Ohio Man Convicted of Attempted Murder After Gun Jams
Left 67%
Center 33%
Right 0%
2 left · 1 center · 0 right
What happened
On April 11, 2025, during opening night at Sabira, an Italian restaurant in downtown Toledo, Ohio, former attorney Matthew Exton, 43, approached a table where his ex-wife Kayda Valone was sitting with family, drew a Colt Defender handgun from his pocket, pointed it at her chest, and pulled the trigger multiple times. The gun did not fire because the safety was engaged; prosecutors said one round was in the chamber and seven were in the magazine. Waiter Tracy Cole Jr. tackled Exton, and other bystanders helped restrain him. Exton, who had divorced Valone in 2024, was convicted of attempted murder and two counts of felonious assault with sentencing enhancements and acquitted of one assault count; he is scheduled to be sentenced on September 21, 2025, and faces up to 25 years in prison. At trial he testified that he pointed the gun to press her to follow a court order related to their divorce and said, “I did not fire. I did not hurt her. I did not try to hurt her.”
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 3 articles
1 of 1 article cites a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 1 of 1
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 1 of 1
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: court ruling, video
- Credits another outlet 0 of 1
- The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
- Unnamed sources 0 of 1
- The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 9, 23:37 UTC by NBC News, naming its source. First document in the first report, from NBC News (court ruling).
- Not counted 2
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Right-leaning coverage omits the entire lead-up that turns a chance meeting into a return visit. Left-leaning coverage reports that Exton sent a drink to his ex-wife's table, spat toward her family, left, and then came back with a gun. That sequence is how NBC reconstructs intent for attempted murder. A reader of only the Daily Wire never learns he had already confronted the table once. Right-leaning coverage lets the attack begin only once the weapon is already out.
Left-leaning coverage names him a former lawyer. Right-leaning coverage also calls him a "deranged gunman," a label that never once appears on the left-leaning side.
What did the divorce order Exton said he was enforcing at gunpoint actually require of his ex-wife?
Bottom line
Daily Wire never reports that Exton spat at his ex-wife's table and walked out before returning with the gun. That return trip is how NBC shows he came to kill.
The receipts — 6 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Exton ordered a drink sent to his ex-wife's table, spat toward her family, left, and returned with a gun
- One round was in the chamber and seven were in the magazine
- Exton was acquitted of one count of assault
- Exton was kicked out of court after a rant calling himself God and the Anti-Christ
- Exton faces up to 25 years in prison
- The waiter who tackled Exton was Tracy Cole Jr.
The Left View
NBC News framed the verdict around prosecutors’ claim that Exton tried to carry out the “public execution” of his ex-wife, quoting Lucas County Prosecuting Attorney Julia Bates to that effect and the victim’s protection-order statement that the gun made rapid “click” noises as he pulled the trigger. Coverage set his denial of intent against prosecutors’ account that he had a drink sent to her table, spat toward the group, left, and returned armed, going straight for her. It also situated him as a former Michigan prosecutor and Ohio-licensed family lawyer who became homeless after the split and said he was frustrated by how she had handled the divorce.
The Right View
The Daily Wire framed the same verdict as footage of a “hero waiter” tackling a “deranged gunman,” leading with Cole’s tackle as Exton fumbled with the safety and with the restaurant’s thanks to staff, patrons, and police. It highlighted Exton’s removal from court after repeated disruptions, including claims that he was God and the Antichrist, and quoted a prosecutor that he “was not there for a relationship-building effort” and that attempting to fire a deadly weapon in a public place “put everyone’s lives at risk.”
Our Take (balanced)
The left’s strongest argument is that intent follows from the video and the victim’s account of repeated trigger pulls on a loaded gun after Exton sought her out—the basis for Bates’s “public execution” characterization, against his claim he only meant to intimidate. The right’s strongest argument is that the episode’s public meaning is Cole’s intervention against an assailant whose courtroom outbursts displayed severe instability, not merely a divorce grievance. The central unresolved tension is whether this is primarily a story of calculated domestic attempted murder by a former professional or of a mentally disordered collapse stopped by a bystander—a clash of framing, not of the conviction or the physical sequence already established.
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