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Calaroga Shark Media. Good morning. This is Daily Crime and
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Justice from Calaroga Media, powered by AI. I'm Garrett Fisher.
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It's Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026. Yesterday in Toledo, Matthew Exton
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was sentenced to up to 24 and a half years
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in prison for walking into a restaurant on its opening
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night and trying to shoot his ex-wife. He spent the
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hearing trying to fire his own lawyer, accusing the judge
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of running for re-election, and telling the court that pointing
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a loaded gun at a woman is not harm if
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it does not go off. The judge answered him by
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pressing play. In Honolulu, a judge denied a new trial
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for a Maui doctor convicted of trying to kill his
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wife on a hiking trail. And in the process, we
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learned something about that case I cannot stop thinking about.
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Before the verdict was read, somebody watching the trial online
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predicted exactly what it would be. And in Largo, Florida,
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the surgeon defending himself in a death penalty case has
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started asking questions. One of them was whether he could
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put the prosecutor in a trash bag. Let's get into it.
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On April 11th of 2025, a restaurant called Sabira opened
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in the warehouse district of Toledo. A man named Matthew Exton,
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who was a lawyer, walked in, ordered a drink at
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the bar, sent another drink over to the table where
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his ex-wife was eating dinner with her parents, spat toward them,
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and walked out. He came back a few minutes later
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with a loaded Colt Defender, one round in the chamber
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and seven in the magazine. He pointed it at his
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ex-wife from a few feet away and pulled the trigger.
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Two days later, in a petition for a protection order,
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she wrote that he pointed it at her chest, pulled
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the trigger multiple times, and that the gun made rapid
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clicking noises. The safety was on. And a waiter who
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had rehearsed for an opening night, not for this, ran
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at him and tackled him and wrapped his hand over
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the gun. At trial, asked what he had been doing
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in that moment, the waiter gave a two-word answer. Not die.
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On September 4th, a Lucas County jury convicted Exton of
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attempted murder, two counts of felonious assault, and multiple firearm specifications.
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They acquitted him on one remaining assault count. Yesterday, he
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was sentenced. And the hearing was, in its way, a
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summary of everything this case has been. It started with
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Exton trying to stop it from happening. He told Judge
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Gary Cook he had fired his attorney, Ronnie Wingate, and
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asked for a continuance to find new counsel. He said
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he had fired Wingate weeks earlier. Wingate told the court
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he had learned about it on Sunday afternoon. Cook was
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not interested. He said that was nothing but an act
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to try to delay the hearing and denied it. When
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he asked Exton directly whether he wanted to represent himself,
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Exton gave long answers the judge called nonsense and said
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he was depressed and confused and unable to say. Cook
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told him that at some point he would exhaust all
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his arguments and then the court would proceed. At one point,
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Exton accused the judge of bias, telling him he was
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an unopposed Democrat on the ballot in an election year.
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That was simply wrong. Cook was reelected in 2024 and
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his term runs into 2031. Then Exton spoke for about
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20 minutes. He said he accepted responsibility for pointing the
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gun at his ex-wife. And then, in the same breath,
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he said that was not harm because it did not fire.
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He said he was depressed and suicidal after the divorce
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and homeless. He said he came upon his ex-wife and
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her parents by chance and that he happened to have
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his gun on him. He described himself as a victim
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because of the head injury he suffered when the waiter
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tackled him. He brought up gun control. He said the
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charges against him were political. And he told the court
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that guns do not kill people. People kill people. That
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he did not kill anybody, did not hurt anybody, and
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did not try. While the prosecutor spoke, he kept interrupting,
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repeating the word liar every few seconds. Prosecutor Mike Loisel
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told the court Exton nearly perpetrated a mass casualty event
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in the middle of a crowded restaurant and that he
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had no regard for anyone or anything other than himself.
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He called him dangerous and a narcissist and asked for
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consecutive sentences arguing he must be incarcerated for a long time.
