James Corbett's family 'devastated by plea deal' after retrial decision

James Corbett, who was killed in his North Carolina home in 2015, was originally from Limerick

The family of an Irish man beaten to death in the US have said prosecutors have offered a plea deal to the people originally convicted of his murder rather than seek a retrial.

James Corbett, 39, was killed in his North Carolina home in 2015.

His wife Molly Martens and her father Thomas Martens were convicted of second-degree murder in 2017.

Supreme Court judges upheld a ruling for a new trial earlier this year, Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported.

Mr Corbett's sister, Tracey Corbett Lynch, said in a statement that her family was "devastated" at the decision.

The district attorney for Davidson County, in North Carolina, told RTÉ that he could "neither confirm nor deny" reports of a plea deal.

Molly Martens and Thomas Martens, a former FBI agent, had appealed their convictions on the basis they did not get a fair trial, arguing that critical evidence that would have supported their claims of self defence had been excluded.

Molly Corbett, then 33, and her father, Thomas Martens, then 67.

The North Carolina Court of Appeal ruled in their favour in February 2020 and that decision was upheld by the state's Supreme Court last month.

Molly Martens first met Mr Corbett in 2008 after travelling to his native Ireland to work as an au pair for his two children after his first wife died in 2006 from an asthma attack.

The Limerick native wed the American in 2011 and moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina.