LEXINGTON, N.C. (WGHP) — The state and defense presented their final pieces of evidence to a judge on Tuesday.
The court will begin closing arguments Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.
Tuesday’s testimony centered around Thomas Martens’ character.
Four different character witnesses took the stand, including one of Martens’ sons and his brother-in-law. They described a family oriented man, who took family time just as seriously as he did his job managing a team of FBI special agents.
He is a rule follower who encouraged his team to be the best workers and people they could. One forensic psychiatrist used the phrase “Type A” to describe how Martens approached problems and situations.
The psychiatrist testified he interviewed Martens about the night Jason Corbett was killed.
He broke down how a rule following Martens went upstairs thinking he could diffuse the sound of his daughter and Jason fighting quickly. As the situation turned more serious, his logical brain couldn’t make sense of what was happening, and he entered into fight or flight.
The expert explained the ferocity of the attack and Martens’ inability to remember it made sense to him and were along the lines of what he would expect a typical trauma response in this situation to be.
Another standout moment of Tuesday’s hearing was a quiet and frustrated audible response from Jason’s family when a domestic violence expert took the stand.
The expert went over the interviews and evidence from Molly Corbett of what he believes was behavior concurrent with domestic abuse from Jason.
The expert said Molly’s biggest driver was keeping the children, Jack and Sarah. If she divorced Jason, she knew the children would be taken away. If something happened to Jason, she also knew his family in Ireland would take the children from her.
The expert drew the conclusion this meant she and Martens would have little reason to want Jason dead and would have every reason to use a reasonable amount of force in the situation.
The expert also claimed the use of force against Jason is reasonable because of his size, the threats he made against her, nd the fact she is a victim of abuse.
The state pushed back showing the expert dozens of bloody photos of Jason’s body from the autopsy and the Corbett’s home, drawing his attention to the gruesome scene and the extent of Jason’s injuries.
The state asked if those pictures showed a reasonable use of force.
The expert came back saying the pictures look like a measure of how terrified and scared Martens and Corbett were.
The response drew groans and sighs from Jason’s family with one person saying out loud, “Oh, my God.”