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And then Judge Cook did the thing that ended every
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argument Exton had made. He played the video. The surveillance
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footage from Sabira, Exton walking in, Exton raising the gun
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at his ex-wife, and then the moment after it fails
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to fire. Cook told him what that moment shows to
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anyone who watches it. He said Exton was flummoxed by
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the fact that the gun did not go off and
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was trying to fix the safety. And he said that
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is the moment that cements the intent. He called it chilling.
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He said that if not for that safety, Exton could
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have been facing capital murder charges. and he said nobody
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knows what would have happened if that safety had not
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protected them. Then he sentenced him to up to 24
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and a half years. Exton says he will appeal. He
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has 30 days to file notice, and his case goes
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to Ohio's 6th District Court of Appeals. I want to
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say something about that 20-minute statement, because it is the
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whole case in miniature. I accept responsibility for pointing the gun.
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That's not harm. It didn't fire. That is a man
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who spent his career in courtrooms, trying to argue that
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the only thing that matters is the outcome. And that
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since a mechanical safety and a waiter prevented the outcome,
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nothing happened. But the law does not work that way,
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and it never has. Attempt is a crime precisely because
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what you meant to do matters, not just what you
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managed to do. The safety did not make him innocent.
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It made him lucky. It made three people lucky. And
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the judge found his intent in the exact second he
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looked down at his gun and tried to make it work.
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There is one more thing worth noticing and you may
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have caught it already. Matthew Exton tried to fire his
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lawyer on the morning of his sentencing. Over in Largo,
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a surgeon on trial for his life has fired four
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sets of lawyers. Two very different men and the same instinct.
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When the system is closing in, get rid of the
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person whose job is to help you. Now, a correction
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to something that has been circulating and a resolution to
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something we told you about last week. Last week, a
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claim was going around online that when Exton was asked
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his occupation on the witness stand, he gave a bizarre
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answer involving his sexual orientation. We went looking for it
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and could not find it in any trial coverage, so
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we did not repeat it. Now we know where it
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probably came from. According to the Toledo Blade, during closing arguments,
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as a prosecutor was discussing a voicemail he had left,
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Exton interrupted and shouted that he was God and the Antichrist.
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He used an anti-gay slur, and then he shouted about
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guns and the words, Hail Satan. That is what happened
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in that courtroom. It was not an answer about his job.
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It was a slur shouted during the state's closing argument
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by a man who had to be removed and watched
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his own verdict on a live stream from a holding cell.
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We are not repeating the word, but it is worth
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knowing how the version you may have seen online was born.
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Something real and ugly got said, somebody garbled it, and
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within a day, it was a quotable line that never happened.
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That is a pattern we have watched all month. And
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there is a legal wrinkle in all of that behavior
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that matters for sentencing. Back in May, Judge Cook reviewed
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a doctor's report and rejected Exton's insanity defense, finding he
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was not suffering from a severe mental disease or defect
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at the time of the attack. the Ohio Supreme Court
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suspended his law license over concerns he posed a substantial
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threat of serious harm to the public. So whatever was
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driving that outburst and closing arguments, a court had already
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decided it did not rise to the level that excuses
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what happened at Sabira. He was a former prosecutor. He
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practiced family law. He had by prosecutor's account, two Michigan
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driver's licenses, an Ohio license, a birth certificate, a social
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security card, a passport, $ 620, and a set of handcuff
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keys in his pockets when that waiter took him down.
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I'm still not naming his ex-wife or her parents, and
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I'm still not naming the waiter. Three people went home
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from dinner that night because a stranger in an apron
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put his hand over a pistol. When we come back,
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a Hawaii judge denies a new trial and a stranger
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on the internet called the verdict early. We spent a
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segment on this case last week, so here is the
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short version for anybody catching up. In March of 2025,
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on the Pali Puka Trail on Oahu, Dr. Gerhard Koenig,
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a Maui anesthesiologist, struck his wife Arielle in the head
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with a rock. Prosecutors said he tried to push her
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off a cliff and inject her with a syringe first,
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and only stopped when two hikers came upon them. He
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said she was the aggressor and that he acted in self-defense.
