TOLEDO, Ohio (Court TV) — An Ohio attorney has conceded that he brought a gun into a crowded restaurant and pointed it at his ex, but says he never meant to kill her or hurt anyone else.
Matthew Exton, 43, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and three counts of felonious assault stemming from an incident at a restaurant opening that left diners terrified.
April 11, 2025, “was meant to be a day of celebration, a new beginning,” prosecutor Rose Mary Mock said in her opening statement to the jury on Tuesday. It was the opening day for a new restaurant, Sabira, on South Huron Street. “The staff rehearsed,” Mock said. “They practiced their soft opening all in preparation for its magnificent opening night. Nothing in their rehearsals and nothing in their soft openings prepared them for what would walk through that door.”
Mock said that Exton walked into the restaurant and headed directly to the victims’ table, “not with the intention to have a meal, not with the intention to celebrate; he came there with malice in his heart and a loaded gun to commit a public assassination of his ex-wife and severely injure her two parents while they were having dinner.”…