Judy Malinowski Testified At Her Own Murder Trial

to testify at her own murder trial. I'm Jemma Bass and this is True Crime Conversations a Muma mea podcast exploring the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. Five months before her death, Judy gave harrowing testimony to be used should she pass away. In it, she described the moments before she was set on fire.

I live in New York City, and I stumbled across Judy's story quite by accident, and I was so moved by it because I felt like it was the story not just of a victim, but a victim who took it upon herself to become the hero of her own story. And that was really engaging to me. So I got on Facebook and stocked her mom and drove out to Ohio, and over the course of a number of meetings, we decided to make the movie together me and her family.

with ovarian cancer. And I believe she was pregnant already with her second daughter, Maddie, and she wanted to continue that pregnancy, so she couldn't take some of the therapies that were needed for the cancers. So she got on some level of pain management. Or maybe she was wanting to try for Maddie. I can't quite remember, but anyway, she couldn't have the full chemo hysterectomy at the moment she was diagnosed, and so they started to give her

pain medication. And this was before the US really had a comprehensive understanding of the ovoid crisis and the role the pharmaceuticals play in that. And she got addicted to the medication, taking it exactly as the doctor prescribed, but once that prescription ran out, she was very dependent on it. That sort of transmigrified into a drug addiction, which eventually led to her using heroin. She was a really dedicated mom even when she was using. Her girls were a

priority in her life, and she got herself clean. She had a good amount of time together sober by the time she met Michael, and then once her and Michael got together. That sort of went out the window pretty quickly.

quickly and those red flags might have been missed. So Michael himself was not an addict, but Michael had a history of dating women who were addicts and a number of women who were sober after having been addicted to opiates, and then for whatever reason, these women all ended up using again over the course of the relationship with him. And I think the feeling Judy's family has is that the drugs were reintroduced as a form of control, which is a kind of pathway to domestic abuse or domestic

abuse in itself. That on the ground level I see is very common, but isn't necessarily something we talk about. But if you become the person supplying your girlfriend with drugs, you have a fair amount of power in that relationship. So that became the arrangement, I think fairly quickly after they got together, and then he started abusing her, but she was dependent on him for those drugs. So it was a really difficult situation to try to get out of,

but she did within a couple months. Enough was enough and she was trying to leave that relationship. She called the police numerous times and once even told them that she thought he was going to kill her. But unfortunately, like in the States, unless the police are on the ground and see something going wrong actively or have some sort of forensic proof, there's not much that they can do.

get a slap on the wrist, and leave. He served minor amounts of time, I think mostly in County Jail, but never really got a substantial sentence, And it's horrifying when you do read his record, you sort of see somebody amping up to progressively more violent crimes and it took him lighting a woman on fire to actually get any substantial prison time at all.

of leaving Michael. She had to be sober to get away from him because he was so involved in her drug life and the way that she in the quote unquote safest way possible, got drugs, So she needed to get sober to cut it off with him, and he was actually driving her to rehab that day when this incident happened.

I guess Judy sort of had had enough and threw a soda at him, and his response was to dowse her in gasoline and thirty forty seconds later come back and light her on fire. Michael's version of the story is that he was just dowsing her and gasoline to quote unquote get her back or throwing the soda on him. Obviously, that's pretty improbable, it's not really a normal response. And he says that she went up and plamee because less than a minute later he wanted to be a gentleman

and light her cigarette for her. That was his story, and Judy's story was that he downstirring gasoline, went back to the truck and came up with I think she said he looked like the devil. His eyes sort of just went black and he lit her on fire and she blacked out.

that fire extinguisher. I would like to think if it were me in that situation, I'd be running for the fire extinguisher right away. That isn't what happened, And these witnesses feel he started to really just make moves once he realized he was being observed.

they're more graphic than what we did show. I'll use her sister's words. She hardly looked like a person. She was very, very badly injured. Michael also sustained some burns putting her out, which she really liked to talk about. In my line of work, I see a lot of images of injured people or maimed people, and this was

by far the worst stuff I'd ever seen. And in fact, the marine who was one of the witnesses at the crime scene, who had been to war and seeing people really seriously Andrews, said it was the worst thing he'd seen as well. Well.

is OSU as a hospital. She lives nearby and drives by all the time, and she got lost. She was just so dissociated. She rushes into the hospital and they finally led her back to see Judy. And this reaction that everybody else has sort of chock and horror, isn't the reaction that Bonnie has. She just sees her kid. She just sees her baby, and she's so happy she's alive. And she turns to the doctor and says, tell me, there's hope. Tell me there's hope. Tell me there's hope.

