October 31, 2018 • 41 mins
A North Carolina woman convicted in the death of her husband claims her second-degree murder conviction should be overturned because prosecutors never offered evidence to contradict her statement that Irish businessman Jason Corbett choked her and that she was not the aggressor. Nancy Grace digs into the case against Molly Corbett and her father, Thomas Martens, a former FBI agent, with Southern California prosecutor Wendy Patrick, Georgia medical examiner Dr. Jan Gorniak, forensics expert Karen Smith, psycho analyst Dr Bethany Marshall, and reporter Nicole Partin.
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(01:38):
to thing, Um, my name is Tom Martin by and
by a daughter's husband, UM my son in law. UM
gotten a bike with my daughter. I hearne and I
think we need help. Okay, what do you need? The
bed keep leaving all over and I'm him killed it coming?
(02:01):
What happened? Did you eat him in the head or
hit him in the head with bud with a baseball bat?
With a baseball bat, ma'am it was cokeing my diary
that I'm gonna kill her. Move the baseball bat at
in the bedroom here with me, Okay, don't touch it.
Inn In Moore Okay, ma'am, I'm putting then we've already
got him started that way to hang up to stay
(02:23):
with me. Wow, he didn't sound too upset. We go
inside the blood spattered bedroom where a former model and
her dad, an x FBI agent, beat her husband dead
with a baseball bat and a landscaping stone. I a
block of cement that just so happened to be sitting
(02:43):
on the bedside table. I mean, see, Grace, this is
crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. What really
happened in the death of this husband from Ireland. She
Molly had been the family's nanny, the babysitter, the o pair,
but after his wife passed away complications relating to an
(03:06):
asthma attack, things quickly turned romantic between Molly and the
Irish husband soon to be. But what went wrong than not?
He was bludgeoned dead. Joining me right now, Crime Stories
and Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter Nicole part Nicole,
Let's just start at the beginning. How does an evening
(03:26):
where everybody's asleep in bed end up with the dad
of these little children, a brand new husband to the
nanny end up beating dead with a block of cement
and a Louisville Slugger baseball bat. You know, Nancy. This
started out as a beautifully planned weekend. Molly's father, Thomas,
and her mother Sharon travel up from Tennessee to spend
(03:48):
the weekend with Molly and her husband and the two children.
They have a beautiful, happy dinner together, the guys are
planning golf for the next day, and then sometime in
the middle of the night and argument ensues and the
next thing we know, the nine one one call is
made and Jason Corbett is dead. Well, take a listen
to what the nanny turned new wife, Molly Corbett says
(04:11):
to ABC. He woke up and he was angry, and
you want to know why I had gotten up, And
I told him it was because Sarah had a nightmare.
And then he was just furious because Sarah had been
doing this lately. And you know, she just wanted to
be coddled and she was too old for that. And
I shouldn't have gotten out of bed. I said, she's
just eight. She had a nightmare. I should be allowed
(04:34):
to go upstairs and comfort our daughter. You know, all
she wanted was her mom de lay with her for
a couple of minutes, and he I forgot my parents
were there. Well't Number one, she's not the little girl's mom,
all right, she's a stepmother, and she just married the
dad after his wife passed away with asthma. But number two,
(04:55):
that story that he began the husband began to choke
her dead because she went to the door to take
care of the eight year old girl. Tell me again,
Nicole Parton, how this whole thing supposedly unfolded. We're being
told Molly's story is that everyone went to bed after dinner.
(05:15):
She's asleep. The young girl, Sarah, comes to the door
whispers to Molly that she's had a nightmare. She's seeing
things in the bedroom. Molly tiptoes out of the bedroom
not to disturb. Jason goes upstairs, changes the bed sheets,
changes the pillow cases, does everything she can to console
(05:36):
The daughter comes back downstairs, tiptoes back into the bed.
Jason wakes up angry and begins to try to choke her.
She screams for help. Okay, wall wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
let's just stop right there. Wendy Patrick joining me, renowned
California prosecutor along with Dr Jan Gorniac Fulton County, Georgia
medical examiner Karen Smith, forensics expert. When a Patrick, I mean,
(06:01):
if I wait, my husband up in the middle of
the night by accident, he just goes back to sleep.
For instance, if I you know, something happens and um
one of the twins call me, or just whatever it
may be, he just goes straight back to sleep. Yeah, Nancy.
And that's why we tell our jurors not to check
their common sense at the door when they come into
(06:21):
a courtroom, because it's exactly right. It is so unusual,
it's highly unlikely. And those are the kind of circumstances
that really cast doubt on everything that comes afterwards. When
a story begins in a fashion that just doesn't seem right,
we've got to really break it down as we're doing here,
and think through, well, who would result, who would react
(06:41):
that way coming from a dead sleep, And I know
you're right, there are spouses everywhere thinking, boy, I only
wish somebody had a little bit of energy in the
middle of the night, much less to the extent that
would have been necessary to create what ended up a
deadly scenario. So you're right, it is highly dubious. So
what we're hearing is that she, the nanny turned wife,
(07:03):
Molly Corbett, gets up to comfort the children, the husband's children,
that when she comes back down to bed, that wakes
him up. When she comes back into the bedroom, and
he gets so angry with her for waking him up,
he begins to choke her. And then what happens, Nicole,
(07:23):
She begins to scream for help. She says that then
he muffled her mouth. She screams for help again. Her father,
who's sleeping downstairs in the basement bedroom, comes up to
her rescue with a baseball bat in his hand. That's
when the altercation ensues that unfortunately results in Jason's death. Now,
hold on just a moment, Karen Smith, forensics expert. We
(07:44):
know that the father is also x FBI. Now what
does that tell you about what went down? Well, it
tells me that he knows how crime scenes work, he
knows how law enforcement works. He knows the story that
he's going to have to either tell to try to
mid get the circumstances surrounding his involvement and his daughter's
involvement in this um. But looking at the crime scene photos,
(08:07):
I'm not really sure how that's going to play out.
Listen to this. Martin's claimed to us that he came
up to the room and there was an argument, but
there were no bruises on either of them. No more.
The blood that we're on was on them was Jason's blood. Um,
No torn clothes, nothing at all. UM. And what I
(08:29):
believe happened is a different story. Would you like to
share it with us? When I believe that Monty Martin's
planned to kill Jason UM, and that all the evidence
pointed towards that I was disappointed there wasn't a first
degree charge. Um. I believe that I know that Jason
had a bag pact with the kid's clothes. He was
(08:51):
going to leave. He'd been looking up flights um that
he had been dropped. And the toxicology report shows that
drugs and ass time and those drugs come from suspect
they were they were prescribed to Molly Martin's on the
Friday before jessumas Martin, do you think he might if
she might have spite his dream? Absolutely, That's what I believe,
(09:11):
and that he was asleep, that he was asleep, and
that he was hitting the hitt In bed while he
was asleep, and that Molly Martins um hit him in
a toward and then into his life with the book.
You are hearing the deceased Jason Corbett's sister as she's
(09:33):
speaking on the Late Late Show describing her belief. Did
this was all planned out? To Dr Jane Gorniac, Fulton
County Medical Examiner joining us today. Dr Gorniac, the sister says,
and it was proven in the autopsy with toxicology reports
that there were drugs in Jason's system that were prescribed
(09:54):
to Molly just the Friday before the bludgeoning death, so
we would have to know. I mean, I'm not sure
what those drugs were. So depending on what they were,
could they have caused UM sedation be could they have
caused what we call CNS depressant um where he was sedated?
