did fail to present any evidence to contradict Tom's
version of events and the fact that Tom and Molly had no visible injuries was not significant again the jury
misconduct was dismissed but unfortunately even through all of these appeals and everything that was going on
with all of this legal jumble you know whole messed up thing unfortunately for Tom and Molly the
Appellate Court's decision was split two to one the split decision means that the
state has grounds to appeal the ruling and on February 21st 2020 State prosecutors filed a petition with the
new North Carolina Supreme Court asking it to impose a temporary stay on the new trial pending their filing of
a notice of appeal expected this in the next couple of months so it will be interesting to see
what happens with all of this we have the Winston-Salem Journal saying it could take more than a year before the North
Carolina Supreme Court rules on whether or not a new trial will occur if a new trial does happen it will be
very interesting to see whether the outcome is different I personally you keep asking me of my opinion I wasn't
trying to put you off captain but it's my birthday answer my damn question right right well here we go I I
personally think that the the outcome won't be different I think that a new trial will be a waste of time
I do disagree with the court I do think that there was jury misconduct but again
I don't know how much that will change the verdict if we want it to be nice and clean and tidy then we should have a new
trial but again I don't know that the verdict will come out any differently I actually believe I truly feel like
murder in the second degree for both Tom and Molly is not only the most appropriate charge but very likely the
correct charge to me I feel like the blood evidence found in the master bedroom on the walls
on the baseboards on both sides of the door on the door jamb on the Rock and on the bat and as seen in the crime scene
photos paints an almost perfect picture to me the problem with this case and we see this in a lot of other cases too and
I don't I don't understand why this this happens again it not only the the swing the
broad swing and the truth between what was actually going on in the house before the death was Jason abusive was
he verbally abusive how much how terrible was this living situation or was Jason miserable and wanted to leave
and take his kids and Molly was this horrible person that's a that's a big swing I think the truth is somewhere in
the middle I think that he probably was somewhat abusive I think it could you know verbally and possibly physically as
well I also think that Molly could have been a miserable person to live with I also think that Jason could be in the
process of leaving her oh I mean there's some speculation that his first wife's death was because of his
abuse that seems like hogwash to me well no because it's somebody that has asthmatic
symptoms if you were choked uh and and Molly is claiming that she was choked multiple times and he would
choke her and shake her that's very that could cause a asthmatic attack yeah I to
me I that's reminiscent of the Michael Peterson situation and I don't see the same situation here I think it's it's
coincidental one the a big difference between the two is his first wife is dead and now he is
dead where Michael Peterson both of his wives died under the same mysterious circumstances right
so I mean that's interesting to ponder and anybody that that believes that that's a
possibility I'm not not coming after that I I just really don't want to touch it because I don't think that there's
enough to suggest that that could be the case the the thing that I have a problem
with is that there's such a big difference between the two narratives of what was actually going on in the family
in the family Dynamic the truth is probably somewhere in the middle and then I have to take that a step further
and wonder if that's the same thing with Jason's death was this not 100 premeditated planned
out cold-blooded murder in the way that we often think of it right and was this not 100
self-defense or the defense of another but somewhere in that horrible violent gray area between is the truth
sitting in there and that's why I think the second degree murder charges are the most appropriate
I don't see evidence that you can clearly sell to a jury that this was 100 premeditated
I also question things that we see at the crime scene and the blood spatter evidence and
things within that bedroom that make me not fully believe the self-defense angle
of it either what say you Mr Captain well I think uh I'm gonna use a quote from uh the famous one of the
greatest men in history Forrest Gump and say that maybe both is happening at the same time
that I believe so much of what Tom is saying what Molly's dad is saying about self-defense
and I also again I think some of his their vague answers but I hit him until I didn't think he would hurt me or my
daughter well that's not giving us a exact number so I don't think that goes against the
medical examiners where I have a problem with this is Molly Molly initially says
that I did hit him with this concrete block we know that this block is covered in blood we know this block was used as
a weapon from everybody from Molly initially from Tom from the medical examiners to the
investigators where I question just like you said with the door shut does she start by hitting him
does he get in her face and she goes that's it and she uses it then or is it or is there a possibility
and what her almost her original statements were was kind of once the fight was done
that she hid him with the brick because she was afraid that he was going to come back too
so I believe that Tom thought everything that they were doing was justified and that he was acting in self-defense
because I don't think but Tom believes that he would kill a man if it wasn't in self-defense I just
think there's probably some actions either beforehand or after or maybe even during that
Molly is not being truthful about and so I I think it can be both at the same time
but then then you almost have to give them separate trials so to me yes it's second degree murder
when it comes to Molly I believe it's self-defense when it comes to Tom that's interesting that's
very interesting because that's one one thought that that I was thinking along the way to is there a chance that
this is premeditated on Molly's behalf but by the time Tom is witnessing the scene
that she is in fact being choked but maybe she's being choked by Jason defending himself right because he gets
whacked in the head with a brick and now he's so angry or so and been hit that he's does say I'm going to kill her and
Tom sees the hands on the throat and goes after him and so could you have a situation here where she
plan this thing out manipulated this thing because I I have a very hard time believing look I understand you're going
to paint this this Garden brick this paver brick and you brought it into the house for
that purpose keeping it on your nightstand does not seem like a logical place to put it that doesn't prove again
just like everything else I've pointed out in these episodes does not prove anything but it is suspicious so do you
have a situation where she's she has already administered an attack on Jason Tom hears this attack and by the time he
sees the scene Jason's hands are on her throat he goes after Jason with the bat well again investigators say that she
hit him when he was laying down I just don't see the evidence but again we don't have every angle and every picture
that they have they didn't release them all if there is a blood-soaked pillow that they claim that there is
well then then he probably was hit in the head while he was laying around and that's a bit of a mystery to us because
out of all the photos we've seen and there's a there's a a plethora of them um we did not see I did not see the the
pillow would you say there was a plethora that's right uh I will I will post as many they are graphic but I'll
post those on Instagram at True Crime garage they're graphic but they're important and here's the other thing
captain that I that I really wander about and when we try to decipher we're really dissecting Mali statements
and Tom statements and trying to figure out which ones are truthful and which ones are fabricated
to me I think the most truthful statement that came out of either of them came from Tom
when he tells the 9-1-1 operator I may have killed him right the reason why I feel it like that one
is the most truthful statement from either of them I wonder if that's exactly how Tom feels
does he not know for certain if he killed Jason or if Molly did all right I want to thank everybody for
joining us here in the garage do we have any recommended reading this week yes we
do Captain this week we are recommending the lost family how DNA testing is upending who we are this is by Libby
Copeland this is fascinating it's a fascinating read it's something that we all should take a look at we have so
many cases that are being solved these days by DNA testing just a little knowledge here for you you don't have to
write that title down right now you can go to our website truecrimegarage.com and we will have the
lost family there for you as well as plenty of other recommendations when you're at the website sign up on the
mailing list because as the people know on the mailing list they just save 20 in
the store just for being a part of the True Crime garage Army and until next week be good be kind and don't let her
[Music]