And at that point, the percent of Judy's body that was burned, she was almost guaranteed to die. And that's not what happened, thanks to the amazing work of the doctors that always you and I believe Judy's desire to live and see her girls grow up as long as she could and try to get some justice for herself that kept her alive for that seven hundred days.

going on around her. And the detective on the case, who's now a lieutenant, Chad Cohagen, came in and asked her if Michael had done this to her, and she nodded her head yes.

the investigating agency, and yeah, you see Michael. The thing that really shocked me about that is he seemed to feel bad for himself because of the burns he had sustained trying to save her, and that seemed to be his main concern, and he tried to explain how this was an accident. He tried to displace blame on Judy a little bit, I think for what had happened. And Detective kohg And I have to say he did a

really incredible job. He walked a very fine line between hearing him out and not letting him wriggle Away just did some very good work. There got a cheek swab from him and all that, which I can't imagine being able to keep your cool like that and that kind of circumstance having just seen Judy.

whole thing. And to that point, it doesn't really appear that Michael and Judy made up to any extent that he would be a gentleman and light her cigarette after dowsing her and gasoline on that video.

made that feel okay. You just can't give someone that amount of pain medication. And you also have to consider Judy had been she was on her way to rehab. She was addicted to opioids, so the doses that might work on you or I, they were not as strong as they would be for a person without a history of opioid abuse as well. So yeah, it was just it was a very tough time for her for sure, because they expected her to die. The detectives were sort

of waiting to see. Had Judy died, Michael would have been charged with murder, but because she survived, they were unable to do that, so they charged him with aggravated arson, which, unfortunately, in the state of Ohio, letting your girlfriend on fire carries a very similar penalty to letting a car and fire like house on fire, So the maximum he could get in that instance was about eleven years.

a conviction. And I think Michael realized this that between the fact that there was a tape at all and that Judy, who had to be just about the most sympathetic person you could put on the stand, was going to explain what we were watching on that tape, Michael realized that he was definitely going to be convicted, and he took a lead deal, but he pled in this way.

He took something called an Alfred plea. I'm not sure if you have this in Australia, but in the US you can plead guilty by essentially saying, well, I'm not saying I'm guilty, but I'm choosing to plead guilty because I think you have the evidence convict me, and I would rather get this lesser sentence. So that's where the eleven years came from.

people can say their peace right. And part of the reason you can do that is because it's covered by free speech right. You can say whatever you want and take your plea. But on the other hand, I think in cases where the person is guilty, it's really painful for the victim's family, And I know it was painful for Judy because she just really wanted him to take accountability.

who commit this sort of crime get sentenced appropriately? And it's tough because I think in the States, we like to think of these crimes of like immolation or asset attacks. They think of these things as something that happens somewhere else, when in reality that's not true. There are many, many instances every year of intimate partners who intentionally disfigure their victims and also strangers. Right, we had it's a worldwide phenomenon.

Now we've had intel murders where people are being killed or disfigured by disgruntled, in voluntary celibate person who sort of just goes off the rails and goes postal, and there's not really any specific law for that type of crime. And I think early in the process when Bonnie was thinking, she was like, well, why isn't that sort of a hate crime? Right? If you're like, you're a woman, you

won't be with me. I'm going to essentially try to make you quote unquote ugly or I'm going to It's not just I'm going to kill you, it's I'm going to disfigure you. Why isn't that class as a specific kind of crime because statistically, you just don't see it happened to men nearly as much as women. But that

was a little bit complicated. So once that decision came down and he got such a light sentence for something that had really changed Duty's entire life, her family started to pursue changing that law by adding time to the

sentences of attackers who intentionally disfigure their victims. So, right after that court case went the way it did, Judy decided to launch a campaign alongside a number of state centers in Ohio to pass something called Judy's Law, which adds six years to the sentences of attackers who intentionally

disfigure their victims using an accelerant. So it's pretty narrow, but it did lay the groundwork and set a precedent for a federal law, something that's nationwide as opposed to in the state of Ohio, and also a pathway to say, well, there are elements of an assault or an aggravated arson that push it past the base charges. Right, this is different than punching someone in the face and breaking their nose, and the sentencing should reflect that.