I'm responsive, But what would be for me interesting to
(10:17):
know is where are these blows occur? I know he
was hit with a baseball bat and then like a
cinder block type object. UM. But then also her injuries
I'm hearing, UM. So as a forensic pathologist medical examiner,
my job is to prove or disprove the circumstances, and
so everything plays into the circumstances. So as I'm listening
(10:38):
to her saying that she was being choked with also
a hand over her mouth, I'm trying to visualize how
that occurs. UM. My job isn'to You know, a death
at the hand of another equals homicide. I'm not into who.
Like I've said before um previously, but Nancy, knowing all
the pieces will will would help. But back to your
(11:00):
original question or comments about the drugs, it would be
very interesting to know not only what drugs, but the
level of those drugs in his system to prove or
disproved whether he was capable of doing the injuries or
the act that she accuses him up. I don't know
what precisely woke me up, but what I heard were
loud voices and I kind of like thumping. Something bad
(11:24):
was going on, so I grabbed that League baseball at
that and I ran upstairs. He wanted to shut me up,
so he covered my mouth and then he started choking me.
But at some point when he stopped, I screamed. The
next thing I remember is my dad standing in the doorway.
Do you believe them? I believe she went and got
her father as he lay dying, and her father came
(11:47):
up and did hit Jason with the baseball of that,
and there were post Martin hits on Chasen's body UM afterwards,
and I believe they left him to die. I believed
that you know what they wished to call when the
E M T arrived UM, you know when they gave
(12:09):
evidence that Jesson's body was called UM. I believe they
left Jesson today before they called to nine moment. Jesson
was probably did a long time before they called my moment.
You are hearing the sister of Jason Corbett speaking on
the Late Late Show regarding her brother's brutal death. The
(12:30):
crime scene photos were so horrific that one of the
jurors actually got sick and threw up, and the jury box,
according to sources, actually got sick when they saw the
horrible crime scene photos of Jason Corbett bludgeoned dead. Joining
me California prosecutor Wendy Patrick, renowned medical examiner Dr Jan
(12:55):
Gorni At, Karen Smith forensics expert, and Cole Parton Crime
online dot Com investigative reporter. You can find this story
as we track it at crime online dot com. The
cool parton uh the as we say murder weapons were
a Louisville slugger and also a block of cement or
(13:15):
a stone outdoor landscaping stone. Why was that in the bedroom?
And that is one of the biggest questions. Molly says,
it was lying next to her on the nightstand in
the bedroom. Who knows had they been looking at pavers
to repay the driveway and had brought one inside to
discuss it. That's a huge question, a huge factor that
(13:37):
plays into why would you have a brick paver? Beside
the bed. Why would you have one inside your home
anyway when you have young children. We know that, uh,
the evidence in this case involves that landscaping stone. What
do you make of the claim to Wendy Patrick, California
prosecutor that some of the blows were postmortem? You know
what Wendy hold on because I want to tell Dr
(13:58):
Jane Gorney at the Medical Examiner that the drugs found
in Jason corbett system were Molly Martin Corbett's sleeping pills.
That was what was in the system, according to the
toxicology reports at autopsy. Dr Gorniac. So, okay, that's very
that's very important. But one of the things we don't
(14:21):
know is and whether she says it or not, that
you know, there's time where people take other people's drugs, right, So,
but we would have to really question that. So once again,
depending we know it's sleeping aid and the concentration, we
have to prove or disprove whether he was capable of
waking up angry or even waking up at all. You know,
that's a good point about waking up at all having
(14:43):
taken a sleeping pill, whether wittingly or unwittingly. Now, see,
I hadn't thought of that angle yet. I was thinking
about the angle of dead Molly Martin's Corbett. Give him
the drug or slip it to him so he could
be beaten dead because the loads to this guy, Jason Corbett,
the young father of two little children. He's a widow.
(15:06):
His wife dies of complications from an asthma attack. He
hires a nanny to come in and help him take
care of the children. Within just a few months, they're
in a sex relationship, and bam, she turns into Molly
Martin's Corbett. But listen to this and tell me what
you think. To Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, and then Karen Smith.
(15:28):
We learn, according to the autopsy report that the degree
of skull fractures are similar to a victim that died
in a car crash or that fell from a great height.
And we're learning that from licensed pathologist Dr Craig Nelson,
who studied the case. He stated also that Jason was
(15:48):
struck in ten spots and two other spots where areas
of repeated blows. Wow, this guy was so blunt and
he couldn't even tell how me any times Jason was
actually struck Uh, that's a lot of blows, Wendy Patrick.
Sounds like a lot more than you need. If you
(16:10):
find your son in law attacking or strangling your daughter,
he bludged them apparently even after he was dead. Yeah,
you know that that kind of display of absolute rage
is so important to jurors. You know, evidence speaks louder
than words with injuries that are determined to be so
(16:31):
far over and above what you would expect if it
was self defense or defensive others as as alleged I
guess both of a sort of allegend this case. But
you're right, you would look at the extent of that damage.
I'm not surprised that juror got sick. I've had jurors
in my case is asked for breaks so they could
go throw up when the evidence is that bad. But
that's exactly why we have to match the extent of
(16:53):
that carnage with the excuse. And when you put on
top of that somebody that would have been already compromise
due to sleeping pills, it just, you know, you lose
the logical train that you would need to go down
to figure out that it actually would be consistent with
what this woman is saying, it's far more consistent with
(17:13):
the an unexpected obviously not even fighting back, an unexpected
attack that goes over and above what you would need
to actually kill him, particularly under the circumstances if he
was drugged. Medical examiner Dr Jan Gorney at with us.
Another tidbit that I noticed when I was combing through
the autopsy report, Dr Gorney, act, we learned that one
(17:34):
scrape on Jason's head occurred after his heart stopped. Now
what does that mean to me? Was he dragged from
the bed, as Jason's sister said on the Late Late Show?
Was he drive from his bed and placed in the
middle of the bedroom. I don't know that, But what
(17:55):
I do know is that it is a post mortem injury,
which means the attack or the dragging, whatever kept on
after he was dead. Dr Gorniac, how can you tell that, Well,
postmortem injury has different characteristics. So obviously, if someone is
not alive and the heart is not beating, there's going
(18:15):
to be less blood in the in the tissue um. Also,
the body is not able to react to it, so
the edges of the wound aren't going to be red,
They're not going to be swollen, and then sometimes they
even are dry and yellow, so they get a totally
different characteristic to them. So we can tell the difference
between antimordem before death and postmortem after death injuries. And
(18:37):
also will be important to know it's also like you said,
if he was dragged, is there carpet? What caused that
postmortem injury? But if he's dead where he is um
and there's no postmortem injuries or you're seeing this abrasion,
you know that he had been moved. So once again
another piece of the puzzle. Was he moved from the bed?
(18:58):
Was he moved you know, across the floor work? But
then um E M S personnel? So the e M
T s the paramedics did they move him and and
it caused the postmortem injury because they were trying to
perform why saving measures? Not sure about that. But if
you have to look at all the evidence at the scene.
To Karen Smith, forensics expert, speaking of that, you are
(19:20):
getting sick. At trial, graphic photos of Jason Corbett's head
were shown. Okay, those are autopsy photos what we're talking about,
And that's when a gr threw up. Now I've had
gerars cry, but I've never had one just throw up
right then and there. That was the nature of the scene.
