00:00:00
when it comes to Quality sleep Ashley has you covered with top mattress brands at winning prices and with special
00:00:06
financing options available you can snooze now and pay later plus your mattress purchase helps give the gift of
00:00:13
better sleep to children in need and US Special Operations forces visit your local Ashley store or shop online today
00:00:22
and make every snooze count financing is subject to credit approval C store or ashley.com for d details dreaming of
00:00:31
overseas Adventures or connecting more deeply with family from afar Rosetta Stone Bridges the language Gap I've
00:00:38
tried others but Rosetta Stone's immersive lessons and voice feedback technology are gamechangers dive into 25
00:00:45
Languages by learning intuitively just like when you were a kid and here's the holiday Sparkle grab a lifetime
00:00:52
membership now and save 50% gift yourself the world head to rosettastone.com now and save 50%
00:01:08
[Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:46
for listening I'm your host Nick and joining me of course a man when asked if he could take a drink and let people
00:01:52
smell him well he was kind enough to say you can smell me without the drink he is
00:01:57
the captain henin's note tell no smell it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
00:02:05
a [Music] friend today we are featuring snaz Berry and no we are not sitting in the garage
00:02:16
licking the wallpaper cuz we got bottles from Green Man Brewery speak for yourself sberry is an American sour ale
00:02:25
5.5% ABV and a solid four bottle caps and before we die back into this week's case let's give some thanks to our good
00:02:32
friends first up we have lesie in West Fargo North Dakota and a big we like your jib to Dan from kyoga Falls Ohio
00:02:41
and speaking of dudes that are named Dan up north we have our buddy Dan the drummer yeah our buddy Dan the drummer
00:02:47
from match City if you're looking to check out a cool party Band check out the band match City next up we have a
00:02:54
big shout out to Mike who says we are the best we are not the best but we are pretty damn good there Mike Mike is in
00:03:02
Parts Unknown we're the best at being the worst Mike is in Parts Unknown where there is no quarantine because as some
00:03:08
of you may know the captain and I were way ahead of everything and we installed a giant bubble over Parts Unknown way
00:03:16
back in September of last year well and that part of the city is now dedicated to Todd lubit next up we have Kevin and
00:03:22
Ramsay United Kingdom we also have Heather and Flowery Branch Georgia and last but certainly not least we have LUN
00:03:30
The Fluffy husky in Seattle Washington so cheers to everyone out there who have supported the garage over the years
00:03:37
without you this would not be possible for more Garage Days check out the free Stitcher app to access the full garage
00:03:45
archives what is the colonel trying to say he's trying to say download the Stitcher app for free and you can listen
00:03:51
to all of our episodes for free and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair
00:03:59
grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime [Music] at the time of Jason's death Sarah was
00:04:52
eight and Jack was only 10 years old now Molly was the only mother in their lives
00:04:59
since the death of their biological mom Sarah was 3 months old and Jack was two when their biom mom passed away now the
00:05:08
kids remained with Molly while the courts figured out who should get them Molly initiated custody proceedings to
00:05:18
formally adopt both children but Jason's Will Made for other arrangements handing
00:05:24
legal guardianship over to his sister Tracy Lynch and her husband David notably Jason's will was written prior
00:05:33
to his marriage to Molly but you have the will and the facts are the kids were born in Ireland and were not US citizens
00:05:43
and Molly was not their biological mother in response to the custody dispute custody hearings were held the
00:05:50
Corbett side of the family started a Facebook page called bring Jack and Sarah home to call attention to what
00:05:58
they considered an in Justice the kids stayed with Molly despite their father having mysteriously been killed in her
00:06:07
presence there were allegations that Jason had not desired that his wife adopt his children that looked to be
00:06:16
accurate according to the reports anyway court papers revealed that Corbett never
00:06:22
consented for his second wife Molly to formally adopt the children during the custody proceedings the court heard that
00:06:30
in the Autumn of 2014 Molly spoke to her attorney about her rights to the children possibly in
00:06:39
the case of a divorce looks like Molly wanted the kids and for some reason Jason did not want
00:06:46
her to adopt them eventually Sarah and Jack were returned to Ireland in the custody of David and Tracy
00:06:54
Lynch after the kids were sent away Molly moved back in with her parents parents in Knoxville she enrolled in
00:07:01
interior design classes and got back into swimming however on January 4th of 2016 it was announced that a grand jury
00:07:11
had indicted Molly and her father Tom Martins on charges of second degree murder and voluntary
00:07:18
manslaughter Tom was allowed to turn himself in but Molly was arrested and cuffed the two were released on
00:07:27
$200,000 Bond and order to surrender their passports and not have any contact with Jason's
00:07:35
family they both entered not guilty please at the end of January 2016 Molly was required to appear in court again to
00:07:45
respond to a summons requiring her to explain why she had removed personal items from the couple's home in
00:07:53
violation of a consent order per that order Molly was not not to sell or remove any quote tangible personal
00:08:03
property end quote the court issued a temporary restraining order preventing Molly from continuing to remove property
00:08:10
while they sorted out what was going on what had Molly removed from the house well according to court documents
00:08:17
everything except Jason's clothing and the kid stuff and items brought over by Jason from Ireland in the course of this
00:08:27
inquiry it was revealed that in April of 2011 Jason Corbett transferred a very large sum of money reports VAR somewhere
00:08:37
between $50,000 and maybe upwards of $880,000 M to Molly's parents this was supposedly for wedding
00:08:50
expenses the Court ruled that Molly had to return all of the items that she took
00:08:56