it's no longer just an assault. It's murdered. They're going to charge him with that. And they were going to petition the state of Ohio to allow her to pre record sworn testimony in advance of her death, which had never happened in a criminal court before. Warren Edwards, who's now a judge but at the time was the ADA. He adapted a civil statute that was actually designed for mesothelioma victims. It's a substance that people inhaled that ended

up giving them lung cancer. And there were a number of civil lawsuits people suing the companies that gave them these mesothelioma related health conditions posthumously, so they would record a deposition in advance of their death, and then once they died, this would be played at the civil trial

where they were where their family was suing. Right, And there's a law in the United States that says, if there is no specification whether you can or cannot do something in a criminal court a law, you can adapt civil law. And so Warren saw that, and he adapted this civil statute and presented this argument to the judge, saying, Hey, if we can do this in civil court, we should do it in criminal court. And we don't want to take just a deathbed statement from her. We want to

be real testimony. We want her to be sworn in, put under oath, and both questioned by the DA and cross examined formally. And so they won the right to do that, and that's what they did. But Judy had to back off her pain medication in order to be considered of sound mind, which you have to be to testifying in the American courts. So she experienced a tremendous amount of pain. She had to learn to talk over and off the event. She was not speaking super clearly

at the time. This decision was made. So she had to push herself to really be able to be heard and to come off that ventilater And yeah, she also had to practice to be cross examined, which any woman who's ever been in the American court system can tell you. It's not a friendly place for victims, particularly victims of domestic violence, partner violence, or offenses like that. There's a

lot of victim lane that goes down. But she steeled herself and she did it, and she endured three hours of questioning and most of that was the defense.

of detail that she could. And she could, but unfortunately, the defense attorney kept trying to poke holes in her memory because she didn't remember what she was wearing that day, or she didn't remember where they had stopped before the speedway, or she didn't remember and you know, there's this moment where she looks at him, and she says, you have to understand, I was dowse gazzling and set on fire like over ninety percent of my body, so I'm not

going to remember every perfect detail. And I remember seeing that moment in her test when I was like, hell yeah, like you tell him she made him look awful and it was and she was mad, and it was a great moment. I think there's a lot of pressure on victims, especially female victims. Maybe this is unique to the US, but I think it's most places in the world. There's this pressure on them to be like kind of beaten down and soft and de mirror. And she just was

not about it. So she let the defense attorney know she was not impressed with the questions she was asking. Also asked, you know, just even the question what were you wearing? It's just like, excuse me. She really stood aground. You have to also remember she's doing this not knowing

that it will ever officially be admitted. So what the first ruling was that allowed them to record this testimony was just that you're allowed to record it, and then at a later time when Michael is charged, then the new court case begins and they have to argue about it all over again. They have to say, will we admit this? Okay, we gave you the right to record it, will we admit it. And so she recorded all this knowing she would never know whether it would be admitted

into court. And when you think about coming off your pain meds, being interrogated about some of the weakest moments in your life, your drug use, a relationship you shouldn't have been in, what you did when, and who you might have interacted with in what ways, and just all that sort of victim blame and pressure and pain and to not even know if it'll count. And she did it anyway, you know, I think that's incredibly heroic and

incredibly inspiring. And you know, I think when she showed up for that testimony, and they do try to poke a lot of holes in her life, right, they try to shatter the illusion of the perfect victim, which of course doesn't exist. And I think a lot of women are afraid to prosecute their abusers because they understand that will be part of the process. And I think that Judy showing up and doing that was not just for her,

it was for them. And I think it shows that the justice system if you get the right people in the room, can work even if you're not perfect, and that pressure of the perfect victim or to be the perfect victim, that we can break that down slowly, and I think Judy did a lot of that for us.

there thirty days, she can't just put him out. He like lives there, right, So you know, there's like they kept bumping into all sorts of things like this, or Michael also did something that a lot of abusers do, and Michael started calling the police on her falsely, so that when the police would show up and she'd say, hey, this guy's beating me, they would look at the record.

If they were able to look at the record, they would look at the record and they would see, oh, well, he's called on her, so it's he said, she said, when it's really not. This is a tactic abusers use, and that training isn't there, and nor is the law to really do anything about it. Abusers escalate, right, and the law doesn't necessarily account for that. And you see that in Michael's record. You see these numerous domestic violence

charges and the sentence doesn't really escalate. There's no diversion program. There's nowhere for him to go or to send him on a legal basis to stop him. Right, there's no legal way to stop him, even though you see these repetitive charges escalating in the same way when someone's calling the police not once, not twice, but ten fifteen times seeing my boyfriend's beating me. Anyone who has half a brain in their head understands is eventually going to escalate.