And right now Molly Corbett apparently headed for freedom. That's
(19:47):
what's happening right now after this brutal attack. I want
to go to Karen Smith. If his body had been
moved or um, if he was killed in the bed
and the end the crime scene stage, what would the
blood evidence tell you? Well, Nancy, there's a lot to
(20:07):
unpack here. I'm looking at these Crencene photos and just
to give a frame, in my experience, this would take
me three days, a minimum of three days to go through.
There is so much blood and so many patterns all
over the place. Um, I'm gonna try to describe what
I'm seeing here and and it's going to tell a story.
You have impact patterns on the walls, you have impact
(20:30):
patterns on the door frame, and impact patterns on the
interior of the door. And I'll get to that in
a second. But what's curious to me is, based on
these photos, what I'm looking at our impact patterns up high,
impact patterns down low, transfer patterns down low by the floor,
transfer patterns in the hallway, impact patterns on the bed sheets,
(20:51):
and the bed comforter had been it looked like it
had been flipped over, and there were impact patterns on that.
There were the baseball bat and the brick laying on
the door. So we have a whole lot to describe here.
And what's curious to me is the impact patterns up high.
That tells me that the victim was upright at some
point when a blow was struck, after a blow that
brought led to the surface, not throwback from hitting him
(21:15):
with the bat, then pulling the bat bat and then uh,
they throw back goes up on the ceiling on the
top of the wall, right, that's cast off, And they're
very tell pale differences here. Impact pattern is going to
leave h an upward directionality in a bunch of different
droplets on the wall, where cast off is more of
a linear line that goes up the wall and maybe
(21:36):
across the ceiling, and you can tell the difference if
you're an experienced analyst. This to me looks like impact
spatter on the wall next to a picture by the
doorway and that door curiously enough on the injury or
the door if it was closed, that door was closed.
Because there's impacts, there's swhite marks, and all kinds of
things on the inside of the door which tells me
it was closed for the vast majority of this incident.
(22:07):
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(23:59):
Rules and restricts is do apply. When she was crushing
his skull with that brick, she had anger to a
suage and resentment to address, and she addressed those on
(24:19):
his head. The physical evidence suggested that he was still
being struck in the head after he went down. That's
Alan Martin, assistant district attorney, telling our friends at about
what really happened according to him. Now what we're talking about.
For those of you just joining us, welcome everybody. This
is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and we're picking apart
a murder. What many people believe is a murder by
(24:42):
a nanny turned new bride to Jason Corbett. It's Molly
Martin's Corbett and her father accused of murdering her brand
new husband. But right now, Molly Corbett says a very
good chance to walk free, claiming it was never are
proven that she was the aggressor in her husband's death.
(25:04):
In other words, that it was never proven that she's
the one that first went after her husband. She's claiming
that is why she should walk free, and the appellate
courts are actually listening. I want to go straight back
out to Karen Smith, forensics expert. We know that Jason
(25:26):
Corbett was bludgeoned dead in his own bedroom. We know
that his new wife's sleeping pills were in his system
that night, prescribed to her just the friday before his
bludgeoning death. We know his attack went on after he
was dead. He had post mortem wounds. The young wife
(25:49):
says that his children from the first wife that passed
away with asthma, one of them had a bad dream.
She went to go check on the child. She comes
back and her story is that made the husband so
mad he began to strangle her. Her father, who happened
to be there that weekend. X FBI comes up and
bludgeons him dead with a baseball bat, and she joins
(26:13):
in with the landscaping stone that happened to be in
the bedroom. Something stinks, Karen Smith, you're also telling me
the bedroom door was closed during the attacks of the
father rushes into save her life and thinks to close
the door behind him. Somebody did at some point. I
can see swhite marks on the door handle, and I
(26:34):
don't know who put those there, but I can tell
you there are blood patterns on the interior that door,
and I don't see any on the exterior of the door,
So that tells me the door was closed when this
attack happened. It's adjacent to an ungodly amount of blood
on the floor level and also on the lower part
of the wall, where I see possible swipe marks from hair.
(26:55):
So that tells me that at some point Jason's head
was against this wall, not once, but twice. It also
tells me that the attack may have started in bed.
There were some void patterns, which means blood should be there,
but isn't. There's blood on the bed, How could he
have been strangling her if the attacks started while he's
(27:17):
lying in bed. Then how does that prove he was
standing up strangling her? You know what? Take a listen
to the father the ex FBI explaining what happened. He
has his hands around her neck and he quickly moves
to move her in front of him between me, and
(27:37):
so he's got her in a chokehold. Fear was, you
know secondary at that point. I was just so ashamed
that my father would see me like that, allowing myself
to retreating like that. I said, let her go, and
he said, I'm gonna kill her. Then he starts to
edge towards the master bathroom, which has a door. I
(27:59):
thought was he gets set the door between me and him.
Then she's dead and there's nothing I can do about it.
And so I reached around and I hit him in
the back of the head with the baseball bat. He
makes it to the bathroom, but I'm too close. He
can't close the door, and I'm in the bathroom with it,
and I hit him again. I mean I have room now,
and I hit it hard on the back of the
(28:22):
head again. He still got her by the throat, but
he changes tactics. He decides to come back at me
and I'm swinging the bat and he catches the bat
in his hand and he sends me flying across the room.
Jason just grabbed the bat away. It was like it
was nothing. He could choke me with one hand and
(28:42):
grabbed the bat with the other and he was just
so much stronger. And I was screaming, don't hurt my dad,
don't hurt my dad. And I thought he's gonna hit
my dad with the bat and that's it. He's going
to kill my father. How could this guy, who has
his his system full of sleeping peels attack the dad
(29:02):
and do this after he sustained and this is by
the FBI Dad's own version. You just heard three blows
to the head with a baseball bat. Dr g and
Gornea helped me. Nancy. I wish I could, um that
is I mean, especially hearing the descriptions of the massive
injury he has of his head and if he's swinging
(29:25):
this bat, you know, quote unquote trying to save his daughter,
you know what I mean. It's not little taps, so
these are strong blows. And it just surprises me that, um,
that this this man would be blows to his head,
skull fractures, brain injury would be even capable of standing, um,
being conscious and grabbing something and still be able to communicate. Um.
(29:49):
It's just it's hard for me to comprehend. You know,
these children lose their mother after complications from an asthma attack,
and now their dad. It's blood and dead in the
bed room. To Wendy Patrick, California Prosecutor. Now, there is
one paramedic that says he saw a red mark on
Molly Martin Corbett's neck, but then it was later explained
(30:12):
that that was actually dried blood from Jason. I don't
know of any other defensive wounds that either Molly or
her father had. Yeah, you know, this is one of
those cases and they come along once in a while
where the injuries themselves tell the story chronologically. We at
(30:32):
this day and age, we forensics are so powerful and
that we can look at everything, including something like this, Nancy,
where you have a injury able to be disproven through
having a closer look at a red mark on the neck,
Where did it come from? And you know, we're we're
just hearing so much evidence that tells the story itself.
You can have people on the stand explaining what happens.
(30:54):
But jurors are going to believe forensics over human testimony
when there's a contradiction, merely because there's no bias in
forensic evidence and blood spatter and all the different ways
in which were able to reconstruct in reverse chronological order
in a case like this, exactly what happened when. And
then on top of that, they overlay testimony and they
(31:17):
decide who they believe is telling the truth and whether
or not the injuries are consistent with those stories. Well,
to Nicole Pardon, Crime online dot Com investigative reporter right now,
Molly Martin's corbett says the claims against her must be overturned,
that it has never been proven she was the aggressor
(31:37):
and her husband's death. Um, Nicole, But what happened after
nine one one arrived, Well, when the one operator was
on the phone call with Molly's father, she began to
instruct them to perform CPR. They were actually still trying
to revive him when paramedics arrived, they were still they're
(31:57):
doing chest compressions. They had him on trying to follow
the instructions of operating. Take a listen again to this
nine one one call. Let's see what we can learn.
