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Corbetts will mount legal challenge to any plea deal

Convicted killer Molly Martens Expand

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Convicted killer Molly Martens

Convicted killer Molly Martens

Convicted killer Molly Martens

Ralph Riegel Twitter Email

The family of murdered Irish father of two Jason Corbett (39) is to lodge a legal challenge in the US to any bid by prosecutors to offer a plea bargain deal to his killers Tom (71) and Molly (37) Martens.

The former FBI agent and his daughter, a former nanny, had their second-degree murder convictions quashed by North Carolina Supreme Court last month and were transferred on Friday from separate North Carolina prisons back to Davidson County jail where they were first taken into custody.

Both have been offered a plea bargain deal by Davidson County District Attorney Garry Frank, through which, if they admit the voluntary manslaughter of Mr Corbett on August 2, 2015, they will avoid retrial for second-degree murder.

The father and daughter will next week consult with their defence lawyers over the plea bargain deal, which must be decided upon within seven days.

Instead of facing possible 20-25 year prison terms, they would instead receive a likely five-year and seven-month term if they accept the plea deal - and both will have served four years in custody by August. However, the Corbett family signalled they will now take legal action to challenge the deal.

Mr Corbett's sister, Tracey Corbett-Lynch, said it was not acceptable that a factor in the plea bargain decision was the backlog of murder cases in North Carolina because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mrs Corbett-Lynch, her husband David Lynch, and Mr Corbett's two children Jack (16) and Sarah (14), all travelled to North Carolina to meet with Davidson County prosecutors and police over the retrial process.

"We appreciate that the District Attorney has a difficult job to do but we hold firm to our statement earlier this week that a plea deal in this case is tantamount to letting the Martens get away with murder," she said.

Under North Carolina law, such deals can be challenged by victims' families if they are perceived to be overly lenient or otherwise unjustified.

Mr Corbett, a Limerick widower, was beaten to death in the bedroom of his Winston-Salem home in North Carolina by his American second wife and his father-in-law. Both insisted they acted in self-defence.

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