Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Convicted husband-killer Molly Corbett still claims hubby was the aggressor, wants conviction overturned

Episode Date: October 31, 2018

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. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It's my daughter's husband, my son-in-law. Got in a fight with my daughter. I intervened, and I think he's in bad shape. We need help. Okay, what do you mean he's in bad shape? He's hurt? He's bleeding all over, and I may have killed him. Tell me what happened. Did you hit him in the head or?

Hit him in the head. With what? With a baseball bat. With a baseball bat? Yes, ma'am. He was choking my daughter. He said I'm going to kill her. Where's the baseball bat at? In the bedroom here with me.

Okay. Just don't touch it anymore, okay? Yes, ma'am. I'm putting some notes in. We've already got them started that way. Just don't hang up. Stay with me. Okay. Just don't touch it anymore, okay? Ma'am. I'm putting some notes in. We've already got them started that way. Just don't hang up. Stay with me. Wow, he didn't sound too upset. We go inside the blood-spattered bedroom where a former model and her dad, an ex-FBI agent, beat her husband dead with a baseball bat and a landscaping stone, i.e. a block of cement that just so happened to be sitting on the bedside table.

I'm Nancy 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 au pair but after his wife passed away complications relating to an asthma attack things quickly turned romantic between Molly and the Irish husband soon to be but what went wrong the night he was bludgeoned dead joining me right now crime stories and crimeline.com investigative reporter Nicole Parton. Nicole, let's just start at the beginning.

How does an evening where everybody's asleep in bed end up with the dad of these little children, a brand new husband to the nanny, end up beaten 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 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, an argument ensues, and the next thing we know,

the 911 call is made, and Jason Corbett is dead. Well, take a listen to what the nanny-turned-new-wife Molly Corbett says to ABC's 2020. He woke up, and he was angry, and he wanted to know why I'd gotten up, and I told him it was because Sarah had 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 to go upstairs and comfort our daughter. You know, all she wanted was her mom to lay with her for a couple minutes, and he forgot my parents were there. Well, 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, 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. 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 pillowcases, does everything she can to console 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, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let's just stop right there. Wendy Patrick joining me, renowned California prosecutor, along with Dr. Jan Gorniak, Fulton County, Georgia, medical examiner, Karen Smith, forensics expert, Wendy Patrick. I mean, if I wake 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 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 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 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, 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? 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 know that the father is also ex-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 mitigate the circumstances surrounding his involvement and his daughter's involvement in this. But looking at the crime scene photos, I'm not really sure how that's going to play out. Listen to this. Tom Martin's claim was that he came up to the room and there was an argument, but there were no bruises on either of them no mark the blood that were on was on them was jason's blood um no torn clothes nothing at all um and what i believe happened is a different story would you like to share it with us when i believe that molly 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. I believe that, I know that Jason had a bag packed with the kids clothes he was going to leave, he'd been looking up flights

that he had been drugged and the toxicology report shows the drugs in his system and those drugs come from you suspect they were they were prescribed to molly martin's on the friday before jason was murdered you think he might have she might have spiked his food or drink absolutely that's what i believe and that he was asleep yeah that he was asleep and that he was hitting that hit in bed while he was asleep and that that Molly Martins hit him, you know, to win an inch of his life with the brick.

You are hearing the deceased Jason Corbett's sister as she's speaking on the Late Late Show, describing her belief that this was all planned out. To Dr. Jan Gorniak, Fulton County Medical Examiner, joining us today. Dr. Gorniak, the sister says, and it was proven in the autopsy with toxicology reports, that there were drugs in Jason's system that were prescribed 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 sedation? Could they have caused what we call CNS depressant, where he was sedated and responsive? But what would be, for me, interesting to know is, where do these blows occur? I know he was hit with a baseball bat and then like a cinder block type object. But then also her injuries. I'm hearing, 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 to her saying that she was being choked with also a hand over her mouth, I'm trying to visualize how that occurs. My job isn't to, you know, a death at the hand of another equals homicide. I'm not into who, like I've said before previously, but Nancy, knowing all the pieces will would help. But back to your original question or comments about the drugs, it'd be very interesting to know not only what drugs, but the levels of those drugs in his system to prove or disprove whether he was capable of doing the injuries or the act that she accuses him of. I don't know what precisely woke me up, but what I heard were loud voices and like thumping. Something bad was going on. So I grabbed that little league baseball bat 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 up and did hit Jason with the baseball bat and there were post-mortem hits on Jason's body afterwards