because there was a quote high probability that that the money transferred from Jason to the Martins
00:09:02
was the source of the funds that paid for the items that she eventually took the funds from a life insurance policy
00:09:10
on Jason which amounted to $600,000 as well as money from the sale of Jason's car were to be held in escrow
00:09:19
pending probate proceedings and what is going to be a criminal trial but before we get into the criminal trial David
00:09:27
Lynch brother law of Jason an executor of his will filed a wrongful death suit alleging that Molly and her father
00:09:37
intentionally willfully and maliciously assaulted Jason on August 2nd 2015 and so but just to be clear this insurance
00:09:46
money Molly would receive yes she is to that's that's my understanding and she sold his car so
00:09:55
this has to sit in escrow until they determine where this money should go where's the
00:10:01
appropriate place for it to go because if she killed him she doesn't get the insurance money right so we know that
00:10:07
she wanted custody of the children but if this is premeditation there's not guarantee that
00:10:13
you're going to get custody of the children but it's guaranteed that you're going to receive this large sum of money
00:10:21
$600,000 mhm and whatever assets he might have at the time the house cars things like that
00:10:29
but part of this wrongful death suit also includes Sharon Molly's mother and Tom's wife who never faced any criminal
00:10:39
charges in this case but the wrongful death suit claims that she assisted aided and abetted in the defendants and
00:10:49
killing of Jason Corbett and in the concealment and destruction of evidence related to Jason's death finally we have
00:10:57
the criminal trial which was was set for July 2017 and I want to see the trial evidence because we are only getting
00:11:06
such a small piece of the pie to this point from both law enforcement and the two suspects and if the authorities have
00:11:13
more well then it's going to be at the trial when we learn what real evidence they have right at the commencement of
00:11:21
the trial the prosecution informed the court that it was dropping the voluntary manslaughter charge and intended to
00:11:29
pursue only the second degree murder charge which required a showing that the crime was committed with
00:11:37
malice the prosecutors appeared confident that they could make the more serious charges
00:11:43
stick rmation of the trial comes mainly from the extensive coverage in the West Salem Journal now during opening
00:11:53
arguments the assistant district attorney told the jury 6ot tall 260 lb Jason Corbett was beaten to death in a
00:12:02
brutal bludgeoning attack by his wife and her father and that the killing was deliberate and possibly motivated by
00:12:09
money Molly and her father were represented by two separate attorneys working in tandem Tom's attorney spoke
00:12:18
first he said that Tom had acted in defense of his daughter after seeing her you know she's about half Jason's size
00:12:27
being violently choked and threatened by her husband telling the jury quote he was not only defending his daughter he
00:12:35
was defending himself next Molly's attorney told the jury that the investigators missed
00:12:41
several pieces of evidence that would show that Molly and Tom were telling the truth he said that they never collected
00:12:48
or tested the long blonde hair that was found in Jason's hand if they had it would have shown that he was violently
00:12:55
gripping her Molly had a bloody mark on her neck that was not tested either this
00:13:02
must be that little red dot further Blood on the bottoms of Jason's feet indicated that he continued to move
00:13:10
around even after the blows began countering the prosecution suggestion that Jason had been whed why prone the
00:13:19
picture being painted by the prosecution as the defense says was not accurate right well what the what they're trying
00:13:27
to say is well one of the theories is by investigators is that she actually hit Jason in his
00:13:35
sleep and that's why there would be a lot of blood on the pillow now the pictures I have seen I have not seen
00:13:43
this blood so pillow I see some blood splatter on the bed and a little bit of blood splatter on the pillow so they're
00:13:53
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
00:13:59
take this concrete block and smack him on the head with it and then you get smacked with a concrete block well now
00:14:07
fights on well we state that the defense is saying that the narrative put forth by the prosecution is just unaccurate
00:14:15
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
00:14:21
quick here one that Molly and Jason's marriage was in trouble with Jason making plans to return to Ireland
00:14:27
without his wife he had not allowed her to adopt his children MH Jason was found
00:14:33
naked and blood spattered but there were no evident injuries to either of the defendants
00:14:39
they both refused medical treatment at the scene that night there was blood covering the walls of the master bedroom
00:14:47
hallway bathroom and both sides of the door to the room Jason Corbett was killed by multiple blows to the Head
00:14:55
including two devastating blows to the back of the the head and at least one blow that was delivered when he was
00:15:03
already deceased his skull quote was like a hardboiled egg that had been dropped on the counter end quote the
00:15:13
murder weapons were a Paving stone and a metal bat that had been wielded by both
00:15:20
defendants which were covered in blood hair and brain matter blood spatters indicate that Jason was subjected to a
00:15:28
stained series of blows with blood spray patterns indicating that he was at one point near the ground when his head was
00:15:38
struck they say quote that leaves us with why why didn't they stop and quote Yeah but okay one we do have Molly
00:15:49
stating that during this struggle her father goes to the ground and that Jason's on the ground and she strikes
00:15:57
Jason before or he could then strike her father so we have that and then it's possibility at the end of the struggle
00:16:07
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
00:16:16
that maybe they're not being 100% truthful oh he started moving or he's shaking on the ground and so we hit him
00:16:23
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
00:16:34
the defense is going to argue look they don't argue that Molly and Tom didn't kill Jason right rather as you just said
00:16:43
self-defense they said that Tom and and Sharon Martins made a last minute decision to visit their daughter and her