This is my Molly Martin Corbett's father the county. Now
when one want to be just the emergency. UM, my
name is Tom Martin's and my daughter's husband, UM, my
son in law. UM, gotten a fight with my daughter.
(32:21):
I intervene and I think he's in bad shape. We
need help. Okay, what do you mean he's in bad shape.
He's hurt and he's he's leading all over. I may
have killed him coming what happened if you hit him
in the head or hit him in the head with
watch with a baseball bat, with a baseball bat. Sam,
(32:41):
it was choking my daughter. He said, I'm gonna kill her.
Who's the baseball bad ass in the bedroom here with me? Okay,
just don't touch it anymore. Okay, ma'am, I'm putting some nights.
Then we've already got him started. That way, I don't
hang up to stay with fast one. Two. All right,
listen carefully. I'll say you had a de chest compression. Yeah, alright,
(33:04):
make sure they explat on his back from that. Fill
us under his head like thee in your hands under
his head. That's nothing under his head. Yeah, that's all right.
First of all, tell your daughter to go a loot
the door and turn on the front porch like like
the heel of your hand on the breast pone in
the center of his chest, right between the nipples. Okay, well,
(33:27):
I got to give the instruction if you just go
ahead and do it, if you know, why don't I
hear any screaming and the nine one one goes on
and you hear the father and the daughter speaking very
calmly to each other. Uh. To Wendy Patrick, California Prosecutor,
that's not normally what you hear on a nine one
one call when your husband's lying there covered in blood
and dead. That's exactly right. You know. This is one
(33:48):
of the reasons we don't do trial by transcript. Jurors
have to see here, smell, touch, everything they need to
do to actually be able to gauge the credibility, and
in doing that they listen to nine one tapes. Those
are powerful pieces of evidence that give us an idea,
a flavor of the emotional tension that exists when those
calls were made. They listen to the voice. Intonation pauses
(34:12):
the quality of what is being described in everything else,
and that's one of the things they used to determine
who is telling the truth. And so in a case
like this, this kind of a nine one one call
was no doubt, very powerful evidence to them and will
be to a reviewing court in deciding who to believe.
And another thing, Wendy Patrick. Right now, Molly Corbett insists
(34:33):
her murder conviction be overturned, claiming prosecutors never proved she
was the aggressor. That doesn't make sense to me, and
I'll tell you why, because there's nothing new, no new evidence.
That's a fact issue, and the jury is the sole arbiter,
the sole judge of the facts and the credibility in
(34:56):
the case. The appellate court looks at the rule of law.
So if she's climbing, well, the state never proved that
I was the aggressor, I guess not because the jury
disagreed with her. Yeah, that's exactly right. And we see
appeals like this all of the time. Simply because one's
made doesn't mean it will be successful. And it is
the jury, Nancy, as you say, that's the ultimate trier
(35:16):
of fact and all of the evidence we've been discussing
they took into consideration not just who said what when,
but whether or not those stories were consistent with the
rest of the evidence. You know, the law phrases it
in terms of a reasonable interpretation of the evidence. When
they found her guilty, they found that that version of
the facts, Molly's version, was an unreasonable interpretation of the evidence,
(35:39):
and that is their purview. They are the fact finders.
To Karen Smith, what do you make of the forensics
in this case, because I believe you know, the only
witnesses are Molly Martin's Corbett and her father, the x
FBI agent. All right, that's all the testimony. It's going
to be on the forensics for the state. Yes, it is.
(36:02):
And listen from my experience, their version of events does
not match what I'm seeing with the blood stain evidence.
There's evidence of a struggle in this room. Uh. You know,
if he's saying he's swinging this baseball bat in the
hallway and chasing Jason into the bathroom, that is a
very narrow hallway. Admittedly, I don't have all the crime
scene photos. I have a limited number, but uh, it's
(36:23):
about three feet from my estimate. If you're swinging a
baseball bat, you're going to leave dings and dents in
the walls, and I don't see any so I really
don't understand how that story plays with the forensics. Maybe
there were things that aren't shown in these photos, but
you know, the fact is the majority of the blood
is in the bedroom. It's on the walls up high,
(36:43):
and it's on the floor down low. I can tell
you that Jason at some point was upright and after that,
when the blows were really being struck, he was down
on the floor, and that just does not comport. Another
thing that we are learning to Wendy Patrick is that
he Jason Corbett, was planning to go back home to
Ireland without her, without Molly. He had already been looking online.
(37:08):
He had bought three tickets, one for him and his
two children. He was leaving, and many people believe he
was leaving her just before he was blood and dad.
This is just Nancy, one more piece of circumstantial evidence
that again tells the story that he cannot. And that's
the way we piece together murder cases is we use
(37:28):
the evidence to explain the circumstances, both personal, professional, forensically
everything else. We use that evidence to tell a story
that a deceased murder victim would have told were he
on the stand in this case, and that's just one
of the other things. Can we prove it for sure?
Absolutely not, But that doesn't mean the jury can't consider
(37:48):
that as powerful evidence of motive. You don't need to
prove motive, of course, as you know, to prove murder,
but it sure helps if there's an explanation that's different
than one they heard from the accused. Well, and now
we're hearing from the nanny turned new wife, Molly Martin's
Corbett uh talking to about repeatedly being brutalized by her
(38:10):
brand new husband the first time and second time, and
the third time and the twentieth time. That you are
suffocated or strangled or someone holds their hand over your
mouth or pillow over your face and you can't breathe
for an extended period of time. You know, you think, oh, well,
you know his first wife died at three o'clock in
(38:32):
the morning, and maybe that's going to happen to me.
Whoa wait a minute, His first wife died and there
is no doubt about it by complications after an asthma attack,
and throwing that in there makes me question her entire statement.
I'll tell you what haunts me, And that is Jason's
(38:55):
sister speaking when I believe that Monty Martin's planned to
kill just and um and that all the evidence pointed
towards that. I was disappointed there wasn't a first degree charge.
That he had been drugged and the toxicology report shows
the drugs in his system, and those drugs come from
they were they were prescribed to Molly Martin's on the
(39:17):
Friday before Jason was murder Do you think he might
if she might have spiked his dream? Absolutely, that's what
I believe, and that he was asleep, that he was asleep,
and that he was hitting hit in bed while he
was asleep, and that Molly Martins hit him. You are
hearing Jason's sister speaking out. That's Tracy Corbett Lynch, the
(39:38):
sister of Jason Corbett. Jason Corbett a Limerick man in
the US who marries the nanny after his first wife
passes away. That nanny, Molly Martin's Corbett and her father,
Thomas Martin accused of murdering Jason. But why was it
(39:59):
because he was planning to leave her. We know that
he had his bag packed with his children's clothes. He
had been looking up flights just for three. The toxicology
report shows drugs in Jason's system. The sister says she
believes they left him to die now. Molly Martin's Corbett
(40:23):
first met her Irish husband after she moved to Limerick
to work as a nanny for his children after the
death of his first wife, Margaret. They later became sexually
involved and they were then married. What happened what we
know right now is that he had refused to allow
(40:47):
Molly to adopt his children, and at this hour, Molly
Martin's Corbett insisting her conviction beat reversed. We wait as
justice unfolds. Nancy Gray Crime Stories signing off Goodbye friend,
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(00:23):
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crime Stops here dot com Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
(01:38):
to thing, Um, my name is Tom Martin by and
by a daughter's husband, UM my son in law. UM
gotten a bike with my daughter. I hearne and I
think we need help. Okay, what do you need? The
bed keep leaving all over and I'm him killed it coming?