and I believe they left him to die. I believe that you know they waited to call 9-1-1 when the EMT arrived you know and they gave evidence that Jason's body was cold. I believe they left Jason to die before they called 9-1-1. I think Jason was probably dead a long time before they actually called 911. You are hearing the sister of Jason Corbett speaking on the Late Late Show regarding her brother's brutal death. The crime scene photos were so horrific that one of the jurors actually got sick and threw up in 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 Gorniak, Karen Smith, forensics expert, and Nicole Parton, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. You can find this story as we track it at CrimeOnline.com. Nicole Parton, the, as we say, murder weapons were a Louisville slugger and also a block of cement or 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 repave the driveway and had brought one inside to discuss it? That's a huge question, a huge factor that 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 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. Jean Gorniak, the medical examiner, that the drugs found in Jason Corbett's system were Molly Martin Corbett's sleeping pills. That was what was in the system, according to the toxicology reports at autopsy,

Dr. Gorniak. So, okay, that's very, that's very important. But one of the things we don't know is, and whether she says it or not, that, you know, there's time for 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 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 did molly martin's corbett give him the drug or slip it to him so he could be beaten dead because the blows to this guy, Jason

Corbett, the young father of two little children. He's a widow. 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, 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 licensed pathologist dr craig nelson who studied the case he stated also that jason was struck in 10 spots and two other spots were areas of repeated blows wow this guy was so bludgeoned. He couldn't even tell how many times Jason was actually struck. That's a lot of blows, Wendy Patrick. Sounds like a lot more than you need. If you find your son-in-law attacking or strangling your daughter, he bludgeoned them apparently even after he was dead? Yeah, you know, 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 far over and above what you would expect if it was self-defense or defense of others, as alleged. I guess both of them sort of alleged in this case.

But you're right, you would look at the extent of that damage. I'm not surprised a juror got sick. I've had jurors in my cases ask 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 that carnage with the excuse. And when you put on top of that somebody that would have been already compromised 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 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 Gorniak with us. Another tidbit that I noticed when I was combing through the autopsy report, Dr. Gorniak, we learned that one 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 dragged from his bed and placed in the middle of the bedroom? I don't know that, but what I do know is that it is a post-mortem injury, which means the attack or the dragging or whatever kept on after he was dead, Dr. Gorniak. Yes. How can you tell that? Well, a post-mortem injury has different characteristics. So, obviously, if someone's not alive and their heart's not beating, there's going to be less blood in the tissue.

Also, the body is not able to react to it, so the edges of the wound aren's going to be less blood in the tissue. 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 antemortem before death and postmortem after death injuries. And also it would be important to know is also, even like you said, if he was dragged, is there carpet, what caused that post-mortem injury? But if he's dead where he is and there's no post-mortem 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, was he moved across the floor.

But then EMS personnel, so the EMTs, the paramedics, did they move him and cause the post-mortem injury because they were trying to perform life-saving measures? Not sure about that, but you have to look at all the evidence at the scene. To Karen Smith, forensics expert, speaking of the juror 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 juror threw up. Now, I've had jurors 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 what's happening right now after this brutal attack. I want to go to Kieran Smith. If his body had been moved or if he was killed in the bed and then the crime scene staged,

what would the blood evidence tell you? Well, Nancy, there's a lot to unpack here. I'm looking at these crime scene 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. I'm going to 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 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 are 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 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 floor. 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 blood to the surface. How do you know that's not throwback from hitting him with a bat, then pulling the bat back, and then the throwback goes up on the ceiling or the top of the wall.

Right, that's cast-off. And there are very telltale differences here. Impact pattern is going to leave 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 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.

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if you use the promo code nancy that's blinds.com promo code nancy for 20 off everything faux wood blinds cellular shades roller shades everything blinds.com promo code Nancy. Rules and restrictions do apply. When she was crushing his skull with that brick, she had anger to assuage and resentment to address and she addressed those on 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 20-20 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 a nanny turned new bride to Jason Corbett. It's Molly Martins Corbett and her father accused of murdering her brand-new husband. But right now, Molly Corbett stands a very good chance to walk free, claiming it was never proven that she was the aggressor in her husband's death. 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 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 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, ex-FBI, comes up and bludgeons him dead with a baseball bat, and she joins 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 in to save her life,

and thinks to close the door behind him? Somebody did. At some point, I can see swipe marks on the door handle, and I don't know who put those there, but I can tell you there are blood patterns on the interior of 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.

