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Judge says torching victim can testify from beyond the grave at boyfriend's trial for her murder
Published April 15, 2018
Judy Malinowski is shown before her death and after she was burned over over 80 percent of her body. (Facebook/Fox 28 Columbus)
A woman who died after being set on fire by her boyfriend will testify at his murder trial from beyond the grave.
Judy Malinowski, 33, died in August 2017, two years after being torched by her boyfriend Michael Slager outside a gas station near Columbus, Ohio, in June 2015 but recorded a video in hospital before she lost her fight for life.
Slager goes on trial for her murder in July, and in a rare move, a judge has allowed the interview Malinowski gave from her hospital bed to be heard by the jury. The judge ruled Friday.
The mother of two suffered burns to 80 percent of her body and clung to life in a hospital for two years.
Slager was charged with assault and was due to go to trial in 2016.
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Malinowski recorded her video testimony for his court case from her hospital bed.
Slager’s attorneys tried to stop the tape from being used by citing a legal technicality.
They claimed it was improperly obtained by prosecutors.
Michael Slager, seen in court, is accusing of dousing his girlfriend Judy Malinowski with gasoline and setting her on fire. He goes on trial for her murder in July. (Fox 28 Columbus)
But the judge allowed it on the grounds that it is an unprecedented case where the victim is able to give evidence after their own death.
Malinowski also spoke to the media from her hospital bed before she died.
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Although she could barely speak, she managed to say: "I never knew that a human being could be so evil. He just stood there and did nothing."
"God please, please help me," she said.
Slager has always maintained that he set her on fire by accident when he lit a cigarette.
BURN VICTIM WHO COULDN'T TESTIFY AGAINST EX-BOYFRIEND SHOWS HER INJURIES
After her death, Ohio passed Judy's Law, which added six years onto the sentence of anyone convicted of an assault which permanently maimed their victim.
Malinowski lost both of her ears and two fingers in the attack and was left with open wounds on her back and buttocks.
She underwent 56 surgeries before she died.
Malinowski also suffered horrendous damage to her throat and never walked again after the incident.
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https://www.foxnews.com/us/judge-says-torching-victim-can-testify-from-beyond-the-grave-at-boyfriends-trial-for-her-murder