Today is Thursday, August 6th, 2015.
I'm about to do an interview on Sarah Corbett.
Well, Sarah, did you know why you're here today?
Yes.
Tell me why you're here today.
Because my dad died.
Okay.
Just have a seat for me.
And, Jack, my name is Brandy, and it's my job to talk to you today.
You said your dad died. What's your dad's name?
Jason Paul Corbett. C-O-R-B-E-T-T.
What is your mom's name?
Molly Martens.
And what is your grandpa's name?
His name is Tom Martens.
Okay. And what do you call him?
I call him Grandpa Tom.
Grandpa Tom. Okay.
Davidson County 911. What is the address of your emergency?
My name is Tom Martens.
I'm at Panther Creek Court,
and… we need help.
Okay, what's going on there?
My… My daughter's husband,
um, my son-in-law,
uh, got in a fight with my daughter.
I intervened, and I…
I hit him in the head.
- With what? - With a baseball bat.
- With a baseball bat? - Yes, ma'am.
Help!
- Is he conscious at all? - No.
Is he breathing?
I can't tell.
These offices are really cold.
- Thanks. - You're welcome.
All right. Tell me what happened tonight.
We were fighting.
- Who was fighting? - My husband.
My daughter had a nightmare.
She or I woke him up, so he was angry.
He choked me.
How did he choke you?
First, with his hand pressed really hard right here.
He let go for a second, and I screamed really loud.
I can't remember next until my dad came in.
Okay.
I heard arguing and thumping going on on the floor above me.
And it-- it sounded bad.
I grabbed the bat, and I ran upstairs.
So, I open the bedroom door,
and he's got Molly by the throat like this.
And he sees me coming,
and he goes around the throat like this.
And I said, "Let her go."
"I'm gonna kill her."
And he started to drag her towards the bedroom,
into the, uh, bathroom.
And I hit him.
I hit him with the baseball bat.
And he reaches out, and he grabs the bat.
Jason got the baseball bat.
And… he tried to hit my dad.
I think he might have missed, and…
I…
I hit him on the head.
You hit him on the head with what?
With… With a brick on my nightstand.
Okay.
I'm not sure. I hit him on the head or the shoulder.
How many times did you hit Jason?
I don't know.
Okay. You don't remember?
I don't know.
I can't tell you how many times I hit him.
I can't tell you how many times he shoved me.
I can't tell you. I…
'Cause it was a battle.
You know your husband didn't survive his injuries, right?
I didn't… I didn't think so.
No, he didn't survive his injuries.
How long have you been together?
Probably seven years.
My children aren't biologically my children.
They're his first wife's children, and she died.
Is there anybody that you need for us to contact from your husband's family?
Oh God.
What if I'm scared of his family?
I'm scared they'll try to take the kids.
- You guys are legally married? - Yes.
- Did you adopt the children? - No.
Okay, then that's a real possibility.
Oh!
I'm a retired FBI agent.
What did you do with the FBI?
First half of my career was Criminal.
Second half of my career was Counterintelligence.
Perhaps it would be helpful if I just kinda launched into the story.
Okay.
'Cause it will contribute to my state of mind.
Okay.
At any point, did Molly join in on the volley?
When I lost control of the bat and she wiggled out,
she somehow distracted him, but I don't know.
I'm scrambling. I don't know.
…three, four.
- One, two, three, four. Good. - One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four. One…
One… I'll count. I'll count. One, two, three, four.
Let's just start with the very first thing you told me, that your dad died.
How did your dad die?
Well, my sister had a nightmare
about insects crawling.
She had fairy blankets and insects all over her bed.
My dad got very mad,
and he was screaming at my mom, and Mom let out a scream,
and my grandpa came up and started to hit him with a bat.
And then my dad grabbed a hold of the bat, and hit my grandpa with the bat.
And so my mom… put her… like…
We were going to paint a brick that was in there, like, a cinder block,
and it hit his temple right here,
and he died.
Okay.
Now, your sister had a nightmare. How did you know that?
My pare… My mom told me.
Okay.
Did your mom and dad fight before this?
He gets very angry at my mom for leaving one light on.
