Murder convictions against Molly Corbett and Thomas Martens were overturned. They pleaded to involuntary manslaughter charges.
A North Carolina woman and her retired FBI agent father were sentenced to prison this week for the murder of the woman’s husband in in 2015.
Molly Corbett claimed that she and Thomas Martens beat Jason Corbett to death with a brick paver and a baseball bat in self-defense after he allegedly choked her threatened to kill her. Prosecutors, however, said that they killed Corbett to adopt his children and collect his $600,000 life insurance policy, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
The pair were initially convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20 to 25 years in 2017. But in 2021, the North Carolina Court of Appeals vacated the conviction and ordered a new trial, finding the judge prejudicially decided what evidence should be presented during the trial.
Martens pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and Molly Corbett pleaded no contest to the same charge, WGHP reported. They were both sentenced to a minimum of 4 years, 3 months, and a maximum of 6 years, 2 months and were given credit for 3 years and 8 months already served.
They have also been ordered to have no contact with Jason Corbett’s family.
Jason Corbett was a native of Ireland. He met Molly Martens in 2008 when she worked as an au pair for his two children from his first marriage. His wife died from a severe asthma attack in 2006. Corbett and Martens became romantically involved and married. They moved to North Carolina in 2011.
Martens was living in Tennessee and was visiting his daughter and her husband at the time of the manslaughter.
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[Featured image: Molly Corbett and Thomas Martens/police handout]