00:16:49
family on that Saturday because they had not seen the kids in quite some time in
00:16:54
several months Jack was at that nighttime birthday party that went super late remember he's not picked up till
00:17:00
like 11:00 and that's why Tom says Hey the bat that we brought to give to Jack we
00:17:06
didn't give it to him that night because he got home so late Tom says that he was
00:17:11
awakened by screams now this is a little different than the story we heard before
00:17:17
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
00:17:23
screams he armed himself with the bat so that he could fend off anyone attacking
00:17:28
the family upstairs and found Jason choking Molly at that time he says that he told him to stop but Jason continued
00:17:38
to choke and the fight ensued to which Tom says he lost his glasses and then he lost control of the
00:17:45
bat after Jason roughly pushed him Tom was able to regain control of the bat and he hit Jason until he released Molly
00:17:55
and then he says that's when he started CPR are the witness testimony phase of the trial commenced the state's first
00:18:03
witness was Karen caps the 911 operator who had taken Tom's call she gave much of her testimony on the record but
00:18:13
outside the presence of the jury because much of it was opinion and speculative she told the court of the 911 caller's
00:18:23
surprisingly calm demeanor she also said that she was surprised that Tom wasn't out of breath from administering CPR
00:18:31
since this life-saving Aid is very taxing MH she said that the female which we know to be Molly in the background
00:18:39
was yelling her compression counts out so loudly it was clear she was trying to be heard attempting to save the victim
00:18:48
the jury was permitted to hear the 911 call but again not much of Karen Cap's testimony because it was so much of her
00:18:58
just opinion rather than fact well what's your opinion of of his demeanor on the 911 call it's difficult it's
00:19:07
difficult to decipher we talk about this so many times where it's like how is someone supposed to react you said
00:19:13
yesterday when we were talking about it that he sounds defeated I had not thought of it that way and I can agree
00:19:19
with that he does sound very matter of fact to me and and in fact I took um well you got to sprinkle something else
00:19:29
into his character this is not a this is not a attack uh you know where we have U
00:19:36
husband finding their their wife attacked or or or something like that we have a a former FBI agent that has
00:19:43
probably been in more difficult situations than this having to make the call yeah I don't know what situations
00:19:51
he's been in I couldn't imagine one more difficult than this beating a man to death with a bat you you're right I I
00:19:59
can get get behind the he sounds defeated well I just mean that if you have to make this call and you're your
00:20:06
law enforcement that you know that it's not going to do you any good to be panicking corre I'm saying yeah yeah
00:20:15
your spot on there and then the other thing you can throw into that mix not only does he sound possibly defeated he
00:20:22
could also sound tired like maybe that's why he comes off as sounding so calm because one trying to calm himself to
00:20:30
deliver the appropriate information and on top of that he's tired from this this fight that broke
00:20:37
out right physically exhausted but then here here's then if the Suspicious Mind where I run to
00:20:46
is did she want her retired FBI father there as kind of proof positive the the uh proof is in the pudding
00:20:58
type statement of well if this man who spent so much time as an FBI agent who's still working for the government with
00:21:07
top secret uh clearance MH if he sees a situation assesses the situation and determines then and there that this is
00:21:19
an act of self-defense is that going to is that going to Echo throughout the whole investigation is it going to you
00:21:26
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
00:21:32
question it I think initially that's why they didn't have them come back several
00:21:38
times when you're investigating this and you go okay well it could could be self-defense and we don't have any
00:21:45
markings on them so let's just bring them in 24 hours later and let's again investigate their persons investigate
00:21:52
their body take more pictures do it again another 24 hours later but yeah is this could this be premeditation
00:22:00
where she knows that that this investigation could be painted with a certain uh rose petal glasses you know
00:22:08
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
00:22:17
because we talked about the the toxicology report we have this statement this is
00:22:23
from Sergeant Barry alen he is one of the Davidson County EMS workers big shout out to the EMS workers out there
00:22:31
thank you for everything he said that he found Jason to be cold to the touch and
00:22:38
with dried blood on his body the cold to the touch is the thing I want some education on because one
00:22:46
thing that we stated right Captain was that the the 911 call was a almost 15 minutes long and I'm imagining a few
00:22:56
minutes took place between the end of the fight and when the call was placed how quickly is this man going to start
00:23:04
to feel cool to the touch well he has no clothes on so how right that's going to
00:23:09
speed things up and also what is the temperature of the house it's a cool 32 de you know what I mean like no I'm
00:23:16
serious though it's no I know I'm I'm I'm just being an ass um here's the here's the gross part is and this is a
00:23:24
statement from his dong was just his tesy the the EMS worker says that when he placed his hands on Jason's head you
00:23:34
know he's trying to move him when he placed his hands on his head it's here's a direct quote I put my hand under the
00:23:42
scalp my left hand went all into the skull and that that's just affirmation of the of how badly the the wounds and
00:23:54
the the the destruction to the skull was now EMS workers remember we had at least
00:24:00
four at the scene that we are aware of from the newspaper reports EMS workers testified how they found the two
00:24:06
children sleeping on the second floor and told the children to close their eyes as They Carried Jason from the
00:24:15
house the medical examiner Dr Craig Nelson testified that Jason was hit at least 12 times like we said but the
00:24:22
damage was so extensive that the exact number of blows could not be determined he said that when he took the scalp off
