A US judge has put a stay on the court order which compelled murder accused Molly Martens to return items she had taken from the home in North Carolina where Jason Corbett was killed last August and has also halted any payouts of his life insurance policy.
The Limerick born father of two was beaten to death with a baseball bat and paving stone at his US home and Molly Martens and her father Thomas have been both charged with his killing.
In an appeal to the ruling of Davidson County Clerk of the Court, Brian Shipwash, that Martens return everything she took after the death of Jason (39), lawyers for the 32-year-old former model argued that the original order was not supported by evidence.
Judge Mark Klass ruled that a stay be put on the order pending a full hearing and also ruled that a $600,000 life insurance policy, as well as the proceeds of the sale of a car, be held by the clerk of the court’s office.
Meantime, Ms Martens (32) and her father Thomas (65), are facing trial on charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter arising out of the death of her husband who was beaten to death with a baseball bat and a concrete paving slab at his North Carolina home last August.
A post-mortem examination concluded that the 39 year-old father-of-two suffered multiple blunt force injuries to his head, “including two large full-thickness scalp lacerations, as well as extensive skull fractures.
999 calls revealed that the former model and her father had been involved in a dispute during which Thomas Martens, who is a retired FBI agent, said he struck Jason Corbett with a baseball bat.
The Martens are on $200,000 bail bonds since they were arrested and charged last January. Conditions of bail included that they have no contact with the Corbett family including Jack and Sarah Corbett, Jason’s children from his first marriage to Mags Fitzpatrick who died from a asthma attack in 2006
Following a bitter custody battle, Jason Corbett’s sister Tracey Lynch and her husband David are now legal guardians to Jack and Sarah.
At an administrative court hearing last week, lawyers for the former model and her father claimed that she was being threatened via social media. They claimed that Molly Martens received a voicemail from young Jack asking her to call him which would violate the terms of her bail.
Supporters of the facebook page ‘Bring Justice for Jason’ were accused of threatening Ms Martens’s uncle and aunt, Mike and Mona Earnest after they posted a picture of them with Jack and Sarah. The image has since been removed.
Jack and Sarah Corbett’s uncle Thomas Fitzpatrick took to the facebook page posting “Absolutely lies from them again, we told them to stop harrasing our family, that we didn’t want to speak to them and to contact the lawyers.
“What kind if attorney rings at 7am? (2am their time), frightened the life out of my poor mother getting a call at that hour.”
The court later ruled that witnesses could talk to lawyers or investigators if they wished and that certain emails between Molly Martens and Jason Corbett as well as their civil lawyers be excluded from the case.
Last week’s court hearing, which was adjourned to the last week in May, followed a revelation that the ambulance bill for the night that Jason was taken to hospital was sent to his family in Limerick by Molly Marten’s lawyers.
The invoice, which was received over the Easter week-end, was described by the Corbett family as a “very blunt and cold” reminder of his death.
Ms Marten’s lawyers initially denied that they or the former model sent the invoice describing the accusation as “absolutely 100% false”. However they later admitted that the invoice was sent to Edward Griggs, a lawyer for the Lynch family dealing with Jason’s estate.
