Release of Ronald Exantus, who killed Versailles boy, 6, draws attention of White House
The White House says it is “looking into” the release of a man who stabbed a 6-year-old boy to death in Woodford County 10 years ago.
Ronald Exantus was released from prison Wednesday after serving 10 years of a 20-year sentence. In 2018, Exantus was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the death of Logan Tipton. He was found guilty but mentally ill on charges that he assaulted Logan’s father and siblings.
Exantus, a nurse who did not know the Tipton family, drove from Indiana to Versailles and in the early hours of Dec. 7, 2015, came into the family’s unlocked Douglas Avenue home and assaulted them. Logan died after being stabbed in the head with a butcher knife as he lay in bed.
Exantus, 42, will be on supervised release until June 18, according to the Kentucky Department of Corrections website.
“I can confirm the White House is looking into this. It’s wholly unacceptable for a child killer to walk free after just several years in prison,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on the social media platform X Saturday morning.
Along with the statement, which was re-posted by the White House, Leavitt shared a post by Matt Walsh in which Walsh said, “This case should be getting A LOT more attention. Should be massively viral. We need the White House on it. A man who broke into a house and stabbed a child to death is now walking free. One of the most heinous miscarriages of justice in American history.”
The family expressed its dissatisfaction with Exantus’ release in an interview with LEX 18 earlier this week.
“Your life should be at least life in prison without the possibility of parole,” Logan’s father, Dean Tipton, told the television station.
The Tipton family and its supporters also protested the jury’s verdict when it was handed down in 2018.
A judge ordered mental health treatment for Exantus during his incarceration. A psychologist for Exantus’ defense had testified during the trial that he suffered from psychosis because of mental illness.
In 2020, the Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the verdict in Exantus’ case after his attorneys argued that the split verdict handed down by a jury in Fayette County was inconsistent.
