A court in the US has heard that the prosecution’s case against Molly Martens rests on “various lies and untruths” she has spoken over the years.

The sentencing hearing for Ms Martens and her father Tom Martens for the voluntary manslaughter of Jason Corbett is continuing in North Carolina.

The pair were originally convicted of murdering Mr Corbett; however, the North Carolina Supreme Court later ordered a retrial.

They then accepted charges of voluntary manslaughter as part of a plea deal and a court hearing in Lexington is now hearing submissions ahead of sentencing.

Irish Independent Southern Correspondent Ralph Riegel has been in attendance throughout the hearing.

He told Newstalk Breakfast this morning that the court has heard about various lies Ms Marten allegedly told the people around her over the years.

“Apparently her college roommate was told that she had a baby sister who died of cancer,” he said.

“She went so far as to have a picture of a child in a frame and, of course, she never had a sister.”

The court also heard Martens claimed to have been on her college’s varsity swim team, when in fact she had dropped out and that she had claimed to have been a foster parent on her CV when she applied to work as an au pair for the Corbett family in Limerick.

Au Pair

The court heard that, after she married Mr Corbett and relocated to the US, the lies continued.

“Believe it or not, she went to a Bible study group and gave an elaborate explanation of not only the fact that she was the biological mother of Sarah [Mr Corbett’s daughter] - when of course she wasn’t - but she went into detail describing the pains of the birth and how she suffered from complications after the birth,” Mr Riegel said.

“The prosecution’s case is clearly that if she can’t be believed [for] these types of details, how on earth can she be believed in terms of her outline in terms of the critical events that happened on August 1st and 2nd.”

Case for the defence

In mitigation, the defence introduced “dramatic” evidence last week, when an American doctor told the court he doubted the accuracy of the pathology report produced after the death of Mr Corbett’s first wife, Margaret Corbett. 

“He’s the one who said that on the basis of a very brief pathology report that he received on Mr Corbett’s first wife, Margaret ‘Mags’ Corbett, he found that she did not die from asthma,” Mr Riegel said. 

“Tom and Molly Martens, the father and daughter, have always maintained that they believed or feared that Mr Corbett was responsible for the death of his first wife.

“Of course, Molly felt she was going to be next and she would meet the same fate.” 

Margaret Corbett’s sister was with her when she suffered an asthma attack before her death and the family have vigorously defended Mr Corbett against the Martens’ allegations. 

Judge David Hall will determine the Martens' sentences at a later date. 

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Main image: Molly and Tom Martens.