A former attorney walked into a packed Toledo restaurant with a loaded handgun and headed directly toward the table where his ex-wife was sitting with her family.
Matthew Exton pointed the weapon at her and tried to fire.
The gun did not go off because its safety was still engaged. Before Exton could make another attempt, a waiter rushed him and took him down.
More than a year later, a Lucas County jury convicted Exton, 43, of attempted murder and two counts of felonious assault for what the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office described as an attempted “public execution” inside the restaurant.
The confrontation happened April 11, 2025, on Sabira’s opening night. Exton had started next door at Souk, spotted his ex-wife and her family, and eventually returned carrying a weapon that prosecutors said had one round already chambered and seven more in the magazine.
One More Chance
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Exton ordered a drink at Souk before leaving and seeing his ex-wife and her family at Sabira next door.
He went inside Sabira, ordered another drink to be sent to their table and spat toward the group as he left.
Then he came back with a gun.
Exton walked directly toward their table and tried to fire it, prosecutors said. The safety was still on.
That mechanical failure gave someone else a chance to act.
A waiter tackled Exton before he could make a second attempt. When the gun was recovered, prosecutors said it contained one round in the chamber and seven in the magazine.
Across The Room
The New York Post identified the waiter as Tracy Cole Jr., who charged into the confrontation as Exton struggled with the handgun.
Prosecutors did not single out only the waiter afterward. Lucas County Prosecuting Attorney Julia Bates credited the employees and patrons who stepped in to stop Exton, calling them “heroes.”
The restaurant surveillance footage supplied another piece of the sequence. NBC News reported that it showed Exton approaching the table, pulling a handgun from his pocket and pointing it as his ex-wife yelled that he had a gun. The waiter tackled him moments later.
Exton’s ex-wife gave an even more specific account in a protection-order petition filed after the confrontation. She wrote that Exton pointed the gun at her chest and repeatedly pulled the trigger, producing rapid clicking sounds.
His Version
Exton did not dispute at trial that he had pointed the Colt Defender at his ex-wife.
He disputed why.
Exton testified that he had previously worked as a prosecutor in Michigan and practiced law in Ohio. He said he had become homeless following the breakup of his marriage; court records cited by NBC show the couple divorced in 2024.
He told jurors that he pointed the gun because he wanted to demonstrate that he was serious about his ex-wife complying with a court order. He denied intending to shoot or hurt her.
The jury reached a different conclusion.
Three Guilty Counts
On Sept. 4, jurors convicted Exton of attempted murder and two counts of felonious assault. Two firearm specifications were attached to each of those three counts.
They acquitted him on the remaining felonious-assault count.
Bates said nothing about the restaurant’s training or soft openings could have prepared its staff for what happened that night.
“The employees and patrons who stepped in to stop the defendant that day are heroes,” she said.
Exton is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 21 at the Lucas County Courthouse.