Defendant to fight use of victim’s deposition in trial
The videotaped deposition that a critically burned woman gave before dying of her injuries will be the focus of a legal battle in the death-penalty case of her ex-boyfriend accused of killing her.
Defense attorneys for Michael W. Slager learned Thursday that Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Guy Reece has set Jan. 30 as the deadline for all motions to be filed in the case. Reece also said the attorneys will argue the motions in a hearing on March 9 and begin jury selection on July 6.
Defense attorney Mark C. Collins said after the hearing that a motion will be filed to try to prevent the use of the victim’s deposition.
“It’s never been allowed before,” he said. Collins called it “an impossible task,” for instance, to properly cross-examine a victim without knowing what the coroner will ultimately rule as the cause of death.
Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said he is confident that his office can make the case for allowing jurors to view the deposition.
A grand jury returned the death-penalty indictment against Slager on Oct. 2, three months after Judy Malinowski’s death. Slager, 42, of Gahanna, is serving an 11-year prison sentence for setting Malinowski on fire during an argument behind a Gahanna gas station, but she was still clinging to life at the time of his felonious assault conviction.
Prosecutors had reserved the right to file additional charges if Malinowski died as a result of her injuries.
Malinowski, a former Miss New Albany, died June 27, nearly two years after Slager doused her with gasoline and set her ablaze on Aug. 2, 2015. She was 33. Slager was indicted for aggravated murder and is eligible for the death penalty because he is accused of causing the death while committing aggravated arson.
The deposition was taken on Jan. 26 by video conferencing from her hospital bed after prosecutors won a court order to have her testimony preserved in case she didn’t survive.
Malinowski’s mother, Bonnie Bowes, attended Thursday’s hearing and spoke afterward about the importance of her daughter’s deposition being presented at trial.
“If she fought that hard to try to do justice and to try to tell her story and be honest, it should be unsealed,” Bowes said. “Can you imagine being a 31-, 32- year- old mother ... testifying for your own homicide trial and you’re in such pain and you’re disfigured ... and facing him and his attorney? ... I’d feel like she went through all that for nothing.”