3 minNews
Ohio Man Convicted of Attempted Murder After Gun Jams During Restaurant Attack on Ex-Wife
Matthew Exton, a former Ohio attorney, was found guilty of attempted murder and felonious assault after a surveillance video showed him pressing a handgun to his ex-wife's head at a Toledo restaurant. The weapon failed to fire because the safety was engaged.
A former Ohio attorney has been convicted of attempted murder after a surveillance video captured him pressing a handgun to his ex-wife's head at a Toledo restaurant and pulling the trigger. The weapon did not fire because the safety was still engaged, according to the Lucas County Prosecutor's Office.
Matthew Exton, 43, was found guilty on Sept. 4 of attempted murder, two counts of felonious assault and two firearm specifications attached to all three counts. The jury's verdict followed an incident on April 11, 2025, at Sabira, an Italian restaurant where Kada Malone was dining with her parents, Jeannie and Charles Malone.
Prosecutors said Exton had been having a drink at Souk, a nearby restaurant, when he spotted his ex-wife at Sabira. He entered the Italian restaurant, ordered a drink for Malone's table, spat in their direction and walked out. Security footage then shows him returning with a handgun, thrusting it to within point-blank range of Malone's head and pulling the trigger as she raised her hands in front of her face.
A waiter tackled Exton from behind before he could try to shoot again. Authorities later confirmed there was a round in the chamber and seven more bullets in the magazine.
«The defendant did not come with the intention of having a meal. He came with anger in him and with the intention to commit a public execution of his ex-wife at the restaurant that day,» Lucas County Prosecuting Attorney Julia R. Bates said in a statement. «The employees and patrons who stepped in to stop the defendant that day are heroes.»
Bates also thanked the jury for its verdict. The two counts of felonious assault applied to Malone's parents.
On the day the jury returned its guilty verdict, Exton had an outburst in the courtroom and had to be removed. During the prosecutor's closing arguments, they pointed to a voicemail Exton left for Malone before the attempted shooting that referenced the Johnny Cash lyric «Sooner or later God will cut you down.» Prosecutors said the message was an instance of threatening behavior that spoke to Exton's motive and state of mind ahead of the crime.
Exton, who appeared to take issue with the prosecutor's framing of the voicemail, began screaming the lyrics to «God's Gonna Cut You Down» as court officers removed him. At another point, he made a gun-like gesture with his fingers and pointed it at assistant Lucas County Prosecutor Rose Mock. The jury was instructed by the judge to disregard Exton's conduct and not let it impact their deliberations.
Exton, a former lawyer and local prosecutor, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 21, 2026.
