Over some 21 years in office, Garry Frank, the elected district attorney for Davidson and Davie counties, has seen, heard and dealt with more than his share of high-profile, high-pressure tabloid-worthy cases.
His district, 33, is relatively small and covers two counties. Davidson County is home to 167,609 souls and next door Davie 42,346. One might think itâd be relatively low-key.
And yet Frank and his assistants have been enmeshed time and again in such donât-dare-look-away cases as taking down a flamboyant, corrupt sheriff, losing a murder trial brought against a well-known dentist who nearly cut off his estranged wifeâs head and twice now, a murder case that makes headlines on two continents.
Their attorneys asked for bond to be set at $200,000 or even lower, saying that they posed no threat to the community and did not pose a flight risk.
Assistant District Attorney Alan Martin recited the graphic details of what Molly Corbett and Martens were accused of doing to Jason Corbett and argued that the nature of the crime, the weight of the evidence and their financial resources called for a bond of $1 million each for the father and daughter.
Jason Corbett, 39, was found beaten to death in the early morning hours of Aug. 2, 2015 in the Davidson County home he shared with his wife, Molly Corbett, and his two children, Jack and Sarah, from his first marriage. Molly Corbett had been hired as an au pair for Jasonâs children while Jason lived in Ireland, and they began dating. They married in 2011 and moved to the Meadowlands, a golf community in Davidson County. Prosecutors said Molly Corbett and Martens beat Jason to death with a baseball bat and a paving brick. They said
When did the jury of nine women and three men swing towards a second-degree murder conviction rather than believing the story of self-defence? Was it the dramatic forensic evidence of blood spatter expert Dr Stuart James?
The Florida-based expert, one of the world s leading authorities on blood spatter analysis, effectively recreated the last moments of the Limerick father-of-two s life in the early hours of August 2, 2015 in the bedroom of his luxury home.
He determined that Mr Corbett may very well have suffered the first of at least 12 horrific blows to his head while in or by his bed.
He also determined that Mr Corbett s head was repeatedly struck in a descending motion - in other words as he fell to the ground.