Pubdate: Sun, 09 Nov 2003
Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2003 Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.heraldtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/398
Author: Jenny Lee Allen

DRUG-DOSE SUSPECT HAS RECORD OF ABUSE

PORT CHARLOTTE -- The tattooed man jailed on charges he injected his 
girlfriend's 4-year-old with heroin has a history of inflicting domestic 
abuse, civil court records show.

Women here have obtained three temporary restraining orders against Shawn 
Edward Malsky in the past five years for alleged abuse against them or 
their children. Documents detail the acts of a man who reportedly bruised 
the cheek of a girlfriend's daughter when the child refused to eat, and who 
tried to strangle his wife in front of her children.

Court records allege that Malsky, too, was the victim of abuse as a small 
child. His biological mother reportedly threw him against a stove, and 
another time locked him and his sister in a bedroom, then left the dirty 
apartment.

The blond-haired, blue-eyed man from Massachusetts has been arrested nearly 
30 times in Florida, including once in the 1990 stabbing death of a Deep 
Creek woman. Though Malsky was cleared on the murder counts, he has been 
convicted more than 10 times on other charges, criminal records show.

Malsky landed behind bars again Oct. 31 after he allegedly shot heroin into 
preschooler Rylee Nantell and put a lighted crack pipe in her mouth. He 
reportedly told Rylee that smoking crack would give her energy, a sheriff's 
report states. He has denied the allegations.

The self-employed tree surgeon faces charges of aggravated child abuse and 
possession of cocaine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. He is being held 
without bail at the county jail.

This week a judge granted the third temporary restraining order against 
Malsky in recent years. Megan Nantell, Rylee's mother, told the court that 
Malsky has repeatedly tried to contact her through her grandmother, court 
documents filed Monday showed. Malsky and Nantell had been dating and lived 
together in a house on Bragg Court.

She said her grandmother was upset.

"I don't want any contact with him," Nantell wrote in court papers about 
Malsky, whose twin sons she is carrying. She declined comment for this 
story, but said Rylee is doing well.

The judge ordered Malsky to have no contact with Nantell and her two young 
children, including by phone or through another person. A hearing on the 
final injunction is scheduled Monday morning before Judge Peter Bell.

The first record of domestic abuse here involving Malsky was reported five 
years ago by Brenda Sexton. Sexton had known Malsky for nine months and 
shared a Punta Gorda home with him.

On Sept. 6, 1998, Malsky forced her youngest daughter to eat by squeezing 
the child's face, leaving her cheek bruised, a document filed by Sexton 
alleged.

Grabbing a hammer, Malsky beat the table where the child was sitting and 
threw things about the room. He also threatened to beat Sexton, according 
to the document.

"I was in fear and ran with my two girls with just the clothes on our 
backs," Sexton wrote. "I'm fearful of what he can or will do to me or (my) 
children."

A judge granted a temporary restraining order against Malsky. Sexton 
appeared at a court hearing days later, where she voluntarily chose to 
dismiss the injunction.

They married three months later.

Then in November 2002, DeSoto County sheriff's deputies arrested Malsky 
after he tried to choke her in front of her children, a sheriff's report 
states. He was charged with domestic battery and spent two nights in the 
DeSoto County jail before making bail.

DeSoto County sheriff's deputies found red marks on Brenda Malsky's throat, 
according to the report. The charge was dropped in April.

In January 2003, Brenda Malsky filed another domestic violence order 
against Malsky. Again, a judge granted Brenda Malsky a temporary 
restraining order, and again, she chose at a later hearing to voluntarily 
dismiss the order.

Malsky's criminal record is lengthy. In Charlotte County alone, there have 
been 21 cases against him. Those include charges he hit a woman in the face 
with a shortened pool cue in 1998; he pleaded no contest to battery and was 
sentenced to 67 days, time already served in the jail.

The 1990 murder of the Deep Creek woman, Sharon Gill, remains unsolved. 
Investigators at the time had said Malsky bragged about the murder to 
several friends. After Malsky spent 27 months in jail, however, prosecutors 
dropped the charges because they were unable to place him at the scene of 
the killing.

During the investigation, details about Malsky's childhood emerged. In 
depositions taken in 1994, Malsky's grandparents -- Ed and Viola Malsky -- 
told his lawyer that Malsky was abused as a toddler, court records show.

Viola Malsky told the defense attorney that Malsky's biological mother 
would lock him and his sister in a bedroom, then leave the apartment.

"She wouldn't get up in the morning and feed them, change them," Viola 
Malsky said in March 1994. "She wouldn't wash their clothes ... Just filthy."

Said Ed Malsky: "She hit them. She threw them across the room."

Another time, Viola Malsky alleged, Malsky went to the refrigerator for a 
slice of cake and his mother slammed him against a stove. He cut his head 
and required stitches.

When asked if Malsky's mother drank alcohol, Viola replied: "I don't think 
so, but every drug dealer was welcome into her home."

Records show Viola and Ed Malsky took custody of Malsky when he was 3; they 
adopted him when he was 5. They also adopted his sister, Nicki, who was 7 
at the time.

Malsky lived with the couple in Massachusetts, then later joined them in 
Deep Creek. There, Viola said, Malsky had come home drunk "many, many times.

"Drinking has been Shawn's big problem," she stated in the deposition.

Malsky is the older brother of Scott Christopher Malsky, who in May was 
convicted of raping and murdering an elderly Port Charlotte widow. Scott 
Malsky also has been convicted of raping and trying to kill a North Port 
teen whose body he set afire.

Shawn Malsky, who has been declared indigent, is being represented by 
public defender Richard Kolody.

He is set for arraignment Dec. 5. 
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