- What would he do? - He would… he would scream at her.
Okay. Did you ever see him hit her?
Once.
He just got very mad about simple things.
- And who would he get mad at? - My mom.
- Did you see him get mad at her? - Yes.
And when he would get mad, what would he do?
He would physically and verbally hurt my… physically and verbally hurt my mom.
Did you see him physically hurt her?
Um, once or twice.
Um, punching, hitting, pushing.
He would physically and verbally hurt my… physically and verbally hurt my mom.
And… And how do you know she's afraid of him?
She told us.
No. My mom told me about that.
And who told you about that?
Uh, my mom.
My mom told me.
She told me.
Your mom told you.
My mom told me,
not when I was four, not when I was five, but she told me when I was six,
"Your dad is not that good of a dad."
I know he's got me outmatched.
I know he's a martial arts guy.
I know he's a boxer.
I am trying to stay a bat's length away from this guy.
Right.
I'm scared to death.
We have Molly from Knoxville, Tennessee…
…and we have Jason all the way over from Limerick, Ireland!
…caught in a trap
Can't walk out…
It shouldn't even have got to this.
These children are two Irish citizens. Their father was an Irish citizen.
There's nothing. There's no adoption. There's no dual citizenship.
They're solely Irish citizens.
We're here on the matter of the guardianship
of the minor children, Sarah and Jack Corbett.
The parents of Sarah and Jack, I'm almost certain,
would want their children to be raised in the land of their origin,
where the culture, the religion, the customs,
and their extended family on both sides are prepared to nurture them in a manner
that will be in the child's best interest.
These children will be returning to Ireland.
I love you so much.
I have not spoken…
spoken to them since my visitation with them…
…um, under which we were all under the impression
that it was a visitation, not a goodbye.
I want someone to tell them that I love them.
And happy birthday, kiddos, with all of my heart.
I know he'd been drinking.
I mean, he was wild.
Would you say that you thought he was drunk?
Yes, he was drunk.
It wasn't just sloppy drunk.
It turned out to be defensive to have her in front,
to have her between us.
He's holding her in front of him.
I'm afraid I'm going to hit her.
I kept trying to get around and distract him,
and get him to let her go.
We miss everyone in Meadowlands.
And to tell everyone that we miss them.
Bye. Love you.
Now, let's go over and see what Sarah's doing.
Hi, guys. I call this the baby swing.
Okay, let me try that again.
So, you see her nails. They haven't been painted, have they?
Not for a while.
No, they're not really working out very well.
Hi, Mom, this is Jack. This cannot go public.
I miss you, and I love you.
Keep fighting really hard. I want to know how you are.
I love you so much.
Call me, pretty please.
Molly made me lie, uh, to the people who were interviewing me.
And how did Molly make you lie?
She made up a lot of stories about my dad.
Um, that he was…
She said that he was very abusive, and she wasn't lying.
Then she started crying, and she said, "I'd never see you again."
I didn't know what was going on.
Tell me why you're here.
My aunt and uncle from my dad's side are trying to take me away from my mom.
Tom's number one priority is to protect Molly.
He wants to save Molly, so he has to say that he killed him.
But he leaves Molly completely out of it.
Molly is guilty of murder too, the state contends.
She was angry that she'd not been allowed to adopt the children.
Situation has been described where he bought the house.
He makes all the money.
She's stuck.
Malice feels like, when delivered with the bat from Tom Marten…
That's what malice feels like.
You know what malice feels like
when it comes from the brick that Molly had?
It feels like…
…"I hate him! And I want those kids!"
That's what malice feels like.
You know what malice looks like?
Malice looks like all of those pictures of what they did to his skull.
How dare you disapprove?
Happy birthday Dear Sarah and Grandad…
Show us how it's done!
- No, Jack. - You're just moving your arm.
Come on, show us how it's done.
Sarah!
How many times before tonight have you guys had physical altercations?
I don't know.
Too many to count?
A lot.
He just got very mad about simple things.
It's gotten worse over the past two months.
Now he's been cussing and screaming a lot more, getting a lot angrier.
I just came up with a keyword.
Tell me about that.