00:24:30
the head for examination chunks of skull fell out onto the examining table he testified that Jason was hit in in at
00:24:39
least 10 different places on his body including his torso his hands and his knees several of the wounds were quote
00:24:49
complex lacerations meaning that he was struck in the same spot more than once autopsy photos were shown causing one of
00:24:58
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
00:25:06
traces of trazadone in his system this was a powerful sleep aid prescribed to Molly on July 30th just 3 days before
00:25:19
Jason's death Jason was not known to suffer from any sleep issues the prosecution hinted that perhaps Molly
00:25:26
had attempted to drug Jason and actually implied that Molly had put the tesone into a moito that Jason drank a former
00:25:38
Davidson County Deputy who responded to the scene testified about his observations said that he escorted Molly
00:25:45
to his patrol car and stayed with her he said Molly appeared upset testifying that quote she was making crying noises
00:25:54
but I didn't see any visible tears now speaking of forensic evidence all forensic analyst with the State Crime
00:26:03
Lab served as state Witnesses and they testified that both the bat and the concrete paving brick were covered in
00:26:12
blood hair and Jason Corbett's DNA was found on both of the items this makes sense obviously uh Molly and Tom
00:26:21
admitted hitting Jason with both of these items although we go back to Molly's written statement only commed to
00:26:28
attempting to hit Jason with it mhm 12 hairs belonging to Jason Corbett were found this was taken from the concrete
00:26:36
paving brick the pictures I saw Captain showed the brick just covered in blood and hair well like I was saying to you I
00:26:44
think off record was this brick is going to be it's going to have um some pores to it so it's going to soak up blood
00:26:52
differently than the bat would right now one of the Final witness wies for the prosecution was the blood spatter expert
00:27:01
his name is Stuart James who was introduced as a specialist in blood stain pattern analysis he testified that
00:27:09
dents were visible low down on the wall of the master bedroom where Jason died he said that these dents indicate that
00:27:17
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
00:27:25
the wall suggests that Jason was struck more than than once while he was falling
00:27:29
to the ground James also testified that dried blood spatter on the inside leg area of Tom's boxer shorts and on the
00:27:39
bottom of Molly's pajama pants suggests that the two were above and over Jason Corbett's head as he was being struck
00:27:48
James said a vacuum cleaner was sitting upright at the West Wall of the master bedroom as seen in the crime scene
00:27:55
photos the one that I was talking about he he said there were blood spatters behind the vacuum and a pattern of blood
00:28:01
spatter flowing from side to side on the vacuum cleaner he says quote it tells me
00:28:07
that the vacuum cleaner was on its side when the blood was deposited on the vacuum cleaner and it was long enough
00:28:14
for it to dry it shows an alteration in the scene prior to these photos being taken end quote the implication was that
00:28:25
Molly and Tom had moved some things around in the room possibly staging the scene prior to calling
00:28:33
911 and we do know some of this timeline in rather great detail and so if they were to Stage
00:28:42
anything the staging has to go on prior to the 911 call or during the 911 call again much of that 911 call is them it
00:28:52
it's thought that they're administering CPR during that call but they could be pretending to do so and the reasons why
00:29:00
I state that we we know this that that that could be an option here is that we have the statements of the EMS workers
00:29:08
and the statements of police officers that say look they were on 911 for 14 minutes and 27 seconds on that call at
00:29:16
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
00:29:24
you can hear Tom and Molly leaving the room as the 911 operator tells them let them
00:29:31
do their jobs when the police arrive within just like it's like 2 minutes later when the police arrive they find
00:29:37
the two of them that being Molly and Tom on the front porch so we have that little detail that part of the timeline
00:29:45
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
00:29:54
blood guy he also pointed out that impact blood blood spatter on part of the bed and large blood stains were on
00:30:02
the bed skirting he said that this evidence suggested that Jason was first struck at or near the
00:30:10
bed also Sharon Martins Tom's wife and Molly's mother remained in the guest bedroom in the basement despite all of
00:30:19
this commotion and the kids seemingly remained asleep that's a that's kind of weird too in this and when we go through
00:30:26
the crime scene as well if there's this big fight going on upstairs Sharon didn't do anything yeah
00:30:33
this well yeah she didn't call 911 that's what I don't like cuz you would assume well my husband is in danger
00:30:40
because Jason's a bigger man but you don't call 911 the children don't wake up but also when you see a
00:30:47
picture of this house this is a large house and and um my uh former stepsons you could vacuum
00:30:57
in their room and they wouldn't wake up that might explain a way why the the kids didn't hear
00:31:03
[Music] anything it's not surprising if you have two or three highin credit cards in your
00:31:18
wallet right now that's common but you can easily pay them off with a credit card consolidation loan from lightstream
00:31:26
light stream's credit card consolidation loans have rates from just 5.95% APR with autopay and there's
00:31:34
absolutely no fees quickly roll balances from multiple credit cards into one single monthly loan payment you'll get a
00:31:42
low fixed interest rate and free up more money in your monthly budget One customer says after shopping around for
00:31:48
a personal loan that would help me get a lower interest rate there was no one easier to work with plus light stream
00:31:55
had the best rate by far apply today to get that special interest rate discount and save even more the only way to get
00:32:03
this discount is to go to lightstream.com TCG that's l i g HTS t r e a m.com TCG subject to credit approval
00:32:16
rate includes 0.5% autopay discount terms and conditions apply and offers are subject
00:32:23
to change without notice visit lightstream.com G for more [Music] [Applause] [Music]
00:32:45
