Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / PERP KILLS SLEEPING BOY, 6, GETS 'EARLY RELEASE,' FOUND BY FL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

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PERP KILLS SLEEPING BOY, 6, GETS 'EARLY RELEASE,' FOUND BY FL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A home intruder stabs a
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Speaker 1: sleeping little boy just six years old, dead, then he
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Speaker 1: gets early release, early release, doing half the time he
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Speaker 1: was supposed to do. Why just found by a Florida
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Speaker 1: elementary school. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
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Speaker 2: I want to thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 3: In twenty fifteen, the Tipton family was living a peaceful,
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Speaker 3: ordinary life, raising their small children and savoring each day.
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Speaker 3: But one faithful night in December, their world was irrevocably
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Speaker 3: shattered by a horrific home envision.
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Speaker 1: I don't understand what happened in this case. First of all,
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Speaker 1: the whole family's together. They're celebrating, they're having a movie
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Speaker 1: thon and one of the bedrooms they moved all the
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Speaker 1: furniture around, and the chouldren are having a great time.
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Speaker 1: Then sometime in the night, an intruder breaks into the home,
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Speaker 1: comes into the home, finds this beautiful Can I see
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Speaker 1: his picture? Please finds the most look at him, look
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Speaker 1: at Logan. Finds Logan asleep, asleep, and stabs this beautiful baby.
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Speaker 1: Did wait for it. That's not all. He just got
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Speaker 1: out on early release. This is in Kentucky, can you
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Speaker 1: hear me, Kentucky, this is on you.
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Speaker 4: Why is this.
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Speaker 1: Guy out walking around and less than half the time
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Speaker 1: he was supposed to do? Anyway, that said, let's go
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Speaker 1: back to that moment and understand what happened.
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Speaker 5: Listen, I've had my talks with God because I'm not
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Speaker 5: afraid to tell you all. I told the court if
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Speaker 5: I ever crossed paths with him, I will kill the man.
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Speaker 5: I will kill him where he stands.
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Speaker 6: There's really no words to explain it. Me and my siblings,
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Speaker 6: we are fearful of what's to come next. I've seen
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Speaker 6: the man in my room killing my brother, and now
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Speaker 6: he is just free.
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Speaker 1: It just doesn't make sense to me that from our
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Speaker 1: friends at Fox News, I'm just also from our friends
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Speaker 1: at w KYT. You know, I've got an all star
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Speaker 1: panel of experts, but tonight joining us to very special
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Speaker 1: guest Slogan's father, Dean Tipton, and Logan's sister just a
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Speaker 1: little girl when this happened, Coral Tipton's thank you for
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Speaker 1: being with us tonight.
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Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you for sharing the story.
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Speaker 1: Mister Tipton. My father would cry, not about anything else,
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Speaker 1: but anything to do with us, his three children. He
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Speaker 1: was just so tenderhearted, and I am curious where you
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Speaker 1: get the strength to talk about Logan.
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Speaker 5: I look at it as a way to keep Logan alive,
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Speaker 5: keep his memory alive. And plus I've got four other
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Speaker 5: amazing children that that help keep me going. None of
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Speaker 5: it's easy, but we want the world to know who
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Speaker 5: our son is and the injustice that was done upon our.
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Speaker 1: Family, and justice, I don't think it was done on
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Speaker 1: your family. It has been heaped heaped on your family.
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Speaker 1: You know, I understand what you're saying to an extent.
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Speaker 1: I thought I knew it all about grieving and suffering
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Speaker 1: when my fance was murdered shortly before our wedding, But
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Speaker 1: now that I have the twins, I just have to
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Speaker 1: go lay down on the railroad track and wait for
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Speaker 1: a train to come. I don't know where you're getting
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Speaker 1: the strength, but yet you have to. You have to
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Speaker 1: jan for your other children because they need you, and
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Speaker 1: you're setting an example to them about how to deal
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Speaker 1: with the worst hardship any parent can endure, and you're
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Speaker 1: showing them that. To Coral, this is Logan's sister. How
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Speaker 1: when you look back and think of all the Christmas
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Speaker 1: mornings and birthdays and basketball games out in the driveway
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Speaker 1: and supper time with the family that you have lost
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Speaker 1: with your brother Logan. What goes through your mind, Coral?
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Speaker 7: A lot of what apps come to my mind a
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Speaker 7: lat whenever I get to thinking about him and what
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Speaker 7: we would be doing if he was here home. But
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Speaker 7: I do all the time like to say that Logan
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Speaker 7: saved the rest of us that night. So I just
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Speaker 7: look at him as a light in my life that
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Speaker 7: I can't see, but I know is there because he
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Speaker 7: is what saved.
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Speaker 1: Why do you say that, Coral, Because.
