Review of the Netflix documentary A Deadly American Marriage Rating *****
This documentary looks at the death of Jason Corbett in 2015. Jason died at the hands of his wife, Molly, and her father, Thomas Martens. The focus of the investigators, as well as the documentary team, is whether or not Jason was killed in self-defense or was he murdered.
I knew nothing about the crime beforehand. I listened to both sides tell their stories of what happened. Jason’s side of the story is told largely by his children and his family. The filmmakers do an excellent job of presenting the facts of the case in a balanced fashion. They let each of the participants explain what happened from their perspective. The viewer is left to decide which version is the true version.
We learn early on that Molly had a miscarriage and took a job as an au pair to help ease her depression. She moved to Ireland, where she went to work for Jason Corbett, whose wife died at a young age. The two soon form a romantic relationship. They marry and move to North Carolina. Jason’s son Jack was three, and his daughter Sarah was one. By all accounts, Molly appeared to be a devoted mother to her stepchildren, especially Sarah. There are hints early on in the relationship that Molly focused more on her relationship with Sarah than with Jason.
As the marriage deteriorated, Molly took steps that might help her gain custody of the children if she and Jason divorced. Jason, who sensed that things were headed south, would not allow Molly to adopt the kids, making Molly’s chance of getting custody in a divorce much more difficult. What she needed was evidence that Jason was an unfit father.
Only Molly and her father know exactly what transpired on August 2, 2015. The prosecution surmised that Molly had invited her parents to stay with them, hoping that she could get Jason into some compromising position where her parents could then act as witnesses in a future court proceeding over custody.
I listened carefully to both sides. It became apparent that Molly and her father were caught in numerous lies. I believe the kids and their recantation of statements made to investigators after their father’s death. They admitted telling investigators what their mother had coached them to say.
There are many things about the crime scene that created suspicion, in my mind, on the Martens. First, there is the idea that Molly’s father, having been awoken by thuds and noises coming from the floor above, instinctively thought to bring a bat upstairs as he went to investigate what was going on. Why did he think he needed a bat? Jason had severe head injuries caused by repeated blows to the head from the bat and a brick, which just so happened to be in the bedroom. There was blood everywhere, yet Molly and her father barely had a scratch. It was a fight to the death, yet Molly’s mother made no attempt to find out what was happening and claims to have gone back to bed. The whole scenario seems implausible.
Molly and her father are eventually found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to lengthy prison sentences. The Martens hire an attorney to file their appeal. This is when things take an unexpected twist. The new attorneys successfully got the appeals judges to grant a new trial. In the second trial, Jason is portrayed as a domestic abuser, a drunk, and someone with a short temper. Molly provides recordings that she secretly recorded to prove her case of verbal and physical abuse. The prosecutor explains that the tapes are not nearly as damming as the defense team portrayed because only Molly knew that they were being recorded. She had the advantage of setting things up to make Jason look bad. More importantly, there were no recordings that any reasonable person could listen to and conclude that Jason was an abuser, though that’s exactly what a few of the defense experts claimed.
I rarely discuss books and stories that I have written. But I recently covered a story in my book, I Will Ruin You, that is similar to this story. Coincidentally, that crime also took place in 2015, though the outcome is drastically different.
Everything that Molly and her father did shows advanced planning. When Molly tells a friend about supposed abuse, she is setting up witnesses for a future court proceeding. What is more telling is when a neighbor tells investigators about Molly criticizing Jason over his weight at a party. That you can prove, allegations of abuse over a phone call cannot be proved. You don’t put a recording device in your spouse’s car unless you are hoping for incriminating evidence to be used against them. I know which side I fall on. You decide for yourself.