(02:01):
What happened? Did you eat him in the head or
hit him in the head with bud with a baseball bat?
With a baseball bat, ma'am it was cokeing my diary
that I'm gonna kill her. Move the baseball bat at
in the bedroom here with me, Okay, don't touch it.
Inn In Moore Okay, ma'am, I'm putting then we've already
got him started that way to hang up to stay
(02:23):
with me. Wow, he didn't sound too upset. We go
inside the blood spattered bedroom where a former model and
her dad, an x FBI agent, beat her husband dead
with a baseball bat and a landscaping stone. I a
block of cement that just so happened to be sitting
(02:43):
on the bedside table. I mean, see, Grace, this is
crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. What really
happened in the death of this husband from Ireland. She
Molly had been the family's nanny, the babysitter, the o pair,
but after his wife passed away complications relating to an
(03:06):
asthma attack, things quickly turned romantic between Molly and the
Irish husband soon to be. But what went wrong than not?
He was bludgeoned dead. Joining me right now, Crime Stories
and Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter Nicole part Nicole,
Let's just start at the beginning. How does an evening
(03:26):
where everybody's asleep in bed end up with the dad
of these little children, a brand new husband to the
nanny end up beating dead with a block of cement
and a Louisville Slugger baseball bat. You know, Nancy. This
started out as a beautifully planned weekend. Molly's father, Thomas,
and her mother Sharon travel up from Tennessee to spend
(03:48):
the weekend with Molly and her husband and the two children.
They have a beautiful, happy dinner together, the guys are
planning golf for the next day, and then sometime in
the middle of the night and argument ensues and the
next thing we know, the nine one one call is
made and Jason Corbett is dead. Well, take a listen
to what the nanny turned new wife, Molly Corbett says
(04:11):
to ABC. He woke up and he was angry, and
you want to know why I had gotten up, And
I told him it was because Sarah had a nightmare.
And then he was just furious because Sarah had been
doing this lately. And you know, she just wanted to
be coddled and she was too old for that. And
I shouldn't have gotten out of bed. I said, she's
just eight. She had a nightmare. I should be allowed
(04:34):
to go upstairs and comfort our daughter. You know, all
she wanted was her mom de lay with her for
a couple of minutes, and he I forgot my parents
were there. Well't Number one, she's not the little girl's mom,
all right, she's a stepmother, and she just married the
dad after his wife passed away with asthma. But number two,
(04:55):
that story that he began the husband began to choke
her dead because she went to the door to take
care of the eight year old girl. Tell me again,
Nicole Parton, how this whole thing supposedly unfolded. We're being
told Molly's story is that everyone went to bed after dinner.
(05:15):
She's asleep. The young girl, Sarah, comes to the door
whispers to Molly that she's had a nightmare. She's seeing
things in the bedroom. Molly tiptoes out of the bedroom
not to disturb. Jason goes upstairs, changes the bed sheets,
changes the pillow cases, does everything she can to console
(05:36):
The daughter comes back downstairs, tiptoes back into the bed.
Jason wakes up angry and begins to try to choke her.
She screams for help. Okay, wall wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
let's just stop right there. Wendy Patrick joining me, renowned
California prosecutor along with Dr Jan Gorniac Fulton County, Georgia
medical examiner Karen Smith, forensics expert. When a Patrick, I mean,
(06:01):
if I wait, my husband up in the middle of
the night by accident, he just goes back to sleep.
For instance, if I you know, something happens and um
one of the twins call me, or just whatever it
may be, he just goes straight back to sleep. Yeah, Nancy.
And that's why we tell our jurors not to check
their common sense at the door when they come into
(06:21):
a courtroom, because it's exactly right. It is so unusual,
it's highly unlikely. And those are the kind of circumstances
that really cast doubt on everything that comes afterwards. When
a story begins in a fashion that just doesn't seem right,
we've got to really break it down as we're doing here,
and think through, well, who would result, who would react
(06:41):
that way coming from a dead sleep, And I know
you're right, there are spouses everywhere thinking, boy, I only
wish somebody had a little bit of energy in the
middle of the night, much less to the extent that
would have been necessary to create what ended up a
deadly scenario. So you're right, it is highly dubious. So
what we're hearing is that she, the nanny turned wife,
(07:03):
Molly Corbett, gets up to comfort the children, the husband's children,
that when she comes back down to bed, that wakes
him up. When she comes back into the bedroom, and
he gets so angry with her for waking him up,
he begins to choke her. And then what happens, Nicole,
(07:23):
She begins to scream for help. She says that then
he muffled her mouth. She screams for help again. Her father,
who's sleeping downstairs in the basement bedroom, comes up to
her rescue with a baseball bat in his hand. That's
when the altercation ensues that unfortunately results in Jason's death. Now,
hold on just a moment, Karen Smith, forensics expert. We
(07:44):
know that the father is also x FBI. Now what
does that tell you about what went down? Well, it
tells me that he knows how crime scenes work, he
knows how law enforcement works. He knows the story that
he's going to have to either tell to try to
mid get the circumstances surrounding his involvement and his daughter's
involvement in this um. But looking at the crime scene photos,
(08:07):
I'm not really sure how that's going to play out.
Listen to this. Martin's claimed to us that he came
up to the room and there was an argument, but
there were no bruises on either of them. No more.
The blood that we're on was on them was Jason's blood. Um,
No torn clothes, nothing at all. UM. And what I
(08:29):
believe happened is a different story. Would you like to
share it with us? When I believe that Monty Martin's
planned to kill Jason UM, and that all the evidence
pointed towards that I was disappointed there wasn't a first
degree charge. Um. I believe that I know that Jason
had a bag pact with the kid's clothes. He was
(08:51):
going to leave. He'd been looking up flights um that
he had been dropped. And the toxicology report shows that
drugs and ass time and those drugs come from suspect
they were they were prescribed to Molly Martin's on the
Friday before jessumas Martin, do you think he might if
she might have spite his dream? Absolutely, That's what I believe,
(09:11):
and that he was asleep, that he was asleep, and
that he was hitting the hitt In bed while he
was asleep, and that Molly Martins um hit him in
a toward and then into his life with the book.
You are hearing the deceased Jason Corbett's sister as she's
(09:33):
speaking on the Late Late Show describing her belief. Did
this was all planned out? To Dr Jane Gorniac, Fulton
County Medical Examiner joining us today. Dr Gorniac, the sister says,
and it was proven in the autopsy with toxicology reports
that there were drugs in Jason's system that were prescribed
(09:54):
to Molly just the Friday before the bludgeoning death, so
we would have to know. I mean, I'm not sure
what those drugs were. So depending on what they were,
could they have caused UM sedation be could they have
caused what we call CNS depressant um where he was sedated?