Um, "galaxy," that's mine, and my sister's is "peacock."
And who told you to set up these keywords?
My grandma.
I could just say, "peacock," and then I hang up the phone,
and she would come over to our house.
- From Tennessee? - Yeah.
Do you remember when she came up with that?
A few weeks before my dad died, the peacock thing happened.
What about their phone numbers? Did you have those written down?
Yeah, we have one under a doll.
Tell me about this cinder block that you're talking about,
or the brick that your mom used.
Um, we just got flowers that we were going to plant
in our front yard or backyard.
And we were gonna paint it so it looked pretty.
And it was in my mom's room because it was raining earlier.
You have a brick on the nightstand?
The kids and I were gonna paint…
Paint these bricks and flowers around the mailbox.
And is it true that your father was abusive, or false?
Um, false.
She told us that that's how my dad died, and to tell the DA…
Uh, you're gone.
It's okay. Are you… Are you back?
I'm going to have to call David.
I'm gonna go ahead and back out. You guys carry on.
The children were uniquely positioned to know the truth
of whether their father had an irrational anger problem.
And therein lies the problem with excluding the children's statements.
Mr. Martens, how does it feel to be out?
I'm glad to be back with my family.
It's not fair…
…that they're out and walking.
I can't focus.
And there's no trial date set.
There's no…
There's nothing to say, "Okay, this is when it's gonna be over."
I just have to sit here
and let my life pass me by again because of them.
I was trying to have a conversation with Jack.
Could you just give me two minutes to talk to my kids
when you're with them all the time?
- Could you do that? - Yeah, I'm sorry.
You should be.
Could I have dinner with the kids? That's what I asked, but you ignored it
and went and fed them anyway.
I was on the phone with you ten minutes ago,
I said, "I'm gonna make some soup. Do you want some?" And you said no.
I said no because I thought we'd have family dinner.
But you ignored it, honey, because you just do,
because it's not what you wanted to do.
I said, "I'm making soup for the kids."
"Do you want some?"
The reason I said no is because you ignored what I asked.
I didn't ignore anything.
You forgot what I asked. You couldn't care less.
I said, "I'd like to have dinner with my family."
That's what I said to you. You decided--
Jack, stop hanging off the banister. Go to your room.
No, don't go up to your room, Jack, come down here, please.
Don't tell them to go when I'm talking to them.
- I gotta go to the bathroom. - You can stay there, please.
Can you look at me? Have some respect?
Asked you to have dinner with my family. You said you were feeding the kids.
That's why I said no, because you ignored what I said about dinner with my family.
- Sit down, finish your food. - Who cares what he says.
Don't send them out when I'm talking. You don't have the right.
It's Pancake Tuesday. Why don't I make some pancakes?
I don't want anything from you. I asked you over and over again.
You made it clear you want to try to separate me from my kids.
No, I don't, J.
I'm gonna do the same to you.
The difference is, I will be able to do it.
I shouldn't have to say it over and over…
Can you guys get out the stuff for pancakes?
There you go again!
I'm talking to you, and you're talking about something else!
- Stop slamming your chair! - Stop fighting!
Go up to bed.
- Up to bed. Go. - She just got scared, J.
- Up to bed. - She did, Dad. She got scared.
Go to bed. Go to bed. Go to bed.
I'll be able to do what you're trying to do.
- I'm not trying to do anything, J. - You are.
I mean, we're fairly social people.
And we didn't really have anything going on this weekend.
That Saturday morning, we decided, "Hey, why don't we go on over to Molly's?"
It's a four-hour drive, and it's a beautiful day.
Sarah, how old are you?
Two.
Two and a half.
Yeah.
How old are you?
- Four and a half. - Are you sure you're not one and a half?
- Say, "Bye, camera." - Bye, camera.
There's a gorgeous boy.
Jack, blow Daddy a kiss.
Good boy.
Oh, another one.
What are you doing, Daddy?
Getting Sarah and Mum.
They're coming home to Jack's house.
Hi, Bubba! Give Daddy a kiss?
- Did you miss Daddy? - Hi!
- See what Daddy bought ya. - Oh, Daddy buy you presents?
Go, Sarah!