A Kentucky father has expressed his rage toward the man who stabbed his six-year-old boy to death during a home invasion after he was released from prison just 10 years into his sentence.
Ronald Exantus, 42, a former dialysis nurse who in 2015 broke into the Tipton family’s Versailles home in the middle of the night and murdered young Logan Tipton in his bed with a butcher knife, was freed last week.
Exantus was released under parole supervision after earning education and good behavior credits behind bars.
He was sentenced to 20 years in 2018 after being found not guilty by reason of insanity on murder charges, and guilty but mentally ill on assault charges for stabbing the boy’s father and sisters during the same frenzied rampage.
Logan’s dad, Dean Tipton, says he is prepared to take matters into his own hands.
‘I’ve had my talks with God because I’m not afraid to tell, and I’ve told the court if I ever cross paths with him, I will kill the man. I will kill him where he stands,’ Tipton said to WLKY.
‘You took a human being’s life, not just a human being, a six-year-old boy who had yet to even begun, to begin to live,’ the heartbroken father added in an interview with WDRB.
‘You know, so my thing is, mentally ill or not… you take a life… your life should be at least life in prison without the possibility of parole.’
Logan, 6, was stabbed repeatedly in the head with a butcher knife at his home in Kentucky
Dean Tipton, right, the father of murdered six-year-old, Logan, says he will exact revenge on the man who killed his little boy. His two daughters are seen by his side in a recent interview
Exantus became eligible for parole as early as 2019 due to time served, with earlier bids rejected in 2021 and deferred again in 2023
Exantus will complete his sentence under mandatory re-entry supervision in Florida and remains under parole until next year.
Adding to the hurt, Kentucky officials did not even have the courtesy to notify the Tiptons of his release, leaving them blindsided and furious.
Exantus traveled across state lines from Indiana in December 2015 and repeatedly stabbed six-year-old Logan. The blade was driven with such force that it bent out of shape.
‘He didn’t just kill my son. He killed every member of my family,’ Heather Tipton, Logan’s mother, told Lex18.
‘Every person that’s sitting here today is a completely different person than they were when they went to bed on December 6 [2015].’
The Tipton’s are also terrified whether the man who once swore he would kill them all might return to finish what he started.
‘If you’re a victim… and there’s a violent criminal going to be released that’s in connection to you, I think you should be offered some sort of security or protection – or at least just a phone call,’ Heather added.
‘It just feels like a six-year-old’s life is worth more than ten years in prison,’ she said.
The family said Exantus caused them untold heartache in an interview earlier this week
The boy’s father Dean Tipton has said he is concerned Exantus might decide to ‘finish the job’
Dean told how following the murder of his son he ‘wanted to die’ and ‘gave up on his family’
‘As a father, I fear that he may come back and try to finish what… because, if I remember right, he told Koral [Logan’s sister] that he was going to kill everyone,’ Dean said.
‘I just wanted to die,’ he said, recalling his state in the aftermath of Logan’s murder. ‘I gave up on life. I gave up on my family. I gave up on everybody.’
Another of Logan’s sisters, Dakota, told how Exantus stabbed her in the back and then proceeded to stomp on her head.
‘I remember waking up across the room, not where I was at, and I looked and he was killing Logan and Logan was screaming,’ she explained.
At trial, close friends recalled Exantus acting strangely in the days before the disturbed killing.
Evidence shown also pointed to him driving to Florida where he has family, before he somehow ended up in Versailles.
Exantus told officers he had seen a sign for a Gray Street and it reminded him of the medical TV show ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.
Young Logan was stabbed to death in his bed with a butcher knife
The little boy is seen walking the family dogs during happier times
Exantus had traveled from Indianapolis to the Tiptons’ home in Versailles, Kentucky near Lexington in December 2015 where he carried out a series of stabbings
Exantus, seen here in his most recent prison mugshot, was released early for good behavior
He told police at the time that he believed he needed to ‘re-enact surgery’ inside the Tiptons’ home and that the street name ‘made him think of knives for surgery’.
Trial testimony said he entered the home, went upstairs to where the children were sleeping and fatally stabbed Logan.
After one of the boy’s siblings ran to get their father Dean downstairs, a fight broke out between Exantus and Dean.
Prosecutors disagreed with Exantus’ insanity defense, arguing in court that he was in such a state due to his use of synthetic drugs.
Exantus became eligible for parole in 2019 due to credit for time served and had his parole knocked back in 2021. It was then deferred in 2023 for two years.
He will remain under probation and parole supervision until his sentence ends next year, and will carry out mandatory re-entry supervision in Florida, the family said.
