LEXINGTON, N.C. (WGHP) — On Wednesday, a major piece of evidence was viewed for the first time during the sentencing hearing of Molly Corbett and Thomas Martens.
The state played two separate videos of Jack and Sarah Corbett, Jason Corbett’s children, talking to a social worker at the Dragonfly House Child Advocacy Center in Mocksville in 2015.
This took place hours after Jason Corbett’s funeral service the day after Molly and Martens killed him.
Jack and Sarah recanted the testimony in the video in 2016 after moving back to Ireland with Jason’s family, saying their testimony was influenced by Molly.
The omission of these videos and their contents ultimately helped the defense secure an appeal and possible retrial.
In Sarah’s video, she described the events of Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 to the social worker. She remembered going to play at a neighbor’s house and her dad drinking beer at the neighbor’s home. She woke up in the middle of the night because she had a nightmare and went downstairs to Molly and Jason’s room.
Sarah revealed to the social worker she was quiet whenever she woke up in the middle of the night. Sarah said Jason had yelled at her in the past for going into their room. Sarah didn’t notice an overabundance of drinking and said she noticed her dad drinking with friends or at parties.
Sarah shared her dad would get mad at Molly for “ridiculous reasons” like leaving the light on. He would yell at her every day and sometimes multiple times a day and call her throughout the day when she was with the kids.
Sarah said she noticed physical abuse from her father like her dad stepping on Molly’s feet and even rolling over her foot with a car. Molly told Sarah her dad was not a “good dad.”
Sarah revealed Molly’s mother Sharon told Sarah and Jack to memorize her phone number.
They could call their grandmother and say an individual code word. Sarah’s was “peacock,” and Jack’s was “galaxy.” The kids were supposed to call the number and say the code word in an emergency where the fighting between Jason and Molly got out of hand. Both kids didn’t know what their grandmother would do once they called the number. In another statement to deputies, Sharon revealed she would call the police.
Jack told a similar story of being woken up early on Aug. 2 and not knowing what was going on until hours later when Molly sat the kids down and told them Martens hit Jason with a baseball bat, and she hit Jason with a brick. Jack said that at that moment, he felt angry and upset.
Jack told the social worker the couple didn’t get along well and his father would get angry over leaving the lights on and bills. He witnessed Jason physically and verbally abusing Molly and described a time he saw his father punch Molly in the arm.
He described feeling sad and angry when Molly would curl up in a ball and cry under the covers of their bed after these altercations. Jack shared his dad would talk about moving back to Ireland when he was angry.
Jack shared he was not afraid of his father, despite Molly confiding in him that she was. At the time, the kids said they wanted to stay in the United States with Molly.
The prosecution mentioned at the end of the hearing on Wednesday that they are planning to share details of why the statements were recanted on Thursday.
The court is also set to hear testimony from the Department of Social Services social worker who interviewed both children the day after Jason’s death.
Also on Wednesday, the judge watched Molly Corbett’s interview with a Davidson County deputy hours after Jason’s death.
Molly admitted to the investigator there is a history of domestic violence in their home. In the spring of 2015, she went to Novant Health in Kernersville complaining of head trauma after she said Jason slammed her head into the headboard of their bed.
She did not tell doctors where the pain in her head came from.
The physical abuse started in Ireland. Molly claims when Jason was mad, he would stomp on her foot and make it seem like an accident.
She says he was not physically abusive to the children but was verbally abusive every day. She mentioned her parents were aware of the abusive nature of Jason and that he often seemed loving and supportive to people on the outside.
She walks the deputy through their evening and her parents arriving to go to bed and at one point, getting up to help Sarah change her sheets in the middle of the night.
When she came back to bed, she said Jason got angry and started yelling at her then started choking her. She could not remember where and how he started choking her.
After the altercation between Jason, Molly and Martens started, Molly says she remembers Jason saying, “I’ll kill her.”
Toward the end of the questioning, when the deputy starts to talk about the next steps and notifying Jason’s family, she says she is scared of them and worries they will “kill her” and try to take the kids.