But there is no legal way to say, well, now you've done it ten times, so we think you really might killers. So we're going to escalate this to a new form of policing, or we're going to surveil you more, we're going to take you out of the house or take him out of the house. You kind of just have to wait for it to happen. And that's our law. That's how the law works here, and I think we should question whether there are smarter ways to police this kind of violence.

your organs kind of start to shut down. So you know, she fought for a very long time, and I think that testimony also, her condition declined very steeply after that testimony, and I think some of that was just the effort involved in giving that testimony, but also I think she felt she had to keep it together to get through that that that was a herculean effort, and afterwards she felt she'd set her peace and she could let go. But she would have hung in there if she could

have in any condition, because she loved her kids. She really loved her kids and they loved her, and I think that's why she was able to go as long as she did.

the death penalty. His life is on the line, and the best case inn earra if he's convicted, is pretty much like in prison, and the worst case is they're going to give him the needle. But Michael was very insistent in the months leading up to this trial that he wanted to go to trial, go to trial. He was going to prove he was innocent. I think his lawyers were skeptical. Annie Judy's mom. It was very important to her that he be made to take accountability in

whatever way that was. So when they started to talk about Michael potentially taking a plea deal, Bonnie was really clear that if he was going to plead, he would need to plead guilty. He could not plead no contest because she would not accept anything else. And so as they moved up to the court date, was a little unclear whether or not they were going to go for a full trial or whether he was going to plead. And the morning of that first hearing, I was there,

and we really didn't know. We went into that court room and we didn't understand if we were going to be hearing some pre trial motions and then showing up the next day for jury selection, or if the whole thing was going to end right there. And thankfully he did decide to plead, apparently because his attorneys brought his daughter to the jail the night before and she was like, Dad, like, please please plead guilty, because at least you'll be alive.

Even if you're in jail, at least you'll be alive, and I don't want you to die. And that is supposedly the turning point for him. After he pled, one of the conditions of his fee was that they would play Judy's testimony in court in order to cement the legal precedent she had set by testifying in advance of her death. That sort of finalized the things, so now anyone in the States can use that ruling to testify

if if they find themselves in an analogous situation. So they played the testimony, which was a very powerful moment. She was sort of like alive as this ghost on screen, finally able to tell her stories. She literally had to die before anyone could hear her version of the story in public. And then it comes time for the sentencing, and they had asked her in the testimony to give a victim's impact statement, which she has a right to do.

She has the right to say what sentence she wants them to get, and she had said she did not want him to get the death penalty. I forget exactly how they said it. They were like, and if he is convicted of this crime, what would you like to seem get And she said, I'd like to see Hm get life. I think he deserves that. And she had the power to say kill him, and she didn't. And I really think that's says a lot about her character.

She understood in that moment she could hold that man's life in her hands after everything he did to her, and she decided to show mercy.

struggling to come to terms with their mum's addiction. Which they didn't know about because they were too young, and then also struggling to come to terms with the fact that Michael would be in prison, but he'd still get to see his family and they wouldn't. They don't get to see their mums, So why why does he get to see his family? I thought that was such an incredibly powerful insight to be able to give the public.

it's just these things have a ripple effect. And I was struck when I met Bonnie by like how her and Judy and the girls had sort of they were like this island of women, right, like supporting each other, getting each other through. And I related to that because I was raised almost exclusively by my mom, who had a very close relationship with their mom, and we were

the island of women, right. And I think when it comes to domestic violence, it is so felt not just by that victim, but by the victim's mother and by the victim's children. And I was very preccupied with the children because they're girls, they're young girls. This is happening at a time in their life where they're deciding what is the future going to look like for them when

they start dating? What will that look like? Will they be able to trust someone enough, Will they be able to trust a man enough after seeing what happened to their mom that they can have the healthy relationships they deserve, Or if they saw too much of the wrong thing,

will they accidentally unconsciously repeat unhealthy patterns? And how do they reckon with this while they're just trying to figure out how to be women and they're seeing their mom undergo a lot of these things that, let's just be real, their gender based crimes. I'm not saying that domestic violence

doesn't happen to men. It certainly does. I'm not saying it's an exclusively female problem, but there is a lot of sexism surrounding whether she was listened to when she was first reporting it, whether she was believed in court, how people looked at her addiction, how people listen to Michael when he would counter her story right, I was just very preoccupied with how that would shape those girls. And thankfully they're very strong like their mother, and they're

all doing great. They have very normal young adult lives and they're thriving. Kiki is in Kreli at a university not far from where her grandmother lives. And Maddie is finishing up high school and she's on the cheerleading team and doing while in school and has a really sweet, nice boyfriend, and it's just great to see.