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Speaker 8: When Logan was being killed, Ronald Exander's shut up screaming,
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Speaker 8: and if he wasn't gonna shut up screaming and crying
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Speaker 8: that he was gonna come get me in the rest
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Speaker 8: of my siblings, and Logan stopped.
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Speaker 1: Dane. When you when you hear that from Coral, I mean,
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Speaker 1: did you ever in your wildest dreams, you guys were
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Speaker 1: celebrating in a new house, it's Christmas time, and your
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Speaker 1: wildest dreams, imagine this could happen. You know, the other night,
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Speaker 1: it was three am and I heard what sounded like
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Speaker 1: an unbreakable Christmas ornament fall off of the tree onto
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Speaker 1: the hardwood floor. Right, That's what it sounded like in
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Speaker 1: my mind in my daughter's room, and all I could
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Speaker 1: think about was logan. At first, I thought, oh, what
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Speaker 1: is Lucy doing in there at three o'clock in the morning,
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Speaker 1: And I thought a logan. I jumped up and ran
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Speaker 1: and just when you hear Coral describe what she just said,
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Speaker 1: how does that make you feel?
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Speaker 5: It crushes me knowing that my baby boy was up there. Yeah,
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Speaker 5: probably first chance for help, and that coward of a
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Speaker 5: monster went into my children's rooms instead of my room.
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Speaker 5: I have a lot of feelings. I feel like I'm
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Speaker 5: let him down, even though I did everything I could.
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Speaker 1: Mister Simpton, you know, you know right that you did
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Speaker 1: not let him down. You did not let him down.
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Speaker 1: You know what? Hold on? I got a shrink with me,
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Speaker 1: not just a shrink, but a friend, longtime friend and colleague,
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Speaker 1: Karen Stark is with me, forensic psychologist Karen. That's survivor guilt, right,
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Speaker 1: because even I think I could have saved Keith, and
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Speaker 1: he was had traveled to a different town on it
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Speaker 1: with a construction crew. There's nothing I could do. But
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Speaker 1: in my mind, I think, well, why didn't I fill
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Speaker 1: in the blank? Just can you just tell Dean and
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Speaker 1: Coral anything.
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Speaker 9: It's a primal feeling. I'm not surprised at all, because,
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Speaker 9: especially with a child, you're there and you feel like
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Speaker 9: you're there to protect them. They are not supposed to
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Speaker 9: die before you and something this horrific, Nancy a murder,
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Speaker 9: So that primal feeling of I should have been there,
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Speaker 9: I should have done something, I should have protected him.
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Speaker 9: That's a normal feeling. It's very normal because it is
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Speaker 9: your child, and you feel like that's why he was there.
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Speaker 9: You had him, you were supposed to protect him, even
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Speaker 9: though it's not true and there was nothing you could do.
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Speaker 1: But I guess there's no way to avoid that feeling. Guys,
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Speaker 1: we're going back to that night. Listen.
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Speaker 10: December sixth, the Tipton family is enjoying their first holiday
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Speaker 10: season and their new home. Dean and Heather have already
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Speaker 10: put up the Christmas tree, and their children rearranged the
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Speaker 10: girl's bedroom into a movie theater so they can have
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Speaker 10: a Christmas movie marathon. Heather finds Coral Lily in Dakota's beds,
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Speaker 10: pushed together with Low and Aiden on the lower part
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Speaker 10: of a trundle bed as she puts them to sleep
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Speaker 10: before heading to her overnight shift. Dean also turns in,
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Speaker 10: expecting his brother to return from work around four am.
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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace to Deane and Coral, I'm
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Speaker 1: trying to imagine that we do that too. The next day,
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Speaker 1: after Thanksgiving, which everybody goes shopping, we don't. Everybody gets
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Speaker 1: in the den our TV screens like this big, and
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Speaker 1: we start watching Christmas movies and I look forward to
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Speaker 1: it all year, and we try, in a barring homework
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Speaker 1: or something to watch Christmas movies all the way through
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Speaker 1: the Christmas season when we're all together. Can you just
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Speaker 1: tell me what that night was like, guys? The movies?
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Speaker 5: We had made Christmas candy earlier that day we had
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Speaker 5: Child of covered pretzels and just odds and ends of
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Speaker 5: Christmas candy. And what was it? The Elf? That was
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Speaker 5: Logan's favorite movie, The Elf, and we had started with it,
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Speaker 5: and pretty much that was That movie was on rerun
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Speaker 5: until Christmas. And the after Christmas, I.
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Speaker 1: Forced the children to watch the Kermit Scrooge movie Christmas Carol,
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Speaker 1: and then they go to Elf, and we watched Elf
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Speaker 1: with feral on and off the whole Christmas season. Just
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Speaker 1: imagine all you guys with the chairs and seats and
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Speaker 1: the beds all squished together to make a movie theater.