information all right cheers mates cheers to you a lot going on Cheers To Me cheers to we cheers to
00:32:54
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
00:33:04
the truth because we do have things of evidence that that suggest the story that they're telling Tom and Molly what
00:33:12
they're telling is not true but there's so much of when Tom talks that I believe what he's saying
00:33:20
yeah the I was talking with somebody last week and they were saying hey I listen to your your case last week and
00:33:27
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
00:33:34
now Captain we have the time where the defense gets to fight back right the prosecution has rested its case the
00:33:41
defense is going to fight back for one thing they say while the that drug prescribed to Molly was in Jason's
00:33:50
system they did a good job of managing to create some doubt as to whether Jason could have been self medicating maybe
00:33:58
he's dipping into her pill bottle they produce records detailing multiple recent doctor visits and test the
00:34:06
physician's assistant who treated Jason observed signs of depression and Jason had been treated for a thyroid condition
00:34:15
and notes from the V from a visit just two weeks before Jason's death state that Jason said he this is his words
00:34:23
Jason said quote recently became angry for no reason defense lawyers had already decided that Molly would not
00:34:32
testify but in what can only be described as a gamble Tom Martins took the stand to testify in his own defense
00:34:42
it's likely that his lawyers were hoping that his pristine reputation as a decades long Lawman would have some Sway
00:34:51
With the jury well I like I said I I just find him to be believable I I will not disagree with that uh Tom said that
00:35:00
he woke up that night because he heard thumping loud thumping loud footfalls and heard screams and loud voices there
00:35:09
was an obvious disturbance going on above me he says I grabbed the bat ran upstairs and I heard that the noises
00:35:15
were coming from the master bedroom in front of me I would say seven or 8 feet in front of me Jason had his hands
00:35:21
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
00:35:29
first Jason had his hands around Molly's throat but then as you described very well earlier now he's he's manipulated
00:35:37
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's
00:35:45
saying let her go he's threatening again here's the thing that that's troubling with the whole Tom portion of this I
00:35:55
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
00:36:01
you're right it his delivery is believable his delivery of the story I don't want to get too much into the
00:36:08
words because that's where I have some questions about it but his delivery of the story feels to me like a guy like
00:36:15
I'm looking at a guy that's telling the truth well and even if they waited a little bit because this is a a a big
00:36:22
deal that just happened your son-in-law which you might have liked maybe he disliked don't know was choking your
00:36:30
daughter and then you and then you have to attack him you have to you know fight
00:36:36
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
00:36:45
and again I think that's more of something that's coming from law enforcement or that his FBI background
00:36:52
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
00:37:00
that has to call 911 so I I believe him more because they called 911 there's other things they
00:37:07
could have done to try to cover this up if it was premeditated well and he describes
00:37:13
emotion 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
00:37:24
really angry I Tom was really scared and he does go on to say that he was worried that if Jason made it to
00:37:35
that bathroom like you pointed out in yesterday's show with his daughter and closed the
00:37:42
door there would be some real trouble that that he wouldn't be able to gain control of the situation or even save
00:37:49
his daughter right you know he goes on to say that I I hit Jason I hit him until he goes down and I I stepped away
00:37:57
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
00:38:05
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
00:38:16
medical examiner is telling us he was hit multiple times so when he he he's not giving you a number he's not saying
00:38:24
well I whacked him he's telling you I whacked a few times when he was up mhm but when he was down I hit him so many
00:38:32
times that I knew he wouldn't be able to move how hard were those hits you know yeah yeah and under cross-examination
00:38:41
the prosecutors did try to suggest that Tom and Molly faked the CPR that they were giving to Jason a
00:38:50
closing arguments summed up both sides of the case for the jury prosecutors emphasized that Tom and Molly bludgeon
00:38:57
Jason with a metal bat and a concrete paving brick crushing his skull and continuing to hit him after he had
00:39:04
fallen and then had cooked up their taale of self-defense there were some courtroom Dramatics as described in the
00:39:14
Winston Salem journal assistant district attorney Alan Martin grabbed the 28 in Louisville Slugger bat and slammed it
00:39:23
over and over onto the prosecution's table in the courtroom with ever increasing
00:39:31
Force asking jurors to imagine that the table was Irish businessman's Jason Corbett's head every
00:39:40
slam to the table was described as a shock to the ear he also slammed the table with a concrete paving brick that
00:39:48
along with the bat prosecutors say killed Corbett Martin walked over to the defense table and pointed to Tom and
00:39:56
Molly and said quote they killed him he killed Jason with a bat and she killed him with that brick they literally beat
00:40:06
the skin off his skull with that bat in that brick in their closing arguments attorneys for the defendants said
00:40:14
prosecutors failed to provide any compelling evidence that disproves what Tom and Molly told investigators in
00:40:20
other words the prosecution had not met their burden of proving Beyond a reasonable doubt that Molly and Tom were
00:40:27
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
00:40:35
is yeah yeah we we did told selfdefense we told you we did you we're we're not trying to cover that
00:40:42
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
00:40:48
or my daughter it it's very tricky they also pointed out the defense pointed out
00:40:53
that Jason had been verbally and physically abused Ive for years this in their closing arguments I don't I there
00:41:01
