A Franklin County judge has ruled the videotaped testimony of a local woman who died two years after she was doused in gasoline and set ablaze can be used at her former fiancee's trial.
The judge says he knows of no other case in which a victim would testify at his or her own murder trial. Judith Malinowski testified five months before she died last June, expecting that the recording would be played at her former boyfriend's trial. Michael Slager was charged in her death last October. He previously was sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges including aggravated arson and felonious assault. His attorneys say prosecutors improperly relied on civil law to obtain the testimony.
