By Warren Kulo
The 38-year-old Daphne restaurant manager found shot to death Thursday loved his sons, the outdoors and Auburn Tigers football, according to a GoFundMe started by the mother of one of his sons.
Jason Michael Mallette was a manager at Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe on Highway 98 in Daphne. Police say when he arrived for work early Thursday, he was accosted by Travis Lofton St., the husband of a Taziki’s employee. The two men exchanged words before Lofton shot Mallette once in the chest, according to Daphne police.
Tabatha Middleton, the mother of Mallette’s 11-year-old son, started the GoFundMe page to help defray funeral costs, with any remaining money to go to his two sons. His other son is 6 years old.
“Jason was a devoted & loving father,” Middleton wrote. “His two sons meant the world to him. Jason enjoyed being in the woods hunting, fishing, Auburn football and making the people around him laugh.
“Jason always made the best of everything. He never took anything too seriously and wanted those around him to laugh and smile.”
By mid-afternoon Friday, the page had already raised $10,760 of the $15,000 goal in just nine hours since its launch.