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
00:41:09
by the jury yeah I there were some of these tapes this was from when she look she's trying to gain some
00:41:18
kind of custody of these kids she's telling her attorneys that this man is abusive physically and verbally so they
00:41:26
tell her why don't you record some things when he doesn't know that you're recording him right so that
00:41:34
we can prove later if needed that that he is abusive be it verbally and or physically so yeah there were some there
00:41:43
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
00:41:49
than 4 hours before returning with a verdict the state of North Carolina vers Molly Martin Corbett and verse Thomas
00:41:56
Michael Martins both were found guilty of second degree murder as Molly was led out of the courtroom she said I'm sorry
00:42:05
Mom I wish he had killed me later when she was given the opportunity to speak before judge Lee sentenced her Molly
00:42:14
statements statement was quote I did not murder my husband my father did not murder my husband the events of August
00:42:23
2nd happened on a regular basis the difference is that my father was there yeah and there was also I believe a
00:42:31
statement from the son that was which I don't think they were again I don't think this was um either given to
00:42:39
defense or defense was able to use this but it was a statement saying that his father was verly and physically abusive
00:42:48
Judge David Lee sentenced Tom and Molly to 20 to 25 years in prison each the judge who had had reviewed the
00:42:56
psychological report on Molly submitted by the defense team stated that Molly should seek psychiatric help in prison
00:43:04
there was no real explanation to this part of the trial what my guess is because she had Molly had a past history
00:43:13
of some issues that maybe her defense team quietly submitted this to the judge for his review MH as a
00:43:24
possible I don't know as a as some kind of possible defense that wasn't presented to the jury now remember that
00:43:32
wrongful death civil suit that was filed against Molly and Tom this settlement was reached in March of
00:43:38
2019 it called for a payment to Sarah and Jack Corbett to the children in the amount of
00:43:46
$750,000 this gets a little complicated but I'm just going to simplify it Molly and Tom did not admit any liability as
00:43:54
part of the settlement they did not have to admit liability right and further Molly was dismissed from the lawsuit
00:44:02
after she filed documents renouncing her claim to Jason's life insurance money so
00:44:08
basically the life insurance money goes to the kids yep probably the sale of the
00:44:11
house goes to the kids any of the property sales goes to the kids yeah so not admitting any guilt but just
00:44:19
reallocating all that those funds taking herself out of it freeze her up from that there's a whole lot of legal
00:44:26
minutia involved in this and you were getting into it a bit there um one thing is the conflicting narratives that we
00:44:35
saw throughout this case at trial and before and even after basically you have the story told by Tom and Molly that
00:44:45
they they did all this in self-defense and the defense of his daughter and the defense of himself you know and that
00:44:52
ongoing part of that narrative is the abuse and the verbal abuse that took place for years as she said M then we
00:45:01
have the opposite side where we have the lynches who end up getting the kids and
00:45:07
the ones that filed the wrongful death suit that are saying completely the the opposite where Molly was this terrible
00:45:15
person and unbearable and you couldn't get along with her and she's spending large sums of money and Jason was Fed Up
00:45:21
and miserable right and he was planning on leaving her and taking the kids and going back to to Ireland we can you can
00:45:29
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
00:45:36
through and try to figure out who's right and who's wron mhm I don't like to digest crap no nobody does and the thing
00:45:44
is I I just find I I want to know what you're what you think of all this well I find it too hard to believe that there's
00:45:52
such a big swing in the truth I think maybe the truth truth somewhere in the middle because like you said we have the
00:46:00
kids that do point out they they say man like they they said when they were interviewed by social workers shortly
00:46:08
after Jason's death saying yeah and they they called Molly mom so we'll just call
00:46:13
her mom yeah Mom uh dad would yell at mom would call her names would would I think they said slap her pull her hair
00:46:21
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
00:46:29
words at his at his doctor visit where he's saying I'm becoming angry for no reason mhm then you have the reverse of
00:46:36
that where after the kids move back to Ireland and they are under the watchful eye of aunt and uncle MH that they're
00:46:46
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
00:46:52
wanted to get out of there there was no abuse it it seemed seems to me the problem with both of these scenarios is
00:46:59
these kids were young enough 10 and8 that they could have been coached either way for for either one of these sit
00:47:05
Downs mhm yeah but you can't you can't fake the tapes no you cannot I mean you can manipulate the situation and you and
00:47:13
maybe you're not maybe there wasn't that many situations where Molly was trying to start an argument but maybe she did
00:47:20
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 but
00:47:28
what what what's your take on everything like do you think that this was premeditated or well I let's let's save
00:47:35
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
00:47:41
to get into some of this legal minutia a bit and I'm I'm really summarizing this
00:47:47
but I think it's stuff that needs to be covered one thing that was pointed out was that there was jury misconduct
00:47:54
allegations this came out just a week after the verdict from the criminal trial where
00:48:00
Molly's attorneys and Tom's attorneys filed a motion asking the judge to set aside the jury verdict alleging jury
00:48:07
misconduct the defense motion asked the judge to order a new trial or at the very least to hold an evidentiary
00:48:15
hearing into this misconduct issue and without getting into it too much I'll give my opinion on this there was
00:48:26
jury misconduct at this trial because what we will learn is through social media posts and through interviews that
00:48:35
