A Toledo jury has convicted a former attorney of attempted murder for pointing a handgun at his ex-wife’s head inside a Toledo restaurant last year, an attack captured on surveillance video, according to the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office.
Matthew Exton, 43, was drinking at Souk restaurant on April 11, 2025, when he noticed his ex-wife, Kada Malone, dining nearby at Sabira, an Italian restaurant, with her parents. Prosecutors said Exton walked into Sabira, ordered a drink for Malone’s table, spat toward them and left.
He then returned with a handgun. Surveillance footage shows him pressing the weapon to within point-blank range of Malone’s head and pulling the trigger as she raised her hands to shield her face. The gun did not go off because the safety was still engaged, prosecutors said. A waiter tackled Exton from behind before he could fire again. Investigators found 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,” said Lucas County Prosecuting Attorney Julia R. Bates. “The employees and patrons who stepped in to stop the defendant that day are heroes.”
Bates also thanked the jury, which on Sept. 4 found Exton guilty of attempted murder, two counts of felonious assault and two firearm specifications tied to all three counts. The felonious assault counts stemmed from the danger posed to Malone’s parents, Jeannie and Charles Malone, who were seated with her.
On the day of the verdict, Exton had an outburst in the courtroom and had to be removed. During closing arguments, prosecutors had cited a voicemail Exton left for Malone before the attack that referenced the Johnny Cash lyric “Sooner or later God will cut you down,” according to WTOL 11, arguing it showed his state of mind and motive. Exton reacted by shouting the lyrics to “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” as court officers led him out, and at one point made a gun-like gesture with his fingers pointed at assistant Lucas County Prosecutor Rose Mock. The judge instructed the jury to disregard his conduct.
Exton, a former lawyer and local prosecutor, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 21, 2026.
