6-year-old Logan Tipton fatally stabbed in Versailles, Ky

DailyKenn.com | AbateHate.com | Facebook.com/DailyKenn

The Random Stabbing Death of Logan Tipton

VERSAILLES, Ky. (AP) — A random home invasion shattered the quiet of a Woodford County family on Dec. 7, 2015, leaving 6-year-old Logan Tipton dead from multiple stab wounds and his father and two sisters injured in a brutal overnight attack.

Your $8 monthly partner pledge helps us keep growing ►

The assailant, Ronald Exantus, a 31-year-old dialysis nurse from Indianapolis, drove more than 200 miles unannounced to the family's Versailles home, a place he had never visited. In the predawn hours, he entered through an unlocked door, retrieved a kitchen knife and slipped into the bedroom shared by Logan and his 8-year-old sister, Dakota. As Logan slept, Exantus stabbed the boy repeatedly in the head and upper body, prosecutors later recounted from witness testimony.

Dakota awoke to her brother's cries and the intruder's shadow over him. She fled downstairs, screaming for her father, Dean Tipton, and placed a frantic 911 call: "There's a robber in my bedroom!" Dean, roused from sleep, rushed upstairs to find the horror unfolding. The attacker turned on him, stabbing him several times before overpowering and hurling him across the room. Exantus then pursued Dakota downstairs, inflicting wounds on her, while Logan's 11-year-old sister, Madison, also sustained injuries in the chaos. Dean ultimately subdued the intruder until police arrived.

Logan succumbed to his injuries later that morning at a Lexington hospital, his death marking the end of a vibrant kindergarten life at Simmons Elementary School, where he was remembered as an energetic boy who had blossomed into a passionate youth football player despite initial reluctance to join the team.

The Woodford County community reeled in collective grief. Hundreds gathered that evening at Falling Springs for a vigil, where Logan's mother, Heather Tipton, shared how she once sang "Silent Night" to soothe his fears of the dark. The next day, Simmons Elementary deployed a crisis team to support its roughly 400 students, many of whom knew Logan and his three siblings personally. "We have broken hearts," Superintendent Scott Hawkins said. "Anytime that you lose a student ... it is like losing a member of your own family." Fundraisers proliferated, including donations to the newly formed Logan Tipton Foundation at local banks and a memorial bench at school crafted from collected plastic bottle caps.

Exantus, arrested at the scene with no prior connection to the family, claimed psychosis drove his actions. His 2018 trial in Woodford Circuit Court drew emotional testimony, including Dean's harrowing account of cradling his dying son and Dakota's vivid recollection of the assault. A jury acquitted him of murder and burglary by reason of insanity, citing evidence he lacked the capacity to appreciate his actions' criminality during the fatal stabbing. However, he was convicted of second-degree assault on Dean and Dakota, and fourth-degree assault on Madison, with a finding of guilty but mentally ill. Judge David Tapp sentenced him to 20 years, with terms running concurrently, making him eligible for parole after about seven years with good-time credit.

The split verdict ignited outrage. Family members, clad in "We Demand Justice for Logan" T-shirts, marched to the courthouse in a drizzling rain, chanting for accountability. "When you killed Logan, you slaughtered my entire family," Heather told the court. Dean decried the outcome: "When I go see my son, I have to go to a graveyard." Protesters, including Logan's great-aunt Joyce Kinder, echoed that the ruling "did not fit the crime." The Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the decision in 2019, noting the jury could reasonably view Exantus' mental state as varying across the attacks.

The case exposed fissures in Kentucky's insanity defense statute, with experts later explaining it requires proving a defendant could not conform behavior to law due to mental disease — a high bar met for Logan's killing but not the assaults. Dean, who battled severe depression in the aftermath and contemplated suicide, credited community support and his surviving children for his resilience. "I gave up on life. I gave up on my family," he recalled. "But everybody deserves a fighting chance to have justice for them."

On Oct. 1, 2025, Exantus, now 40, walked free after serving less than seven years, released on supervised parole to Florida for six months before returning under probation until June 2026. The Tipton family, notified abruptly, expressed profound betrayal. "How is he innocent from the murder? We watched him do it," Dean said, his voice heavy with a decade's unresolved pain. Phyllis Tipton, Logan's grandmother, added, "He didn't just kill my son. He killed every member of my family ... and every person that's sitting here today is a completely different person." The release, granted for good behavior, has reignited calls for sentencing reform, leaving the Tiptons to navigate fresh wounds from a tragedy that forever altered their lives.