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In April, a jury acquitted him of attempted murder and
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convicted him of attempted manslaughter based on extreme mental or
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emotional disturbance. Then two jurors told reporters they had not
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believed he intended to kill her. The foreperson signed an
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affidavit saying the panel never unanimously found intent to kill,
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which the defense argues Hawaii law requires even for attempted manslaughter.
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And separately, an anonymous commenter on a trial livestream claimed
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to have been texting with a juror during deliberations. Last week,
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we told you Judge Paul Wong brought the jurors back
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and drew a hard line. He would ask whether anyone
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communicated with an outsider. He would not ask what the
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jury actually decided about intent, because Hawaii's rules bar inquiring
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into jurors' internal reasoning. Nine jurors answered no on September 11th.
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The last three came in on Friday. And on Friday,
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after three days of hearings, Wong denied the motion for
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a new trial. He ruled that there was no outside
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influence that affected the jury. And he said, in the
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language of his order, that the verdict was unanimous and impartial,
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and that based on his findings of fact and conclusions
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of law, the defendant's motion for a new trial was
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respectfully denied. Thomas Otake, Koenig's attorney, said they were disappointed
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and that they believe it was clear this was an
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illegal and flawed verdict because it was not unanimous. Now
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here's the detail that I did not have last week
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and it is the reason I wanted to come back
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to this. According to reporting on the ruling, the anonymous
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person on that livestream who claimed to be texting with
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a juror did something else. They correctly predicted the verdict
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before it was announced. And the judge still found no
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outside influence. Reporting on the ruling described him as acknowledging
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there were some signs there could have been some communication.
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I want to be fair to Judge Wong about this
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because it sounds worse than it may be. A correct
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prediction is not proof of contact. This was a heavily
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watched trial with a very clear lesser included offense sitting
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on the verdict form. Plenty of people watching thought attempted
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manslaughter was the likely landing spots. Somebody guessing right is
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not the same as somebody knowing. And every juror questioned
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under oath individually said no one discussed the deliberations or
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the verdict with anyone outside. A judge is entitled to
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believe 12 people under oath over an anonymous comment. And
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earlier this summer, the Hawaii Supreme Court made clear that
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the party seeking a new trial has to show outside
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influence with specific, substantial evidence. An anonymous username is not that.
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But I will say this plainly. Somewhere out there is
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a person who typed in public that they were talking
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to a juror and then correctly called the outcome. Either
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they were lucky in lying or they were not. And
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we are never going to know which. And notice what
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Wong's ruling actually rested on. He did not find that
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the texting claim was false. He found that it had
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not been proven to the standard the law requires and
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that 12 sworn denials outweighed one anonymous post. Those are
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different findings and the difference matters. It also tells you
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where the defense goes next. Otake has said the verdict
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was not unanimous on intent. That argument does not go
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away because the outside contact claim failed. It goes to
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an appellate court, which will have to decide whether a
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four-person sworn affidavit about what her jury did not find
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can ever be considered or whether the no impeachment rule
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shuts that door permanently. That is the cost of the
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rule we have been defending on this show for a month.
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Deliberations are protected, verdicts are final, and sometimes that means
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a real question just goes unanswered forever. I think the
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rule is still right. I just do not think we
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should pretend it is free. Gerhard Koenig will be sentenced
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on January 8th. He faces up to 20 years. Otake
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asked for an earlier date, noting that by January, his
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client will have been in custody for more than eight months.
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He has been held without bail since the verdict. And
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his wife, Arielle Koenig, survived. She testified. She described the
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worst afternoon of her life to a room full of strangers.
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With a new trial denied, she does not have to
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do it again. That is the part of Friday's ruling
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that almost nobody is mentioning. When we come back, a
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trash bag, a photograph of a car, and a surgeon
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asking questions. Stephen Cozy was 41 years old. He was
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an attorney at a firm in Largo, Florida. On March 21st, 2023,
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he walked to the bathroom at work and never came back.
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His body has never been found. Tomasz Kosowski, a 47-year-old
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Dartmouth-trained plastic surgeon, is on trial for his murder. He
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has pleaded not guilty, and he is presumed innocent. The