A VOICE FROM THE GRAVE
Judy died two years after her ex set her alight. Now in a groundbreaking case her recorded testimony will be heard in court
IT’S a tragic tale we’ve heard so many times before: a man murders his ex-fiancée, is caught and has to stand trial for his crime. You’ll find these cases in hundreds of courts around the world. But something different will happen in the trial of Michael Slager. Because when he stands accused in the dock the woman he murdered will be testifying against him from beyond the grave.
In a case that’s making history in the American justice system, Judy Malinowski (33) will tell the court how Slager (42) poured petrol over her at a garage in Gahanna, Ohio, before setting her alight with a cigarette. In her own words she’ll recount how she screamed for God to help her while flames engulfed her.
Her account of the horror was recorded before she died of her injuries in June last year, two years after the attack.
And Slager, already serving jail time for the assault on Judy, will be on trial once more – this time for her murder.
Judy’s legal team decided to record her testimony when they realised she was losing her battle to stay alive.
But this hasn’t been Judy’s only contribution to the American justice system. Thanks to an amendment to the state of Ohio’s criminal law, the maximum sentence for assault with the intent to permanently disfigure has been increased to six years. The amendment is known as Judy’s Law.
SHORTLY before she died, Judy summoned media to her hospital bed. “I never knew that a human being could be so evil,” she told reporters. “He just stood there and did nothing.” She said she and Slager had been arguing. When she walked away, he sneaked up from behind, doused her with petrol and lit it with a cigarette.
During his first trial Slager claimed he’d accidentally set Judy alight and one witness testified he’d tried dousing the flames with a fire extinguisher.
In December 2016 Slager was sentenced to 11 years in jail. He’d been found guilty on charges of aggravated arson and felonious assault.
Judy, meanwhile, was going through hell. She spent two years in ICU and underwent 59 operations. She had burns to 80% of her body and lost two fingers, both ears and all her hair. She had open wounds on her back and buttocks, was paralysed and could speak only in a whisper as a result of damage to her windpipe.
“What happened to me destroyed my life, my family’s life and the life of everyone around me,” she said. “The laws of justice are just not fair.”
She died on 27 June last year, just before the US senate passed Judy’s Law.
Doctors warned for some time that her condition was deteriorating. That prompted her legal team to start preparing for a murder trial so by the time she closed her eyes for the last time, her testimony had been captured on video.
Slager’s murder trial is expected to start in July. In pre-trial hearings in January his lawyer argued the recording of Judy’s testimony was inadmissible because it had been unlawfully obtained.
But the judge disagreed, saying all proper legal procedures had been followed during the recorded deposition, including psychiatric evaluations to determine if she was fit to testify.
Judy’s daughter, Kaylyn (now 14), welcomed the historic decision. “While he got 11 years, my mom, my sister and I all got a life sentence,” Kaylyn says.
Slager tried – unsuccessfully – to have his murder trial moved to a different court, arguing that the high-profile nature of the case would prevent him from getting a fair trial in Ohio. If convicted he faces life in jail or even the death penalty.
It had been Judy’s final wish to have her testimony heard in court, says her mother, Bonnie Bowes. “That child suffered for two years to tell her own story,” she said soon after Judy’s death. “At least now her voice will be heard.”