State v. Corbett

Decision Date04 February 2020
Docket NumberNo. COA18-714,COA18-714
Parties STATE of North Carolina v. Molly Martens CORBETT and Thomas Michael Martens
CourtNorth Carolina Court of Appeals

Attorney General Joshua H. Stein, by Special Deputy Attorneys General Jonathan P. Babb and L. Michael Dodd, for the State.

Tharrington Smith, LLP, Raleigh, by Douglas E. Kingsbery and Melissa H. Hill, for defendant-appellant Molly Martens Corbett.

Crumpler Freedman Parker & Witt, Winston-Salem, by David B. Freedman, Jones P. Byrd, Jr., and Dudley A. Witt, for defendant-appellant Thomas Michael Martens.

ZACHARY, Judge.

Defendants Molly Martens Corbett ("Molly") and Thomas Michael Martens ("Tom"), daughter and father, appeal from judgments entered upon a jury's verdicts finding them guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Jason Corbett ("Jason"), Molly's husband. Defendants also appeal the trial court's order denying their Motion for Appropriate Relief alleging juror misconduct. After careful review, we affirm the order denying DefendantsMotion for Appropriate Relief. However, due to a number of prejudicial errors apparent within the record, we reverse the judgments entered upon Defendants’ convictions for second-degree murder and remand for a new trial.

Although Defendants raise 13 issues on appeal—many of which are interconnected and complex—this case is deceptively simple, boiling down to whether Defendants lawfully used deadly force to defend themselves and each other during the tragic altercation with Jason. Having thoroughly reviewed the record and transcript, it is evident that this is the rare case in which certain evidentiary errors, alone and in the aggregate, were so prejudicial as to inhibit Defendants’ ability to present a full and meaningful defense. Moreover, the trial court erred in instructing the jury on the aggressor doctrine as to Tom, given the absence of evidence to support such an instruction.

Because these errors are dispositive and warrant a new trial, we need not address the additional issues raised by Defendants.

I. Background

Jason originally lived in Ireland with his first wife, Margaret, and their two children, Jack and Sarah. After Margaret died unexpectedly in 2004, Jason hired Molly to work as an au pair . Jason and Molly later began a romantic relationship, and in 2011, they moved with the children to Davidson County, North Carolina. Jason and Molly married later that year.

A. The Altercation

On 1 August 2015, Molly's parents, Tom and Sharon Martens, traveled from their home in Knoxville, Tennessee, to visit the Corbetts in Davidson County. Tom, an attorney and retired FBI agent, packed an aluminum Little League baseball bat and a tennis racket as gifts for Jack. When Tom and Sharon arrived at the Corbetts’ home at around 8:30 p.m., Jason was in the driveway, drinking a beer with a neighbor, and he walked over to greet Tom and Sharon. That evening, Tom, Sharon, Jason, Molly, and Sarah had dinner together while Jack attended a party. Jack came home at around 11:00 p.m. Because of the late hour, Tom decided not to give Jack the bat and tennis racket that night.

Tom and Sharon slept in the guest room, which was located just below the bathroom that adjoined Jason and Molly's bedroom. Late in the night, Tom was awakened by noises, including "a scream and loud voices," above their bedroom. Wearing only a golf shirt and boxer shorts, Tom jumped out of bed, grabbed the Little League bat that remained with his luggage by the bed, and rushed upstairs.

Once he arrived upstairs, Tom determined that the noises were coming from Jason and Molly's bedroom. When Tom opened the bedroom door, Molly and Jason were facing each other, and Jason had his hands around Molly's neck. As Tom entered and closed the door behind him, Jason quickly removed his hands from Molly's neck, and shifted her into a tight chokehold with her neck in the crook of his right arm, and her body positioned between himself and Tom.

Tom repeatedly told Jason, "Let her go"; Jason repeatedly responded, "I'm going to kill her." Jason began to move down the hall toward the bathroom, dragging Molly with him. Tom feared that if Jason took Molly into the bathroom and closed the door, Tom would be unable save her, and "that would be the end of that." To impede Jason's progress down the hall, Tom swung the baseball bat at "the back of the two of them glued together"—hitting Jason in the back of the head, while carefully avoiding Molly. Jason did not "go down" or even waver, and it seemed to Tom that the blow only "further enraged" Jason. Nevertheless, Tom continued to hit Jason "as many times as [he] could to distract him because he now had Molly in a very tight chokehold," and "she was no longer wiggling."

Despite Tom's efforts, Jason successfully pulled Molly into the bathroom. Tom was close behind them, however, and Jason was unable to close the door. Tom had more room to maneuver inside of the bathroom than in the hallway, and he was able to hit Jason in the head with the bat again. Yet these efforts "didn't seem to have any effect."

Jason forced his way out of the bathroom, into the hallway, and back into the bedroom, pushing Molly and Tom along as he went. The affray resumed in the bedroom. Tom swung the bat at Jason, who caught the bat in his left hand, enabling Molly to break free from Jason's chokehold. While Tom and Jason were struggling for possession of the bat, Jason "punche[d]" his hand out and shoved Tom across the width of the bed, and Tom fell face first onto the floor. As he lay facedown on the floor, Tom heard Molly scream, "Don't hurt my dad."