I'm responsive, But what would be for me interesting to
(10:17):
know is where are these blows occur? I know he
was hit with a baseball bat and then like a
cinder block type object. UM. But then also her injuries
I'm hearing, UM. So as a forensic pathologist medical examiner,
my job is to prove or disprove the circumstances, and
so everything plays into the circumstances. So as I'm listening
(10:38):
to her saying that she was being choked with also
a hand over her mouth, I'm trying to visualize how
that occurs. UM. My job isn'to You know, a death
at the hand of another equals homicide. I'm not into who.
Like I've said before um previously, but Nancy, knowing all
the pieces will will would help. But back to your
(11:00):
original question or comments about the drugs, it would be
very interesting to know not only what drugs, but the
level of those drugs in his system to prove or
disproved whether he was capable of doing the injuries or
the act that she accuses him up. I don't know
what precisely woke me up, but what I heard were
loud voices and I kind of like thumping. Something bad
(11:24):
was going on, so I grabbed that League baseball at
that and I ran upstairs. He wanted to shut me up,
so he covered my mouth and then he started choking me.
But at some point when he stopped, I screamed. The
next thing I remember is my dad standing in the doorway.
Do you believe them? I believe she went and got
her father as he lay dying, and her father came
(11:47):
up and did hit Jason with the baseball of that,
and there were post Martin hits on Chasen's body UM afterwards,
and I believe they left him to die. I believed
that you know what they wished to call when the
E M T arrived UM, you know when they gave
(12:09):
evidence that Jesson's body was called UM. I believe they
left Jesson today before they called to nine moment. Jesson
was probably did a long time before they called my moment.
You are hearing the sister of Jason Corbett speaking on
the Late Late Show regarding her brother's brutal death. The
(12:30):
crime scene photos were so horrific that one of the
jurors actually got sick and threw up, and the jury box,
according to sources, actually got sick when they saw the
horrible crime scene photos of Jason Corbett bludgeoned dead. Joining
me California prosecutor Wendy Patrick, renowned medical examiner Dr Jan
(12:55):
Gorni At, Karen Smith forensics expert, and Cole Parton Crime
online dot Com investigative reporter. You can find this story
as we track it at crime online dot com. The
cool parton uh the as we say murder weapons were
a Louisville slugger and also a block of cement or
(13:15):
a stone outdoor landscaping stone. Why was that in the bedroom?
And that is one of the biggest questions. Molly says,
it was lying next to her on the nightstand in
the bedroom. Who knows had they been looking at pavers
to repay the driveway and had brought one inside to
discuss it. That's a huge question, a huge factor that
(13:37):
plays into why would you have a brick paver? Beside
the bed. Why would you have one inside your home
anyway when you have young children. We know that, uh,
the evidence in this case involves that landscaping stone. What
do you make of the claim to Wendy Patrick, California
prosecutor that some of the blows were postmortem? You know
what Wendy hold on because I want to tell Dr
(13:58):
Jane Gorney at the Medical Examiner that the drugs found
in Jason corbett system were Molly Martin Corbett's sleeping pills.
That was what was in the system, according to the
toxicology reports at autopsy. Dr Gorniac. So, okay, that's very
that's very important. But one of the things we don't
(14:21):
know is and whether she says it or not, that
you know, there's time where people take other people's drugs, right, So,
but we would have to really question that. So once again,
depending we know it's sleeping aid and the concentration, we
have to prove or disprove whether he was capable of
waking up angry or even waking up at all. You know,
that's a good point about waking up at all having
(14:43):
taken a sleeping pill, whether wittingly or unwittingly. Now, see,
I hadn't thought of that angle yet. I was thinking
about the angle of dead Molly Martin's Corbett. Give him
the drug or slip it to him so he could
be beaten dead because the loads to this guy, Jason Corbett,
the young father of two little children. He's a widow.
(15:06):
His wife dies of complications from an asthma attack. He
hires a nanny to come in and help him take
care of the children. Within just a few months, they're
in a sex relationship, and bam, she turns into Molly
Martin's Corbett. But listen to this and tell me what
you think. To Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, and then Karen Smith.
(15:28):
We learn, according to the autopsy report that the degree
of skull fractures are similar to a victim that died
in a car crash or that fell from a great height.
And we're learning that from licensed pathologist Dr Craig Nelson,
who studied the case. He stated also that Jason was
(15:48):
struck in ten spots and two other spots where areas
of repeated blows. Wow, this guy was so blunt and
he couldn't even tell how me any times Jason was
actually struck Uh, that's a lot of blows, Wendy Patrick.
Sounds like a lot more than you need. If you
(16:10):
find your son in law attacking or strangling your daughter,
he bludged them apparently even after he was dead. Yeah,
you know that that kind of display of absolute rage
is so important to jurors. You know, evidence speaks louder
than words with injuries that are determined to be so
(16:31):
far over and above what you would expect if it
was self defense or defensive others as as alleged I
guess both of a sort of allegend this case. But
you're right, you would look at the extent of that damage.
I'm not surprised that juror got sick. I've had jurors
in my case is asked for breaks so they could
go throw up when the evidence is that bad. But
that's exactly why we have to match the extent of
(16:53):
that carnage with the excuse. And when you put on
top of that somebody that would have been already compromise
due to sleeping pills, it just, you know, you lose
the logical train that you would need to go down
to figure out that it actually would be consistent with
what this woman is saying, it's far more consistent with
(17:13):
the an unexpected obviously not even fighting back, an unexpected
attack that goes over and above what you would need
to actually kill him, particularly under the circumstances if he
was drugged. Medical examiner Dr Jan Gorney at with us.
Another tidbit that I noticed when I was combing through
the autopsy report, Dr Gorney, act, we learned that one
(17:34):
scrape on Jason's head occurred after his heart stopped. Now
what does that mean to me? Was he dragged from
the bed, as Jason's sister said on the Late Late Show?
Was he drive from his bed and placed in the
middle of the bedroom. I don't know that, But what
(17:55):
I do know is that it is a post mortem injury,
which means the attack or the dragging, whatever kept on
after he was dead. Dr Gorniac, how can you tell that, Well,
postmortem injury has different characteristics. So obviously, if someone is
not alive and the heart is not beating, there's going
(18:15):
to be less blood in the in the tissue um. Also,
the body is not able to react to it, so
the edges of the wound aren't going to be red,
They're not going to be swollen, and then sometimes they
even are dry and yellow, so they get a totally
different characteristic to them. So we can tell the difference
between antimordem before death and postmortem after death injuries. And
(18:37):
also will be important to know it's also like you said,
if he was dragged, is there carpet? What caused that
postmortem injury? But if he's dead where he is um
and there's no postmortem injuries or you're seeing this abrasion,
you know that he had been moved. So once again
another piece of the puzzle. Was he moved from the bed?
(18:58):
Was he moved you know, across the floor work? But
then um E M S personnel? So the e M
T s the paramedics did they move him and and
it caused the postmortem injury because they were trying to
perform why saving measures? Not sure about that. But if
you have to look at all the evidence at the scene.
To Karen Smith, forensics expert, speaking of that, you are
(19:20):
getting sick. At trial, graphic photos of Jason Corbett's head
were shown. Okay, those are autopsy photos what we're talking about,
And that's when a gr threw up. Now I've had
gerars cry, but I've never had one just throw up
right then and there. That was the nature of the scene.
And right now Molly Corbett apparently headed for freedom. That's
(19:47):
what's happening right now after this brutal attack. I want
to go to Karen Smith. If his body had been
moved or um, if he was killed in the bed
and the end the crime scene stage, what would the
blood evidence tell you? Well, Nancy, there's a lot to
(20:07):
unpack here. I'm looking at these Crencene photos and just
to give a frame, in my experience, this would take
me three days, a minimum of three days to go through.