the jurors did right after the trial they were saying things that were not presented at the trial but were
00:48:41
presented in the media so against the judge's orders they were paying attention to outside sources not just
00:48:49
what they were hearing at the trial right and so that is jury misconduct there's no way getting around that so
00:48:57
they're not supposed to be talking or listening to outside sources which we have proof that they did and they
00:49:04
weren't supposed to be discussing issues with one another which they did there's
00:49:09
there's proof of that as well so it's weird because despite all this evidence that the jurors were being influenced by
00:49:15
outside sources the the judge did deny the defense's jury misconduct motion and stated that there would be no new trial
00:49:24
it's a weird situation Captain because I don't know how much it actually I that I
00:49:30
actually think that it influenced their verdict it it happened but I don't know that it actually influenced their
00:49:36
verdict right I agree with that because the outside sources that was obvious that they were listening to were all
00:49:43
those news magazine shows that we talked about 2020 48 hours so on and so forth all of those outside sources seem to
00:49:52
present a pretty 5050 argument in my opinion right it they weren't they weren't structured like some
00:50:00
documentaries to sway you one way or the other it was pretty straight down the middle in my opinion there were there
00:50:08
ended up being some appeals there was a three judge panel that heard arguments that the clients Molly and Tom did not
00:50:16
receive a fair trial uh they maintained that the state did not prove Beyond a reasonable doubt that Molly and Tom
00:50:22
acted in self-defense or had not acted in self-defense and they pointed out that certain evidence that was left
00:50:31
out of the trial it should have been disclosed to the jury and some of that was statements that you said like like
00:50:39
the the recordings and the possible statements from the children that were given to social workers shortly after
00:50:47
Jason's death the appell court found that the state prosecutors did fail to present any evidence to contradict Tom's
00:50:55
version of events and the fact that Tom and Molly had no visible injuries was not significant again the jury
00:51:03
misconduct was dismissed but unfortunately even through all of these appeals and everything that was going on
00:51:11
with all of this legal jumble you know whole messed up thing unfortunately for Tom and Molly the appellant Court's
00:51:19
decision was split 2 to one the split decision means that the state has grounds to appeal the ruling and on
00:51:27
February 21st 2020 State prosecutors filed a petition with the new North Carolina Supreme Court asking it to
00:51:35
impose a temporary stay on the new trial pending their filing of a notice of appeal expected this in the next couple
00:51:44
of months so it will be interesting to see what happens with all of this we have the
00:51:54
Winston Salem Journal saying it could take more than a year before the North Carolina Supreme Court rules on whether
00:52:00
or not a new trial will occur mhm if a new trial does happen it will be very interesting to see whether the outcome
00:52:09
is different I personally you keep asking me of my opinion I wasn't trying to put you off Captain
00:52:16
but it's my birthday answer my damn question right right well here we go I I personally think that
00:52:24
the that the outcome won't be different I think that a new trial will be a waste
00:52:29
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
00:52:36
will change the verdict MH if we want it to be nice and clean and tidy then we should have a new trial but again I
00:52:44
don't know that the verdict will come out any differently I actually believe I truly feel like murder in the second
00:52:50
degree for both Tom and Molly is not only the most appropriate charge but very likely the correct charge to me I
00:52:58
feel like the blood evidence found in the master bedroom on the walls on the baseboards on both sides of the door on
00:53:04
the door jam on the Rock and on the bat and as seen in the crime scene photos paints and almost perfect picture to me
00:53:13
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
00:53:21
happens again it not only the the swing the broad swing in the truth between what was actually going on in the house
00:53:30
before the death was Jason abusive was he verbally abusive how how terrible was this living situation or was Jason
00:53:40
miserable and wanted to leave and take his kids and Molly was this horrible person that's a that's a big swing I
00:53:46
think the truth is somewhere in the middle I think that that he probably was somewhat abusive I think it could you
00:53:54
know verbally and possibly physically as well I also think that Molly could have
00:53:58
been a miserable person to live with I also think that Jason could be in the process of leaving her well I mean
00:54:05
there's some speculation that his first wife's death was because of his abuse that seems like hogwash to me well
00:54:15
no because somebody that has asthmatic symptoms if you were choked uh and and Molly is claiming that
00:54:21
she was choked multiple times and he would choke her and Shaker that's very that could cause
00:54:28
asthmatic attack yeah I to me I that's reminisent of the Michael Peterson situation and I don't see the same
00:54:38
situation here I think it's it's coincidental one the a big difference between the two is his first wife is
00:54:46
dead and now he is dead where Michael Peterson both of his wives died under the same mysterious ious
00:54:56
circumstances right so I I mean that's interesting to ponder and anybody that that believes that
00:55:03
that's a possibility I'm not not coming after that I I just really don't want to
00:55:07
touch it because I don't think that there's enough to suggest that that could be the case the the thing that I
00:55:13
have a problem with is that there's such a big difference between the two narratives of what was actually going on
00:55:20
in the family in the family Dynamic the truth is probably somewhere in the middle and then I have to take that a
00:55:26
step further and wonder if that's the same thing with Jason's death was this not 100% premeditated planned out
00:55:35
cold-blooded murder in the way that we often think of it right and was this not 100% self-defense or the defense of
00:55:44
another but somewhere in that horrible violent gray area between is the truth sitting in there
00:55:55
