Judy Malinowski was supposed to be just another Ohio mom rebuilding her life. Instead, she became evidence… of her own murder. Her voice was burned but still sharp enough to practically rise from the grave to help convict the man who set her on fire. But before the testimony (and therefore before “Judy’s Law”), Michael Slager knew that to destroy Judy, he had to start with her addiction.
Judy’s troubles didn’t begin with Slager, though. Even as a young adult, she survived ovarian cancer and a hysterectomy. After that, she was introduced to painkillers. But when the prescriptions ran out, she went for their cheaper street alternative, and that’s how Judy slipped into heroin use. But she also got sober enough to reclaim her daughters. By 2015, she was clean. She was mom again!
But then Slager messaged her. To Judy’s family, he looked like bad news at first glance. He was a tattooed man with a short fuse. But what they didn’t know was that he also held years of domestic violence charges and was a master of manipulation strategies. One of them happened to be narcotics.
According to her family, Slager didn’t need to use d—-. But he bought the heroin and controlled the supply. With every bit of it he handed her, he had more power over her. “That was his way of controlling her,” Judy’s mom said in The Fire That Took Her.
The relationship spiraled because Judy was soon ashamed that she had fallen into the dependency she had outrun. She fought with Slager all the time and tried her best to get clean. She even called the police because she was afraid that he would kill her.
How toxic is drug stigma in the US?
Well, in 2015 Judy Malinowski was set on fire by her boyfriend Michael Slager. She received 3rd degree burns over 90% of her body. Judy had a history of SUD.
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— Medic Kim (@medickimw) February 4, 2024
And yet, on August 2, 2015, Judy and Slager were on the way to rehab. They stopped at a gas station and had yet another argument. A soda can was thrown in the process, and Slager decided this was the time he finally got to douse her with gasoline. Surveillance footage captured him returning with a lighter. The whole ordeal took just thirty seconds.
The fire consumed 95% of her body, so doctors gave her zero chance of survival. But Judy fought for two years, as always, in her fighter spirit. She underwent fifty surgeries and was revived seven times.
But when prosecutors asked if she wanted to testify in case she didn’t survive long enough for a murder trial, she said yes! Her pain meds were lowered so she could stay conscious enough to verbally answer questions and tell the court her side of the story.
“[He is] evil,” she said, describing the gasoline dripping into her throat and the moment he struck the lighter. The look in his eyes as he watched her burn was described as “his eyes [going] black.” Unfortunately, she died five months later. But her unprecedented deposition became the backbone of the case. As a result of it, Slager pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life without parole.
Judy’s testimony and advocacy pushed Ohio to pass Judy’s Law, which has helped numerous victims since.
