Daphne Restaurant Manager’s Killer Sentenced to Life in Prison
BAY MINETTE, Ala.
By Rick McCann
BlueRAMMedia.com
March 7, 2025
Travis Lofton lay in wait, hiding in the woods and the brush to confront his wife’s employer as they arrived at work, almost two years ago.
And that’s where Lofton killed Jason Mallette in June of 2023 as he was opening Taziki’s Mediterranean Café.
Lofton admitted to the murder and the Mallette family has spent the last year and a half waiting for justice.
On Wednesday afternoon, March 5, 2025, that time finally came, and Lofton was sentenced to life in prison.
A Baldwin County jury had already convicted him of the crime in November of last year after three days of testimony and two hours of deliberation.
As the restaurant manager and Tabitha Middleton, who was married to Jason Mallette at one time and is mother to his oldest son stepped out of the vehicle, Lofton rushed them yelling, threatening and then killing an innocent man.
Middleton read an emotional statement to the court before asking Judge Scott Taylor to sentence Mallette’s killer to life in prison. During her statement to the court, Middleton said Lofton has caused the Mallette family “unimaginable grief and loss” and asked the judge to sentence him to life in prison. Middleton said Lofton had sentenced Jason Mallette’s two boys to a “life sentence without their father.”
Judge Taylor asked Lofton if he had anything to say but his attorney answered, saying that his client had nothing more to say to the family or the court.
Judge Taylor gave Travis Lofton 42 days to appeal the sentence, which he’s expected to do.
On the way out of the courtroom, Lofton said he intends to take his case to the Supreme Court if that’s what needs to be done to appeal the life sentence.
He has now been turned over to the Alabama Department of Corrections to begin to serve his sentence.
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