A Columbus man who stabbed his roommate to death in North Linden back in 2022 is now headed to prison for the rest of his life, with no chance at parole for at least 20 years. James Lumpkin Jr. was 60 years old when a Franklin County judge handed down the sentence on Monday, more than four years after 33-year-old John Malinchak died from his injuries.
Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Carl Aveni sentenced Lumpkin to life in prison with no opportunity for parole for at least 20 years, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. The sentence closes out a case that began on March 6, 2022, when Malinchak was found stabbed outside the home the two men shared on the 1500 block of Republic Avenue.
What Happened the Night Malinchak Was Stabbed
Columbus police officers responded to a report of a stabbing at the Republic Avenue address at 5:08 p.m. that day, per the Herald-Leader's reporting. Officers arrived to find Malinchak lying unresponsive in the street, and Columbus Division of Fire paramedics rushed him to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, where he later died of his injuries.
Columbus police homicide detectives believed some type of roommate disturbance led to the stabbing, the outlet reports. Police charged Lumpkin with murder on March 6, 2022, the day of the stabbing; dispatch.com reported at the time that he was 55 and that court records already showed a history of assaults and other charges dating back 20 years.
A Record Stretching Back to 1990
Franklin County court records cited by the Herald-Leader show Lumpkin had a history of felonious assault, domestic violence, menacing and other charges dating back to 1990, along with a documented history of mental health issues. That record includes a 2016 case in which Lumpkin was arrested on a repeat-offender felonious-assault charge and pleaded guilty, for which he was sentenced to two years consecutive to a two-year term on another conviction.
That 2016 case stemmed from an incident described separately by cleveland.com, which reported that Lumpkin's 32-year-old nephew was found with multiple stab wounds to his face and chest near Deshler Park. Police said at the time that Lumpkin approached his nephew, took out a cutting instrument and stabbed him, though investigators did not identify a motive for that attack.
Competency Proceedings and a Second Arrest
Lumpkin's mental health history also surfaced in a separate case. He was deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial in 2016 and was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment at Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare before later being deemed competent that same year, per the Herald-Leader.
Years later, in March 2020, Lumpkin was arrested on domestic violence and aggravated menacing charges tied to a complaint from December 2019. That case was ultimately dismissed by Franklin County Municipal Court in July 2020 after a psychiatric evaluation again found him incompetent to stand trial, with the matter instead referred to Franklin County Probate Court.
Conviction and Sentencing in the Malinchak Case
In the Malinchak case, Judge Aveni found Lumpkin, then 60, guilty of murder and tampering with evidence on October 1, in connection with Malinchak's death. The sentencing came about three and a half weeks later, when Aveni imposed the life term with parole eligibility not possible for at least 20 years.
The case brings a resolution, years in the making, to a killing in North Linden in the spring of 2022. The sentence closes a case that began with a late-afternoon report of a stabbing on a residential street in Columbus.