and that's why I think the second degree murder charges are the most appropriate
00:56:01
I don't see evidence that you can clearly sell to a jury that this was 100% premeditated I also question things that
00:56:12
we see at the crime scene and the blood spatter evidence and things within that bedroom that make me not fully believe
00:56:21
the self-defense angle of it either mhm what's say you Mr Captain well I think uh I'm going to use a quote from uh the
00:56:31
famous one of the greatest men in history Forest Gump and say that maybe both is happening at the same time that
00:56:41
I believe so much of what Tom is saying what Molly's dad is saying about self-defense and also again I think some
00:56:53
of his they're B answers but I hit him until I didn't think he would hurt me or my daughter well that's not giving us
00:57:02
exact number so I don't think that goes against the medical examiners where I have a problem with this is Molly Molly
00:57:10
initially says that I did hit him with this concrete block we know that this block is covered in blood we know this
00:57:18
block was used as a weapon from everybody from Molly initially from Tom from the medical examiners to the
00:57:28
investigators where I question it's like you said with the door shut does she start by hitting
00:57:35
him does he get in her face and she goes that's it and she uses it then or is it
00:57:43
or is there a possibility and what her almost her original statements were was kind of once the fight was
00:57:52
done that she hid him with the brick because she was afraid that he was going to come back
00:58:00
too so I believe that Tom thought everything that they were doing was justified and that he was acting in
00:58:10
self-defense because I don't think Tom believes that he would kill a man if it wasn't in self-defense I just think
00:58:18
there was probably some actions either beforehand or after or maybe even during that Molly is not being truthful about
00:58:30
and so I I think it can be both at the same time but then then you almost have to
00:58:36
give them separate trials so to me yes it's second degree murder when it comes to
00:58:43
Molly I believe it's self-defense when it comes to Tom that's interesting that's very interesting because that's
00:58:49
one one thought that that I was thinking along the way too is there a chance that
00:58:55
this is premeditated on Molly's behalf but by the time Tom is witnessing the scene that she is in fact being choked
00:59:06
but maybe she's being choked by Jason defending himself right because he get was whacked in the head with a brick and
00:59:15
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
00:59:23
goes after him and so could you have a situation here where she planned this thing out manipulated this thing because
00:59:33
I I have a very hard time believing look I understand you're going to paint this
00:59:39
this Garden brick this paver brick and you brought it into the house for that purpose keeping it on your nightstand
00:59:48
does not seem like a logical place to put it that doesn't Pro again just like everything else I've pointed out in this
00:59:54
episodes does not prove anything but it is suspicious so do you have a situation
01:00:00
where she's she has already administered an attack on Jason Tom hears this attack and by the
01:00:10
time he sees the scene Jason's hands are on her throat he goes after Jason with the bat well a lot and again
01:00:17
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
01:00:23
angle and every picture that they have they didn't release them all if there is a blood soaked pillow that they claim
01:00:32
that there is well then then he probably was hit in the head while he was laying
01:00:37
down and that's a bit of a mystery to us because out of all the photos we've seen
01:00:41
and there's a there's a plethora of them we did not see I did not see the the pillow would you say there was a
01:00:50
plethora that's right uh I will I will post as many they are graphic but I'll post those on
01:00:57
our Instagram at True Crime garage they're graphic but they're important and here's the other thing captain that
01:01:03
I that I really wonder about and when we try to decipher we're we're really dissecting
01:01:11
Molly's statements and Tom's statements and trying to figure out which ones are truthful and which ones are
01:01:19
fabricated to me I think the most truthful statement that came out of either of them came from Tom when he
01:01:27
tells the 911 operator I may have killed him right the reason why I feel it like
01:01:35
that one is the most truthful statement from either of them I wonder if that's exactly how Tom
01:01:43
feels does he not know for certain if he killed Jason or if Molly did [Music] all right I want to thank everybody for
01:02:07
joining us here in the garage do we have any recommended reading this week yes we
01:02:13
do Captain this week we are recommending the lost family how DNA testing is upending who we are this is by Libby
01:02:22
Copeland this is fascinating it's a fascinating read it's something that we all should take a look at we have so
01:02:28
many cases that are being solved these days by DNA testing just a little knowledge here for you you don't have to
01:02:34
write that title down right now you can go to our website truecrime garage.com and we will have the lost family there
01:02:42
for you as well as plenty of other recommendations when you're at the website sign up on the mailing list
01:02:48
because as the people know on the mailing list they just save 20% in the store just for being a part of the True
01:02:55
Crime garage Army and until next week be good be kind and don't [Music] litter [Applause]
01:03:38
this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the holidays maybe you struggle with seasonal Blues this
01:03:44
time of year can be a lot and it's natural to feel some sadness or even anxiety about it but adding something
01:03:50
new and positive to your life can counteract some of those feelings therapy can be a bright spot something
01:03:56
to look forward to to make you feel grounded and to give you the tools to manage everything going on if you're
01:04:04
thinking of starting therapy give better help a try it's entirely online designed
01:04:09
to be convenient flexible and suited to your schedule just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a
01:04:14
licensed therapist and switch therapist at any time for no additional charge find your bright spot this season with
01:04:21
betterhelp visit betterhelp.com garage today to get 10% off your first month that's better help
01:04:30
hp.com garage