When Tom got up, he saw Jason holding the bat, standing in "a good athletic position ... looking between [Tom] and Molly." Seeing that Molly was "trapped" between the wall and the bed, Tom "rush[ed]" Jason to "try to get ahold of the bat." Tom and Jason renewed their struggle for control of the bat, and at some point, Molly picked up a brick paver that was sitting on her nightstand and used it to strike Jason.

Tom managed to regain control of the bat. By this point, he was "shaking" and physically weak from the altercation. However, because Tom remained afraid that Jason might regain control of the bat and again attempt to kill him or Molly, Tom continued hitting Jason until he was down, and Tom felt certain that Jason "could not kill" them.

Shortly thereafter, Tom called 911 and told the operator, "My, my, uh, daughter's husband, uh, my son-in-law, uh, got in a fight with my daughter, I intervened, and I, I think, um, and, he's in bad shape. We need help. ... He, he's bleeding all over, and I, I may have killed him." With the 911 operator's guidance, Molly and Tom took turns administering CPR to Jason until the emergency medical crew arrived.

B. The Investigation

Davidson County EMS paramedics arrived at the scene within ten minutes of receiving the 911 call. One paramedic quickly determined that Jason had suffered "severe heavy trauma to the back of the head." While attempting to lift Jason's chin in order to prepare him for intubation, all of the paramedic's left "fingers went inside the skull."

Inside of the house, first responders observed a significant amount of blood on the floor and walls of the bedroom, dry blood on portions of Jason's body, and a brick paver on the bedroom floor. Deputies from the Davidson County Sheriff's Office retrieved the children from their bedrooms, where they found Sarah and Jack asleep and undisturbed.

Meanwhile, Deputy David Dillard escorted Molly to his patrol car, where she remained for approximately one hour. In his written report of the incident, Deputy Dillard noted that Molly was "very obviously in shock." He recalled that Molly "was making crying noises but [he] didn't see any visible tears. She was also rubbing her neck. ... It wasn't a constant. She would do it and stop and do it and then stop while continuing to make the crying noises."

Molly was "in the fetal position" on the ground beside Deputy Dillard's car when two paramedics approached to examine her. Both paramedics observed redness on Molly's throat, and when one of them asked Molly whether her neck hurt, she said yes, and stated that she had been choked. Aside from Molly's symptoms of shock and the redness and soreness to her throat, none of the first responders observed any apparent injuries to either Molly or Tom.

Lieutenant Frank Young, III, arrived on the scene later, and took photographs of Jason's body. One of the photographs depicted Jason's right hand with a long blonde hair in his palm.

Later that day, Molly submitted the following written statement to the Davidson County Sheriff's Office:

My husband, Jason Corbett, was upset that he awoke and an argument ensued with him telling me to "shut up," (etc.) and he applied pressure to my throat/neck and started choking me. At some point, I screamed as loud as possible. He covered my mouth and then started choking me again with his arm. My father, Tom Martens, came in the room and I cannot remember if he said something or just hit Jason to get him off me. Jason grabbed the bat from him and I tried to hit him with a brick (garden decor) I had on my nightstand. I do not remember clearly after that.

On 3 August 2015, a medical examiner at the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner performed an autopsy and determined Jason's cause of death to be blunt force head trauma

, including "extensive skull fractures" and "two large, branched, full-thickness lacerations of bilateral parietal scalp," arising from multiple blows to the head. The medical examiner found that one laceration on Jason's head "ha[d] an appearance of a postmortem injury." He also noted that Jason had a blood alcohol level of 0.02% and tested positive for low levels of an antidepressant medication known to have sedative effects.

That day, Sarah and Jack were staying with Molly's brother in Union County when they were visited by a social worker from the Union County Department of...

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9 cases
  • State v. Corbett
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina
    • March 12, 2021
    ...On appeal, a divided panel of the Court of Appeals vacated Molly's and Tom's convictions and ordered a new trial. State v. Corbett , 269 N.C. App. 509, 512, 839 S.E.2d 361, writ allowed , 373 N.C. 580, 838 S.E.2d 461, and writ dismissed , 375 N.C. 276, 845 S.E.2d 793 (2020).¶ 3 The jury in ......
  • State v. Thomas
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of North Carolina (US)
    • December 21, 2021
    ...a firearm and the swabbing of persons/ objects for testing." In making that argument, Defendant relies heavily on State v. Corbett , 269 N.C. App. 509, 839 S.E.2d 361 (2020), aff'd 376 N.C. 799, 2021-NCSC-18, 855 S.E.2d 2284 , where this Court agreed with the defendant's argument that an ex......
  • State v. Blake
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of North Carolina (US)
    • December 31, 2020
    ...the verdict except as they pertain to extraneous influences that may have affected the jury's decision." State v. Corbett , 269 N.C.App. 509, 521-22, 839 S.E.2d 361, 377, writ allowed , 373 N.C. 580, 838 S.E.2d 461 (2020) ; State v. Lyles , 94 N.C. App. 240, 246, 380 S.E.2d 390, 394 (1989) ......
  • State v. Thomas
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of North Carolina (US)
    • December 21, 2021
    ...of a firearm and the swabbing of persons/ objects for testing." In making that argument, Defendant relies heavily on State v. Corbett, 269 N.C.App. 509, 839 S.E.2d 361 (2020), aff'd 376 N.C. 799, 2021-NCSC-18[4], where this Court agreed with the defendant's argument that an expert was unrel......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

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