Ex-attorney Matthew Exton will get as much as 24 years in jail for making an attempt to shoot ex-wife inside a Toledo restaurant

A former lawyer who stormed into an Ohio restaurant and aimed a handgun at his ex-wife final April was sentenced to as much as 24 ½ years in jail on Monday.

Matthew Exton, 43, was convicted of two counts of tried homicide and two counts of felonious assault earlier this month in reference to the incident at a Toledo restaurant. Prosecutors mentioned Exton tried to shoot his former partner at shut vary with a Colt Defender as she sat at a desk alongside her mom on April 11, 2025.

Moments after the gun didn’t go off as a result of the weapon’s security was on, a waiter and others tackled Exton and subdued him.

Exton confronted sentencing enhancements beneath Ohio regulation due to his use of a firearm whereas committing felonies.

During his sentencing listening to Monday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court, prosecutors mentioned a mass casualty occasion was averted that day.

“He almost perpetrated a mass casualty occasion in the midst of a crowded restaurant. … He had no regard for anybody or something apart from himself,” prosecutor Mike Loisel argued, in line with a reside feed of the proceedings.

Loisel added that Exton is so unhinged that he “should be incarcerated” for a prolonged time period.

“This courtroom has offered safety for all of the victims on this matter and, fairly actually, to the general public at massive,” Loisel mentioned.

Exton, who divorced his spouse in 2024, argued on his personal behalf Monday after telling Judge Gary Cook he wished to fireplace his lawyer.

He insisted he didn’t intend to kill or hurt his former partner or her mom, though surveillance video from the occasion performed at his trial reveals him charging on the pair together with his gun drawn.

In a collection of arguments in courtroom, by which he complained that he’s been handled unfairly, Exton insisted his costs had been political and that he had no unwell intentions.

“Guns don’t kill folks, folks kill folks. … I didn’t kill anyone. I didn’t damage any folks, and I didn’t strive,” Exton argued at his sentencing listening to.

Judge Cook, nonetheless, debunked the protection by taking part in footage of the occasion earlier than handing down a two-decade jail sentence. He pointed to a second when Exton seems to scramble to unlock the security lever after the weapon failed to fireplace.

“You are flummoxed by the truth that it didn’t go off, and also you’re making an attempt to repair the security,” Cook mentioned. “That is the second cementing your intent.”