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. But wait, if there's blood on the bed, how could he have been strangling her? If the attack started while he's lying in bed then how does that uh prove he was standing up strangling her you know what take a listen to the father the ex-fbi explaining what happened to 2020 he has his hands around her neck and he quickly moves to move her in front of him between me and 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 be treated like that and i said let her go and he said i'm gonna kill her then he starts to edge toward the master bathroom which has a door my was, if he gets that 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 him, and I hit him again. I mean, I have room now. And I hit him hard in the back of the 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 grab 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 going to hit my dad with the bat and that's it. He's going to kill my father. How could this guy who has his system full of sleeping pills attack the dad and do this after he's sustained and this is by the fbi dad's own version you just heard three blows to the head with a baseball bat

dr jane gorniak help me nancy i wish i That is, I mean, especially hearing the descriptions of the massive injury he has of his head. And if he's swinging this bat, you know, quote unquote, trying to save his daughter, skull fractures, brain injury, would be even capable of standing, being conscious, grabbing something and still be able to communicate. 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 is bludgeoned dead in the bedroom, 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 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. And 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 this day and age, forensics are so powerful in that we can look at everything, including something like this, Nancy, where you have an injury able to be disproven through having a closer look at a red mark on a neck. Where did it come from? And we're just hearing so much evidence that tells the story itself. You can have people on the stand explaining what happens, 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 of the different ways in which we're 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 decide who they believe is telling the truth and whether or not the injuries are consistent with those stories. Well, to Nicole Parton, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, right now, Molly Martins Corbett says the claims against her must be overturned, that it has never been proven she was the aggressor in her husband's death. Nicole, what happened after 911 arrived? Well, when the 911 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 there doing chest compressions. They had him down trying to follow the instructions of the 911 operator. Take a listen again to this 911 call. Let's see what we can learn. This is by

Molly Martin Corbett's father. Okay, this is County 911. What is the emergency? My name is Tom Martin. This is my daughter's husband, my son-in-law got in a fight with my daughter. I intervened, and I think he's in bad shape. We need help. Okay, what do you mean he's in bad shape? He's hurt? He's bleeding all over, and I may have killed him.

Tell me what happened. Did you hit him in the head? Hit him in the head. With what? With a baseball bat. With a baseball bat? Yes, ma'am. He was choking my daughter he said i'm gonna kill her where's the baseball bat at in the bedroom here with me okay just don't touch it anymore okay ma'am i'm putting some notes in

we've already got them started that way just don't hang up stay with me faster if you can one two second get him covered in blood all right listen carefully i'll tell you how to do chest compressions yeah all right make sure that he's flat on his back with no pillows under his head place the heel of your hand nothing under his head yeah all right first of all tell your daughter to go unlock the door and turn on the front porch light place the heel of your hand on the breastbone in the center of his chest right between the Why don't I hear any screaming and the 911 goes on and you hear the father and the daughter speaking very calmly to each other. To Wendy Patrick, California

prosecutor, that's not normally what you hear on a 911 call when your husband's lying there covered in blood and dead. That's exactly right. You know, this is one of the reasons we don't do trial by transcript. Jurors have to see, hear, smell, touch everything they need to do to actually be able to gauge the credibility. And in doing that, they listen to 911 tapes. Those are powerful pieces of evidence that give us an idea, a flavor of the emotional tension that exists when those calls are made. They listen to the voice intonation, pauses, the quality of what is being described and everything else. And that's one of the things they use to determine who is telling the truth. And so in a case like this, this kind of a 911 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 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 the case. The appellate court looks at the rule of law. So if she's claiming, 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'll be successful. And it is the jury, Nancy, as you say, that's the ultimate trier 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. 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 Martins Corbett and her father, the ex-FBI agent. All right. That's all the testimony. It's going to be on the forensics for the state to prove their case. Yes, it is. And listen, from my experience, their version of events does not match what I'm seeing

with the bloodstain evidence. There's evidence of a struggle in this room. 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 it's 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 dings 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 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. 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 bludgeoned dead. 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 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 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 Martins Corbett, talking to 2020 about repeatedly being brutalized by her brand new husband. The first time and second time and the third time and the 20th time that you are suffocated or strangled or someone holds their hand over your mouth or a 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 3 o'clock in 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 sister speaking.

Well, I believe that Molly Martins planned to kill Jason 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, you suspect

they were prescribed to Molly Martins on the Friday before Jason was murdered. You think she might have spiked his food or drink? Yes, absolutely. That's what I believe. And that he was asleep? Yeah, that he was asleep and that he was 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 sister of Jason Corbett. Jason Corbett, a limerick man in the U.S. who marries the nanny after his first wife passes away. That nanny, Molly Martins Corbett, and her father, Thomas Martin, accused of murdering Jason. But why? Was it 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 Martins Corbett 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 Molly to adopt his children. And at this hour, Molly Martins Corbett insisting her conviction be reversed? We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.