Louisville woman pushes for new law after husband killed in Kentucky prison

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The wife of a man killed at a Kentucky prison is still demanding answers months after his death.

34-year-old Robert Broyles, of Louisville, was a husband and a dad, known to them as Tony.

Broyles was serving time at the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in West Liberty, Ky. for several theft charges.

He was supposed to be released from prison on Sep. 9, 2025, but on Aug. 31 he was found unresponsive in his cell.

"We had homecoming stuff already, we had little banners and stuff already made up and everything," his wife, Ashley Elgin, said.

Kentucky State Police investigated the case. On Sep. 18, 45-year-old Daleon Rice was charged with the murder of Broyles.

Elgin said she's still waiting on answers. She filed several Open Records Requests and said in return she's gotten hundreds of papers with redacted or irrelevant information. She also has questions as to why her husband was put in a cell with someone who has violent charges.

"When you have that many disciplinary write ups and things like that, that should be a red flag, that should be a keep separate flag and they didn't do that," says Elgin.

Broyles died in August 2025 and since then, there has been two other deaths at the same prison. In both deaths, foul play was suspected.

"I can't keep what happened to my husband from happening because it's the past, I can keep this from happening to someone else, which has already happened to two other people," Elgin said.

She's now pushing for legislation called "Tony's Law" through a petition that already has hundreds of signatures.

The law would require the state to give families a briefing within 48 hours of any inmate death as well as safe-release transition units for those about to get out.

WDRB reached out to EKCC for comment. Their spokesperson told us they're working on a statement.

"The fact that they just try to brush it off like 'oh it's just another murder or things of that sort or oh it's just another homicide, or it's just a prisoner' that's not true, he was a person, he was a human, and he was my husband," Elgin said.

Rice was scheduled for a pre-trial hearing Jan. 22, but that was pushed to March 19, 2026.

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