Family spokesperson says it makes a ‘mockery of justice’ Molly (40) and Tom (73) Martens were sentenced for Jason Corbett’s manslaughter last month
Former FBI agent Tom Martens will be released on Tuesday having served three years and nine months of a four year and three month prison sentence for beating Mr Corbett to death with a metal baseball bat and a concrete paving slab in the bedroom of his North Carolina home on August 2 2015.
He was sent back to prison just 28 days ago – with Mr Corbett’s Irish family not expecting the father and daughter to be released from behind bars until next summer.
Molly Martens, who married the Limerick widower in June 2011, will be released from custody 24 hours later on Wednesday.
In her case, she will have served just 29 days behind bars.
She was granted early release despite having broken North Carolina prison rules on five occasions while serving a 20-25 year prison sentence for her husband’s second degree murder.
When the early prison releases were initially reported, Mr Corbett’s family initially believed it was a typographical error on the North Carolina Department of Corrections website.
Mr Corbett’s family said the two killers will effectively only spend Thanksgiving behind bars – and will be at home to celebrate Christmas with their family.
“It makes a mockery of justice,” a family spokesperson said.
“We are devastated – why on earth bother having a sentencing hearing and then hand them seven months behind bars if they are only going to serve four weeks? It is absolutely shocking.”
The Limerick family had received no notification about the early release from any North Carolina justice agency.
The Martens second degree murder conviction was overturned after an appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court two years ago.
The father and daughter struck a plea bargain deal with Davidson County District Attorney’s Office last month.
Both were sent back to prison for a further seven months by Judge David Hall on November 8 following an emotion-charged sentencing hearing in Lexington which Mr Corbett’s family described as “a character assassination exercise” with the Irish businessman’s good name deliberately targeted by the Martens.
Davidson County Detention Centre and the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections confirmed the early releases which were ruled upon by the Raleigh-based North Carolina Combined Records Office.
Molly Martens had already served part of a sentence imposed in 2017 for the second-degree murder of Jason Corbett.
Davidson County District Attorney’s Office said the assessment of prison sentences and parole was not a matter for them.
Tom and Molly Martens will now be on parole for nine months.
Bizarrely, both father and daughter had been kept in custody in Davidson County jail until November 29 – over three weeks after their November 8 sentencing.
They were then transferred to high-security North Carolina prisons.
Tom has an offender number of 1553797.
Molly has an offender number of 1552729.
Molly had hoped to continue her studies for a science degree behind bars in a high-security US prison.
The former nanny – who suffers from bipolar disorder – underwent a third psychiatric evaluation in recent months as she was placed on on suicide watch in a North Carolina jail.
Ms Martens and her father, Tom (73), last month resumed serving minimum four year and three month sentences (51 months) for the brutal killing of Irish widower Jason Corbett (39).
Mr Corbett, a Limerick packaging industry executive and a father-of-two, was beaten to death by the Tennessee father and daughter with a metal Louisville Slugger baseball bat and a concrete paving slab in the master bedroom of his North Carolina home in the early hours of August 2 2015.
Both insisted they acted in self defence after claiming Mr Corbett had attacked his wife.
The pair were found totally uninjured at the scene whereas Mr Corbett’s skull had been so badly shattered that a pathologist warned he could not accurately count the number of blows inflicted.
Pieces of his skull fell out onto the medical table as he was being prepared for the post mortem examination.
Molly and Tom Martens were jailed last month after reaching an eleventh hour plea bargain agreement with Davidson County prosecutors.
Both were handed sentences ranging from a minimum of four years and three months to a maximum of six years and two months after pleading to voluntary manslaughter.
In return, the State dropped second degree murder charges against both.
They received minimum sentences at the middle-end of the scale after their legal teams had launched what Mr Corbett’s children, Jack (19) and Sarah (17), described as a calculated character assassination of their father.
A self-made man described by his Limerick family as “a kind-hearted, gentle giant who abhorred violence” was instead depicted as an abuser, a bully, a jealous and controlling husband as well as a miser who obsessed with money being spent on fruit and lights being accidentally left on.
The father and daughter were originally convicted of Mr Corbett’s second degree murder in August 2017 following a five week trial in Lexington, North Carolina.
Prosecutors claimed six years ago that Mr Corbett was first attacked while in bed and then beaten while helpless on the floor in an assault sparked by a dispute over control of his two children.
Earlier, an attempt had been made to drug him.
Both Tom and Molly Martens then delayed calling police and paramedics to ensure he was dead before they arrived.
Paramedics commented that the 39 year old was cold to the touch when they arrived – and queried precisely when the fatal incident had occurred?
Jack Corbett claimed that other members of the Martens family had engaged in a cover-up to try to protect Tom and Molly Martens – including ensuring police never located the Irishman’s phone or laptop.
The Corbett family insisted he was killed amid fears by Ms Martens that he was bringing his children back to Ireland for their protection and would then divorce her.
One psychiatrist, Dr David Adams, found that “the primary focus of her (Molly’s) existence before she married Jason Corbett was to adopt these two children, then divorce him and then have custody rights of the two children.”
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