There is so much blood and so many patterns all
over the place. Um, I'm gonna try to describe what
I'm seeing here and and it's going to tell a story.
You have impact patterns on the walls, you have impact
(20:30):
patterns on the door frame, and impact patterns on the
interior of the door. And I'll get to that in
a second. But what's curious to me is, based on
these photos, what I'm looking at our impact patterns up high,
impact patterns down low, transfer patterns down low by the floor,
transfer patterns in the hallway, impact patterns on the bed sheets,
(20:51):
and the bed comforter had been it looked like it
had been flipped over, and there were impact patterns on that.
There were the baseball bat and the brick laying on
the door. So we have a whole lot to describe here.
And what's curious to me is the impact patterns up high.
That tells me that the victim was upright at some
point when a blow was struck, after a blow that
brought led to the surface, not throwback from hitting him
(21:15):
with the bat, then pulling the bat bat and then uh,
they throw back goes up on the ceiling on the
top of the wall, right, that's cast off, And they're
very tell pale differences here. Impact pattern is going to
leave h an upward directionality in a bunch of different
droplets on the wall, where cast off is more of
a linear line that goes up the wall and maybe
(21:36):
across the ceiling, and you can tell the difference if
you're an experienced analyst. This to me looks like impact
spatter on the wall next to a picture by the
doorway and that door curiously enough on the injury or
the door if it was closed, that door was closed.
Because there's impacts, there's swhite marks, and all kinds of
things on the inside of the door which tells me
it was closed for the vast majority of this incident.
(22:07):
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(22:28):
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(23:59):
Rules and restricts is do apply. When she was crushing
his skull with that brick, she had anger to a
suage and resentment to address, and she addressed those on
(24:19):
his head. The physical evidence suggested that he was still
being struck in the head after he went down. That's
Alan Martin, assistant district attorney, telling our friends at about
what really happened according to him. Now what we're talking about.
For those of you just joining us, welcome everybody. This
is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and we're picking apart
a murder. What many people believe is a murder by
(24:42):
a nanny turned new bride to Jason Corbett. It's Molly
Martin's Corbett and her father accused of murdering her brand
new husband. But right now, Molly Corbett says a very
good chance to walk free, claiming it was never are
proven that she was the aggressor in her husband's death.
(25:04):
In other words, that it was never proven that she's
the one that first went after her husband. She's claiming
that is why she should walk free, and the appellate
courts are actually listening. I want to go straight back
out to Karen Smith, forensics expert. We know that Jason
(25:26):
Corbett was bludgeoned dead in his own bedroom. We know
that his new wife's sleeping pills were in his system
that night, prescribed to her just the friday before his
bludgeoning death. We know his attack went on after he
was dead. He had post mortem wounds. The young wife
(25:49):
says that his children from the first wife that passed
away with asthma, one of them had a bad dream.
She went to go check on the child. She comes
back and her story is that made the husband so
mad he began to strangle her. Her father, who happened
to be there that weekend. X FBI comes up and
bludgeons him dead with a baseball bat, and she joins
(26:13):
in with the landscaping stone that happened to be in
the bedroom. Something stinks, Karen Smith, you're also telling me
the bedroom door was closed during the attacks of the
father rushes into save her life and thinks to close
the door behind him. Somebody did at some point. I
can see swhite marks on the door handle, and I
(26:34):
don't know who put those there, but I can tell
you there are blood patterns on the interior that door,
and I don't see any on the exterior of the door,
So that tells me the door was closed when this
attack happened. It's adjacent to an ungodly amount of blood
on the floor level and also on the lower part
of the wall, where I see possible swipe marks from hair.
(26:55):
So that tells me that at some point Jason's head
was against this wall, not once, but twice. It also
tells me that the attack may have started in bed.
There were some void patterns, which means blood should be there,
but isn't. There's blood on the bed, How could he
have been strangling her if the attacks started while he's
(27:17):
lying in bed. Then how does that prove he was
standing up strangling her? You know what? Take a listen
to the father the ex FBI explaining what happened. He
has his hands around her neck and he quickly moves
to move her in front of him between me, and
(27:37):
so he's got her in a chokehold. Fear was, you
know secondary at that point. I was just so ashamed
that my father would see me like that, allowing myself
to retreating like that. I said, let her go, and
he said, I'm gonna kill her. Then he starts to
edge towards the master bathroom, which has a door. I
(27:59):
thought was he gets set the door between me and him.
Then she's dead and there's nothing I can do about it.
And so I reached around and I hit him in
the back of the head with the baseball bat. He
makes it to the bathroom, but I'm too close. He
can't close the door, and I'm in the bathroom with it,
and I hit him again. I mean I have room now,
and I hit it hard on the back of the
(28:22):
head again. He still got her by the throat, but
he changes tactics. He decides to come back at me
and I'm swinging the bat and he catches the bat
in his hand and he sends me flying across the room.
Jason just grabbed the bat away. It was like it
was nothing. He could choke me with one hand and
(28:42):
grabbed the bat with the other and he was just
so much stronger. And I was screaming, don't hurt my dad,
don't hurt my dad. And I thought he's gonna hit
my dad with the bat and that's it. He's going
to kill my father. How could this guy, who has
his his system full of sleeping peels attack the dad
(29:02):
and do this after he sustained and this is by
the FBI Dad's own version. You just heard three blows
to the head with a baseball bat. Dr g and
Gornea helped me. Nancy. I wish I could, um that
is I mean, especially hearing the descriptions of the massive
injury he has of his head and if he's swinging
(29:25):
this bat, you know, quote unquote trying to save his daughter,
you know what I mean. It's not little taps, so
these are strong blows. And it just surprises me that, um,
that this this man would be blows to his head,
skull fractures, brain injury would be even capable of standing, um,
being conscious and grabbing something and still be able to communicate. Um.
(29:49):
It's just it's hard for me to comprehend. You know,
these children lose their mother after complications from an asthma attack,
and now their dad. It's blood and dead in the
bed room. To Wendy Patrick, California Prosecutor. Now, there is
one paramedic that says he saw a red mark on
Molly Martin Corbett's neck, but then it was later explained
(30:12):
that that was actually dried blood from Jason. I don't
know of any other defensive wounds that either Molly or
her father had. Yeah, you know, this is one of
those cases and they come along once in a while
where the injuries themselves tell the story chronologically. We at
(30:32):
this day and age, we forensics are so powerful and
that we can look at everything, including something like this, Nancy,
where you have a injury able to be disproven through
having a closer look at a red mark on the neck,
Where did it come from? And you know, we're we're
just hearing so much evidence that tells the story itself.
You can have people on the stand explaining what happens.
(30:54):
But jurors are going to believe forensics over human testimony
when there's a contradiction, merely because there's no bias in
forensic evidence and blood spatter and all the different ways
in which were able to reconstruct in reverse chronological order
in a case like this, exactly what happened when. And
then on top of that, they overlay testimony and they
(31:17):
decide who they believe is telling the truth and whether
or not the injuries are consistent with those stories. Well,
to Nicole Pardon, Crime online dot Com investigative reporter right now,
Molly Martin's corbett says the claims against her must be overturned,
that it has never been proven she was the aggressor
(31:37):
and her husband's death. Um, Nicole, But what happened after
nine one one arrived, Well, when the one operator was
on the phone call with Molly's father, she began to
instruct them to perform CPR. They were actually still trying
to revive him when paramedics arrived, they were still they're
(31:57):
doing chest compressions. They had him on trying to follow
the instructions of operating. Take a listen again to this
nine one one call. Let's see what we can learn.
