The heartbroken family of slain Irishman Jason Corbett have been left “distraught and disappointed” by a court decision in the US to grant his killers a retrial.
Dad-of-two Jason, 39, was brutally killed in his bed at his home in North Carolina in August 2015, with a baseball bat and concrete paving brick.
Injuries to the Limerick man’s head were so severe that a coroner was unable to count the number of blows her suffered.
Corbett’s wife Molly Martens, 37, and her father, former FBI agent Thomas Martens, 70, were found guilty of second degree murder in August 2017 and were sentenced to 20-25 years behind bars.
They appealed that decision claiming the judge had excluded critical evidence that would have backed up their self-defence argument and a retrial was granted by North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday.
Jason’s sister Tracey Corbett Lynch and her husband David, legal guardians of Jason’s children Jack and Sarah, issued a statement on the decision on Friday night.
They wrote: “We are so disappointed and distraught that the Supreme Court of North Carolina has decided to grant a retrial to Tom and Molly Martens who admitted killing our beloved Jason - a father, a brother, a son and a loyal friend - who is dearly missed by all who knew and loved him.
“Neither of the convicted defendants has ever expressed remorse for Jason’s killing.
“They put his orphaned children, then aged eight and 10, and Jason’s parents, siblings and friends through the horrific ordeal of the first trial, all the while waging a vicious and unrelenting smear campaign in the media and in the courtroom.
“The jury unanimously found them guilty of second-degree murder, concurring with the detectives and emergency medical technician workers who found the crime scene to be wholly inconsistent with the defence claims concocted by Tom Martens and his daughter, Molly, who drugged Jason prior to the attack.”
The Martens were unhappy that statement’s from Jason’s children to social workers were left out of the original trial.
In a lengthy 76 page ruling North Carolina Supreme Court found that “the exclusion of statements made by the Corbett children deprived the jury of evidence that was relevant and material to its role as finder of fact.”
It is now feared the Martens defence will move to get the father and daughter released on bail.
Tracey added: “We can only put our faith in God to guide us through the torment of a second trial.
“We place our trust in the Davidson County Sheriff’s Department and in the District Attorney for North Carolina both of whom recognised from the outset that Jason was the victim of a cold and calculated murder, designed to give Molly custody of Jason’s children, and the financial benefit of an insurance policy.
“Despite our disappointment at this decision, by a majority decision, to grant the Martens a retrial, we retain our faith in the US Criminal Justice system and our confidence that a jury will once again find the Martens guilty of this ‘heinous, atrocious and cruel’ crime.”
A new trial date is yet to be confirmed.
