An expert at a sentencing hearing in the US has rejected an Irish autopsy finding that Jason Corbett's first wife died of an asthma attack.
Former medical examiner Dr George Nichols said there is a possibility that Margaret 'Mags' Corbett could have died as a result of homicide.
Molly Martens Corbett and her father, Tom Martens were originally convicted of his murder; however, the North Carolina Supreme Court later ordered a retrial.
They have now accepted charges of voluntary manslaughter as part of a plea deal and a court hearing in Lexington North Carolina is now hearing submissions ahead of sentencing.
Mr Corbett (39) was beaten to death with a baseball bat and a concrete paving slab in his Lexington home in 2015.
Jason CorbettFreelance Journalist Brian Carroll told Newstalk Breakfast Dr George Nichols questioned how Mr Corbett's first wife died.
"Yesterday afternoon was undoubtedly the most explosive testimony that we've heard so far," he said.
"An expert witness, a former medical examiner for the State of Kentucky, he gave dramatic evidence that Jason Corbett's first wife did not die of an asthma attack as had previously been accepted by an Irish coroner and found by an Irish pathologist.
"The expert pathologist from Kentucky examined Jason Corbett's first wife's medical history and the autopsy report.
"He was really damning of the autopsy report itself which was two pages long.
"He said that she did not die of an asthma attack and it's possible that she died as a result of homicide.
"He said there was no physical trauma, nothing that resembles asthma in the autopsy, and that if there had been an asthma attack there would have been a conflation of the lungs, there would have been various signs which would have shown up."
'No determined cause of death'
Mr Carroll said Dr Nichols criticised the Irish pathologist for not doing more.
"He was critical of the pathologist in Ireland who carried that out, in saying they should have removed her airway and examined that closely for any signs of choking or asphyxiation," he said.
"That was not done, so he said there's no determined cause of death here.
"When he was asked, 'Is it possible that one cause of death would be homicide?', he said 'It is possible' but then he went on to say it is possible but it's nowhere close to probable.
"So what he's saying is there was actually nothing physically they could go on from the autopsy.
"There was literally no determined cause of death, so the possibility does exist that she was killed," he added.
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