This is my Molly Martin Corbett's father the county. Now
when one want to be just the emergency. UM, my
name is Tom Martin's and my daughter's husband, UM, my
son in law. UM, gotten a fight with my daughter.
(32:21):
I intervene and I think he's in bad shape. We
need help. Okay, what do you mean he's in bad shape.
He's hurt and he's he's leading all over. I may
have killed him coming what happened if you hit him
in the head or hit him in the head with
watch with a baseball bat, with a baseball bat. Sam,
(32:41):
it was choking my daughter. He said, I'm gonna kill her.
Who's the baseball bad ass in the bedroom here with me? Okay,
just don't touch it anymore. Okay, ma'am, I'm putting some nights.
Then we've already got him started. That way, I don't
hang up to stay with fast one. Two. All right,
listen carefully. I'll say you had a de chest compression. Yeah, alright,
(33:04):
make sure they explat on his back from that. Fill
us under his head like thee in your hands under
his head. That's nothing under his head. Yeah, that's all right.
First of all, tell your daughter to go a loot
the door and turn on the front porch like like
the heel of your hand on the breast pone in
the center of his chest, right between the nipples. Okay, well,
(33:27):
I got to give the instruction if you just go
ahead and do it, if you know, why don't I
hear any screaming and the nine one one goes on
and you hear the father and the daughter speaking very
calmly to each other. Uh. To Wendy Patrick, California Prosecutor,
that's not normally what you hear on a nine one
one call when your husband's lying there covered in blood
and dead. That's exactly right. You know. This is one
(33:48):
of the reasons we don't do trial by transcript. Jurors
have to see here, smell, touch, everything they need to
do to actually be able to gauge the credibility, and
in doing that they listen to nine one tapes. Those
are powerful pieces of evidence that give us an idea,
a flavor of the emotional tension that exists when those
calls were made. They listen to the voice. Intonation pauses
(34:12):
the quality of what is being described in everything else,
and that's one of the things they used to determine
who is telling the truth. And so in a case
like this, this kind of a nine one one call
was no doubt, very powerful evidence to them and will
be to a reviewing court in deciding who to believe.
And another thing, Wendy Patrick. Right now, Molly Corbett insists
(34:33):
her murder conviction be overturned, claiming prosecutors never proved she
was the aggressor. That doesn't make sense to me, and
I'll tell you why, because there's nothing new, no new evidence.
That's a fact issue, and the jury is the sole arbiter,
the sole judge of the facts and the credibility in
(34:56):
the case. The appellate court looks at the rule of law.
So if she's climbing, well, the state never proved that
I was the aggressor, I guess not because the jury
disagreed with her. Yeah, that's exactly right. And we see
appeals like this all of the time. Simply because one's
made doesn't mean it will be successful. And it is
the jury, Nancy, as you say, that's the ultimate trier
(35:16):
of fact and all of the evidence we've been discussing
they took into consideration not just who said what when,
but whether or not those stories were consistent with the
rest of the evidence. You know, the law phrases it
in terms of a reasonable interpretation of the evidence. When
they found her guilty, they found that that version of
the facts, Molly's version, was an unreasonable interpretation of the evidence,
(35:39):
and that is their purview. They are the fact finders.
To Karen Smith, what do you make of the forensics
in this case, because I believe you know, the only
witnesses are Molly Martin's Corbett and her father, the x
FBI agent. All right, that's all the testimony. It's going
to be on the forensics for the state. Yes, it is.
(36:02):
And listen from my experience, their version of events does
not match what I'm seeing with the blood stain evidence.
There's evidence of a struggle in this room. Uh. You know,
if he's saying he's swinging this baseball bat in the
hallway and chasing Jason into the bathroom, that is a
very narrow hallway. Admittedly, I don't have all the crime
scene photos. I have a limited number, but uh, it's
(36:23):
about three feet from my estimate. If you're swinging a
baseball bat, you're going to leave dings and dents in
the walls, and I don't see any so I really
don't understand how that story plays with the forensics. Maybe
there were things that aren't shown in these photos, but
you know, the fact is the majority of the blood
is in the bedroom. It's on the walls up high,
(36:43):
and it's on the floor down low. I can tell
you that Jason at some point was upright and after that,
when the blows were really being struck, he was down
on the floor, and that just does not comport. Another
thing that we are learning to Wendy Patrick is that
he Jason Corbett, was planning to go back home to
Ireland without her, without Molly. He had already been looking online.
(37:08):
He had bought three tickets, one for him and his
two children. He was leaving, and many people believe he
was leaving her just before he was blood and dad.
This is just Nancy, one more piece of circumstantial evidence
that again tells the story that he cannot. And that's
the way we piece together murder cases is we use
(37:28):
the evidence to explain the circumstances, both personal, professional, forensically
everything else. We use that evidence to tell a story
that a deceased murder victim would have told were he
on the stand in this case, and that's just one
of the other things. Can we prove it for sure?
Absolutely not, But that doesn't mean the jury can't consider
(37:48):
that as powerful evidence of motive. You don't need to
prove motive, of course, as you know, to prove murder,
but it sure helps if there's an explanation that's different
than one they heard from the accused. Well, and now
we're hearing from the nanny turned new wife, Molly Martin's
Corbett uh talking to about repeatedly being brutalized by her
(38:10):
brand new husband the first time and second time, and
the third time and the twentieth time. That you are
suffocated or strangled or someone holds their hand over your
mouth or pillow over your face and you can't breathe
for an extended period of time. You know, you think, oh, well,
you know his first wife died at three o'clock in
(38:32):
the morning, and maybe that's going to happen to me.
Whoa wait a minute, His first wife died and there
is no doubt about it by complications after an asthma attack,
and throwing that in there makes me question her entire statement.
I'll tell you what haunts me, And that is Jason's
(38:55):
sister speaking when I believe that Monty Martin's planned to
kill just and um and that all the evidence pointed
towards that. I was disappointed there wasn't a first degree charge.
That he had been drugged and the toxicology report shows
the drugs in his system, and those drugs come from
they were they were prescribed to Molly Martin's on the
(39:17):
Friday before Jason was murder Do you think he might
if she might have spiked his dream? Absolutely, that's what
I believe, and that he was asleep, that he was asleep,
and that he was hitting hit in bed while he
was asleep, and that Molly Martins hit him. You are
hearing Jason's sister speaking out. That's Tracy Corbett Lynch, the
(39:38):
sister of Jason Corbett. Jason Corbett a Limerick man in
the US who marries the nanny after his first wife
passes away. That nanny, Molly Martin's Corbett and her father,
Thomas Martin accused of murdering Jason. But why was it
(39:59):
because he was planning to leave her. We know that
he had his bag packed with his children's clothes. He
had been looking up flights just for three. The toxicology
report shows drugs in Jason's system. The sister says she
believes they left him to die now. Molly Martin's Corbett
(40:23):
first met her Irish husband after she moved to Limerick
to work as a nanny for his children after the
death of his first wife, Margaret. They later became sexually
involved and they were then married. What happened what we
know right now is that he had refused to allow
(40:47):
Molly to adopt his children, and at this hour, Molly
Martin's Corbett insisting her conviction beat reversed. We wait as
justice unfolds. Nancy Gray Crime Stories signing off Goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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