LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Less than 10 years after stabbing 6-year-old Logan Tipton to death as he slept in his bed, Ronald Exantus was released early from prison.
Now, the boy's family members hope a new Kentucky bill will keep others from going through the same heartbreak.
"If we can save one family from that feeling, then we've done our job," Dean Tipton, Logan's father, said during a news conference Tuesday. "Logan's life mattered, and they're going to make sure Logan's life mattered."
House Bill 422, also known as "Logan's Law," was filed Friday in Frankfort. The legislation is named after Logan Tipton, who was killed when Ronald Exantus broke into his family home on Douglas Avenue in Versailles on Dec. 7, 2015.
It was filed in response Exantus being released from prison early on good behavior in October 2025 after serving less than half of his 20-year prison sentence for Tipton's death.Â
Ronald Exantus was booked into the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, after his extradition from Florida. (Photo courtesy of VINE)
The bill would expand the definition of a violent offender and increase the time certain offenders must serve before parole. That includes raising parole eligibility for life sentences from 25 to 35 years. It would also limit early release options for violent felons.
"The programs that we have, they're relatively new, but this failure shows that in some areas we simply went too far," Rep. TJ Roberts, R-Burlington, said.Â
Despite broad support for the bill, the Kentucky Psychological Association said it goes to far by eliminating the insanity defense.
According to FOX56 News, Roberts said while Logan's Law gets rid of "not guilty by reason of insanity," it does keep "guilty but mentally ill."
"We are going to ensure that you are in prison for what you did," he said. "We are going to ensure that if mental illness is involved, you're getting the help that you need."
A week after his early release, Exantus was arrested in Florida for failing to register as a convicted felon within 48 hours of moving to the state. Police there said Exantus was living in a home adjacent from an elementary school and blocks away from another school, and had not yet registered as a convicted felon, at the time of his release.
After his extradition back to Kentucky, 26 state representatives signed a letter asking the parole board deem him "ineligible for re-release." In November, the Kentucky Parole Board revoked his Mandatory Reentry Supervision for violating the terms of his release.
The board said its decision came after Exantus "admitted to violating the conditions of his supervision." Board members determined his failure to comply with the conditions of his supervision "constituted a significant risk to prior victims or the community at large and the offender cannot be appropriately managed in the community."
In its decision, the board wrote Exantus "violating his conditions and ultimately committing a new misdemeanor offense within days of his release further proves that he is not suitable for release."
The Kentucky Department of Corrections was required to release Exantus on Mandatory Reentry Supervision per Kentucky law, despite the parole board voting unanimously to keep him in prison every time it had the opportunity. The board doesn't have the authority to release inmates on MRS, which is a process governed by state law.Â
Exantus was sentenced in 2018 to 20 years in prison for stabbing Tipton to death. He also stabbed Logan's sister, who survived, and assaulted their father. He was arrested after Logan's father tackled him and held him down until police arrived.Â
During his six-day trial, the defense argued Exantus was insane at the time of the crime and in a state of psychosis. But both the defense and prosecution admitted that he killed the boy.
Exantus was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, but he was convicted for the brutal assaults on other family members the night he broke into the home.
To read HB 422/Logan's Law, click here.
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