DAVIDSON COUNTY DISTRICT Attorney Garry Frank has said that “justice prevailed” in the Jason Corbett murder trial, and described the man’s injuries as “particularly extreme for an assault”.
Yesterday, Corbett’s wife Molly Martens-Corbett, and her father Thomas Martens, were found guilty of second-degree murder and were sentenced to 20-25 years in prison.
The accused had claimed that the Limerick father-of-two was choking his wife and threatening to kill her, and that they acted in self-defence. This defence was rejected by the jury, and a verdict was delivered after little over a day of deliberations.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Frank said that the jury had listened “very carefully” to the evidence.
“Prosecutors did a good job so that the jury had a true and accurate picture,” he said.
Justice prevailed in this matter based on this evidence.
Jason Corbett was beaten to death with a metal baseball bat and a brick, and Frank said that while authorities had “seen this before”, the Limerick man sustained “particularly extreme injuries for an assault” of this kind.
Frank said: “The medical examiner said that these are the kinds of injuries you’d see in a [road] accident or a fall from a building.”
When asked if he was surprised that Martens-Corbett didn’t testify in her own defence, the district attorney said that he wasn’t.
“A lot of lawyers believe you should put your client up, and some don’t” he said.
He acknowledged that the Martens’ legal team would likely appeal the guilty verdicts, and said that a court would rule on that in due course.
On his interaction with the family of Jason Corbett, Frank said they had daily contact.
“They were very appreciative [of the guilty verdicts],” he said. “They were a bit apprehensive of the system at first. They realised we did the best we could.”
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