Jason Corbett /// Part 2 /// 392

Part 2 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com In the middle of the night an emergency call comes in. The caller says he has injured his son in law while defending his daughter. The caller goes on to say “I may have killed him.” Now investigators need to determine was this self-defense or murder? Beer of the Week - Snozzberry by Green Man Brewery Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps Thank you to this week’s sponsors! www.LightStream.com/TCG - Get a special interest rate discount and save on a credit card consolidation loan from LightStream! The full archive of True Crime Garage is available on the Stitcher listening app - for FREE. Our show “Off the Record” is only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

Molly and Tom Martins were convicted of second-degree murder in the brutal killing of Jason Corbett amid a custody battle over his children.

Key points

Custody Battle. Molly fought to keep custody of her children after their father's death, despite legal complications.
Murder Charges Filed. Molly and her father were indicted on charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.
Trial Begins. The prosecution dropped voluntary manslaughter charges, focusing solely on second-degree murder.
Brutal Attack Details. Jason Corbett was brutally beaten to death, with evidence of multiple blows to the head.
Tom's Testimony. Tom described the chaotic scene and his fear for his daughter's safety.
Prosecution's Dramatic Closing. The prosecutor used a bat to demonstrate the violence of the crime.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

We are not the best but we are pretty damn good.

A playful self-assessment by the hosts.

1:56WatchNov 15, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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