Gun Jams as Man Points at Ex-Wife in Crowded Restaurant

A Lucas County jury has convicted former attorney Matthew Exton of attempted murder for pointing a loaded handgun at his ex-wife inside a downtown Toledo restaurant on its opening night. The gun never went off. The safety was still engaged.

Exton, 43, tried to shoot her, and a waiter tackled him before he could try again, the Lucas County Prosecutor's Office said in a news release. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 21 and faces up to 25 years in prison.

What the jury decided

The jury returned its verdict on Sept. 4, 2026, finding Exton guilty of attempted murder, two counts of felonious assault and multiple firearm specifications, according to Lucas County Prosecuting Attorney Julia R. Bates. Jurors found him not guilty on a remaining count of felonious assault.

The prosecutor's office said the three convictions each carry sentencing enhancements. Exton had pursued an insanity defense before trial, but a judge ruled he was not suffering from a severe mental disease or defect at the time of the incident, so the case went to a jury on the question of what he intended to do when he walked back through the door with a gun.

Opening night at Sabira

The date was April 11, 2025. Sabira, a Mediterranean restaurant in downtown Toledo, was celebrating its opening night with a dining room full of customers. Exton had been at the bar inside Souk, the restaurant next door, where he ordered a drink, Bates said.

As he left Souk, he spotted his ex-wife having dinner at Sabira with her family. He went inside, ordered a drink at the bar and had it sent over to their table. On his way out, he spat toward the table.

He came back later with a handgun and walked directly toward the same table, the prosecutor's office said. The couple had divorced in 2024, according to court records.

One round in the chamber, seven in the magazine

The weapon was a Colt Defender. Video released by the prosecutor's office shows Exton approaching the table and taking the handgun out of his pocket.

His ex-wife told authorities that he pointed the gun at her chest and pulled the trigger multiple times, according to a petition for a protection order she filed two days after the event. "The gun made rapid 'click' noises as he pulled the trigger," she wrote in a statement included in that petition.

Nothing came out of the barrel because the safety was still on. The gun was loaded with one round in the chamber and seven more in the magazine, the prosecutor's office said. Eight rounds, sitting in a crowded dining room, held back by a switch the size of a thumbnail.

The waiter who tackled him

On the video, Exton is holding the Colt out as his ex-wife yells "gun." A waiter hits him moments later.

That waiter was Sabira employee Tracy Cole Jr., who prosecutors credited with helping stop what could have been a fatal attack. Cole testified that he tackled Exton and then grabbed the gun and held his hand over it. Other employees and diners piled in and held him down until police arrived.

Bates called the employees and customers who stepped in heroes. She also said she hoped the verdict gave some sense of closure to the people seated at the table and to the Sabira staff, who she said were victimized that day too.

The prosecutor's version: a public execution

Bates did not soften her description of what she believed Exton came to do. "Nothing in their training and soft openings at the restaurant could have prepared the staff for what walked through that door," she said in a statement.

"The defendant did not come with the intention of having a meal," Bates said. "He came with anger in him and with the intention to commit a public execution of his ex-wife at the restaurant that day."

That phrase was the prosecution's characterization of what it said Exton intended, not language in the jury's verdict. Prosecutors argued the loaded gun, the surveillance footage and the attempt to fire it at close range added up to an intent to kill.

Exton took the stand and said he never fired

Exton testified in his own defense. He told jurors he had worked as a prosecutor in Michigan and was licensed to practice law in Ohio, handling divorce, family and bankruptcy cases, and that he became homeless after he and his wife split up.

He said he was frustrated by how she had handled certain parts of their divorce, and that he pointed the gun to show he was serious about her following a court order. He denied trying to shoot her.

"I did not fire," he said. "I did not hurt her. I did not try to hurt her."

He also admitted to the drink and the spitting, and offered a blunt explanation for both. He said he did it "to be a jerk" because he was frustrated.

A $450,000 house at the center of it

Under questioning, Exton tied his anger to the sale of the couple's former home. He said he wanted his ex-wife to move faster on selling it so he could get his share of the money, and he described the prompt sale as his "primary interest" during the divorce.

He estimated the property was worth about $450,000 and said the proceeds would be split after taxes, bills and other costs. He did not give jurors a figure for what he expected to walk away with. He testified that he had been homeless after leaving the house and needed money to set up a place to live.

Prosecutors rejected that framing entirely, arguing that a man trying to speed up a real estate closing does not return to a restaurant with a chambered round and point the barrel at someone sitting a few feet away.

Removed from the room for his own closing arguments

Exton was taken out of the courtroom during closing arguments after he repeatedly interrupted prosecutors. He watched the verdict come in from a holding area instead of the defense table.

His ex-wife testified about the moment the gun was aimed at her, telling the court she believed she was about to die. The surveillance footage was a central piece of the state's case, along with testimony from people who were in the dining room.

His law license was gone within a month

Exton practiced with law offices in Sylvania and Traverse City. The Ohio Supreme Court imposed an immediate interim remedial suspension on his license on May 6, 2025, less than a month after the incident, barring him from practicing while the case moved forward. The Toledo Bar Association, which sought the suspension, said he posed a substantial threat of serious harm to the public.

So the man who told jurors he once prosecuted cases in Michigan spent his trial as a defendant with no license, listening to a prosecutor tell a jury what he had walked into a restaurant to do.

Seven million views and a sentencing date

After the conviction, the surveillance video spread fast. A clip posted on X had drawn more than seven million views by Sept. 9, IBTimes reported, with much of the attention on the waiter and the customers who rushed a man holding a loaded gun.

IBTimes reported that reactions varied sharply, with some viewers praising the staff and others blaming his ex-wife for what he did.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-7233.

Exton is set to be sentenced Sept. 21, 2026, on the attempted murder count, the two felonious assault counts and the firearm specifications. Sabira, which had practiced its soft opening before that night, is the address on the case file.