TOLEDO, Ohio (Court TV) — An attorney on trial for attempted murder was forcibly removed from the courtroom after repeatedly interrupting proceedings and making gun-like motions with his hands directed at prosecutors.
Matthew Exton was removed from court after repeatedly interrupting proceedings on Sept. 4, 2026. (Court TV)
Matthew Exton, 43, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and felonious assault after an incident at a restaurant opening involving his ex-wife and her parents.
Exton testified in his own defense on Thursday, telling jurors that he was suffering and homeless after his divorce from his wife. “It was terrible, it was painful,” he said. “I had no safe space.”
Exton said that on April 11, 2025, he had been early to meet a friend downtown when he saw his former in-laws’ truck parked outside a restaurant. Seeing them seated at a table, he said he walked in and sat at the bar to have a drink. He said he sent a drink to their table before leaving the restaurant and smoking a cigarette.
The defendant admitted that he then went back inside the restaurant, this time with a gun. “I pulled out my Colt Defender and I pointed it right at [the victim],” he testified. “I wanted her to know that I was serious about her following the court order to give the house proceeds to me as soon as possible, cause I needed it. I needed it. I was hurt.”
While he admitted to pointing the gun at his ex-wife, the defendant maintained he never aimed it at her parents and that he never removed the gun’s safety or pulled the trigger. The victim began screaming after seeing the gun, and a waiter who witnessed what happened jumped in to help, tackling Exton and wrestling the weapon away from him. “The waiter came over and he punched me, he tackled me, and then they tried to get the gun from me,” Exton said. “I thought I was toast!”
Things became contentious when prosecutors began to cross-examine Exton, as the defendant claimed that the victims were laughing at him that day before the incident. “They knew what they were doing to me,” he said. “I didn’t want them to die, but I was fighting for my life.”
On Friday, as prosecutors delivered their closing arguments, Exton repeatedly interrupted. As prosecutor Rose Mary Mock told the jury that the defendant’s emotion when he testified was “crocodile tears,” Exton began screaming, “Gun!”
Mock referenced Exton’s testimony from Thursday, urging the jury not to see him as a victim. “This wasn’t a cry for help,” she told the jury. “This was a calculated attempted public assassination.”
Exton grew increasingly upset as Mock presented evidence to the jury. At one point, he stood to object to one of the prosecutor’s statements, as his attorney sat beside him, shaking his head.
“He had on his person two driver’s licenses for the state of Michigan, one driver’s license from the state of Ohio, his birth certificate, his Social Security card, a passport, $620. He had enough to buy a plane ticket and he had enough bullets in that gun to take out the entire table. And he had handcuff keys. Who carries handcuff keys? Why did he need handcuff keys?” Mock said. “Do not buy the snake oil that he’s trying to sell you.”
The jury was excused once more when Exton began yelling, “Gun! Gun! Gun!”
Once the courtroom was clear, Exton stood and addressed the court. “My lawyer, Mr. Wingate, has indicated to me that he would like for me to be quiet, and I will, but how can I do that and exercise all the infractions to all of my constitutional rights that have been violated through these proceedings if I can’t speak?” Exton went on to ask prosecutors to charge the waiter with attempted murder, and began pointing at prosecutor Michael Loisel while placing his hand in a gun-like gesture.
Exton: “I’m pointing at you, Mr. Loisel. Gun.”
Loisel: “I would ask that the record reflect that he just made a gesture as a gun pointed directly at me.”
Exton: “I sure did. I acknowledge it. I own it. I own everything that I have done. On that witness stand, under oath, you’ve got my bar card. I’m naked before you, Your Honor. I own everything. I am a gay man with a big problem.”
While Exton remained quiet and seated during his attorney’s closing argument, he had difficulty doing so when Loisel began to deliver his rebuttal. After playing a phone message Exton left for his ex-wife saying, “Sooner or later I gotta cut you down,” Exton stood up and objected. The jury was excused, and deputies then led the defendant out of the courtroom.
Exton was taken to another room in the courthouse where he had access to a video and audio feed of the proceedings but could not interrupt.
