After the verdicts, as Tom Martens and Molly Corbett were led off to prison, the jury foreman described his struggle.

Defence lawyers will maintain there were mitigating factors that should be taken into account. The judge said that a defendant with the worst record could face up to 204 months or 17 years in prison.Molly Martens had grown up in Knoxville, Tennessee. She had dropped out of Clemson University and was looking to begin a new chapter in her life. No one will ever understand the evil that was put upon you that night. But it is not ours to comprehend the darkness and evil that lurks in the shadows.” Read More Related Articles

Sharon Martens said in her statement, the court heard, that Jason Corbett’s children – from his first marriage – had told her how he had grabbed Molly Martens Corbett’s arm and pushed her against a wall. While my friends are out having fun and going to parties, I am 17 years old, and in therapy learning how to live with the fact that I lied and helped the Martens escape full justice for taking my father’s life.

SELF-DEFENSE OR MURDER?

TOM MARTENS: My son in law, uh, got in a fight with my daughter. I intervened and he's in bad shape. We need help. Separately prosecutors told a court hearing in North Carolina that Molly Martens Corbett, the daughter of Thomas Martens and wife of Jason Corbett, “struggled with and had a complicated relationship with the truth”.

These recordings have been orchestrated and selective just like my words and my brother’s words were coached and doctored when the Martens made us lie about our father. I did it out of love and fear – I now understand how both can exist alongside each other. Mr Kingberry also told the court he would introduce evidence that had been excluded from the first trial. Molly and Tom were immediately sentenced to 20-to-25 years in prison. That's when Molly turned around in court and said something to her mother. Tracey Lynch: No. Molly had murdered their father. And that's what I firmly believed at that point. Tracey Lynch: They were just so happy and so excited with life and so enthusiastic about it as well. And — and they had Sarah, and you know, I remember them sayin' that they had, that their family was complete. They had their little prince and princess.Molly took off her wedding ring almost immediately and told me to stop crying and "Get over it" in the days after he was killed. The two accused have maintained they acted in self-defence in hitting Mr Corbett and that they feared for their lives. Mike Earnest: Tom, I think, even as he sits in this atrocious miscarriage of justice knows that he saved his daughter's life. And, you know, I think he can sleep at night knowing that even if she is in prison, she's not dead. The trial judge ruled the children’s statements to be inadmissible. However, the court of appeal and the supreme court subsequently disagreed.