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Speaker 1: Then at some point everyone is exhausted from ELF and
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Speaker 1: start to drift to sleep.
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Speaker 11: Listen, seven year old Dakota heads downstairs in the middle
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Speaker 11: of the night for a glass of water. Dakota thinks
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Speaker 11: she hears her uncle coming home after a late shift,
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Speaker 11: but seeing a man she doesn't recognize, Dakota drops to
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Speaker 11: the floor behind a kitchen counter. The stranger here's a
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Speaker 11: stool shift where Dakota is hiding, and immediately lunges for
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Speaker 11: the little girl. Dakota barely escapes his grasp, booking it
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Speaker 11: back to the bedroom she shares with their siblings. But
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Speaker 11: pulling the covers over her head doesn't make this monster
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Speaker 11: go away.
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Speaker 4: He stabbed me through, so she in my back and
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Speaker 4: he started swamping on my head after that, and.
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Speaker 1: I kind of blocked out. You know, there's so much
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Speaker 1: to cover with Dane and Coral. What about Dakota, By
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Speaker 1: the way, that's from at the official Wolf Slash YouTube.
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Speaker 1: What about Dakota? How, I mean, how has she managed
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Speaker 1: to soldier on after that?
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Speaker 5: She's had her rough hearing that the man was innocent
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Speaker 5: by reason of insanity. Her little mind couldn't understand that.
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Speaker 5: You know. She all the kids told us, Daddy, we
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Speaker 5: watched him do it, how is he innocent? And that
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Speaker 5: was probably one of the hardest things I had to
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Speaker 5: do to my children, as telling them that. And Dakota
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Speaker 5: has lashed out. She was in trouble for a while.
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Speaker 5: I think she felt like, well, he can get away
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Speaker 5: with it, I can too, And she was in a
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Speaker 5: lot of fights in school and here recently she has
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Speaker 5: over the last year, so it's starting to mature enough
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Speaker 5: to handle it better. But it's been rough. It's been
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Speaker 5: rough on her. It's been rough on all my kids, Dane.
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Speaker 1: When I would work with child victims, victims of Eleanie's,
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Speaker 1: whether they had been beaten or had cigarette burns all
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Speaker 1: over them, starved, put in cages, sex abused, they had
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Speaker 1: so many different reactions. And you know, like the classic
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Speaker 1: symptoms doing battling school and wedding the bed and another
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Speaker 1: classic symptom is exactly what you just said. After going
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Speaker 1: through trauma, children don't know, they don't know how to
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Speaker 1: deal with it. They can either go into themselves or
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Speaker 1: they can act out. And I know that doesn't help
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Speaker 1: to note this is normal, this is what happens. But
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Speaker 1: this went on for some time with Dakota, right, and
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Speaker 1: it just had to exhaust you guys trying to help her.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, it was. We were in court at one time
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Speaker 5: with Dakota for about six years and it was all
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Speaker 5: due to fighting and acting out in school truancy. She
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Speaker 5: just felt like the LA wall let her down. So
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Speaker 5: they're not going to do anything to me. If they
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Speaker 5: let him go, they'll let me go.
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Speaker 1: Greg Morse joining me veteran criminal defense attorney at Morse Legal.
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Speaker 1: He is the author of the Untested on Amazon. Greg,
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Speaker 1: I'm uncharacteristically not asking you to take the other side,
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Speaker 1: but I know you've seen like I have. You stand
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Speaker 1: in court and you see a complete injustice. It's like
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Speaker 1: there's nothing you can do. And when I hear about like,
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Speaker 1: I hear the dad crying, I hear the sister crying.
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Speaker 1: But when I think about Dakota, you know she was
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Speaker 1: attacked lashing out for the following years, that's very rare.
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Speaker 1: I mean, we hear of it because it's rare when
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Speaker 1: it happens. That's very rare for a girl statistically to
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Speaker 1: start fights at school to the point you land in
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Speaker 1: really bad trouble that's coming from this incident, and it's
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Speaker 1: like our hands are tied. We see it unfolding in
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Speaker 1: slow motion, almost the wake left behind because of this guy,
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Speaker 1: and there's nothing we can do about it.
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Speaker 5: Well, it's and.
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Speaker 12: You're right, it is a challenge when you know victims
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Speaker 12: that suffer tremendous trauma, especially young people, then are expected
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Speaker 12: to put it behind them and act out in life
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Speaker 12: like a normal citizen. These impact tremendously. It's difficult to
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Speaker 12: get past them for some people. But I will say
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Speaker 12: that you know, victims of serious crimes, You've prosecuted them,
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Speaker 12: I've defended people. They're not responsible for the acts that
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Speaker 12: happen to them or their family. The tragic not even close.
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Speaker 12: And people feel alone a lot when they're victims, and
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Speaker 12: they unique I find that this is only happening to me,
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Speaker 12: but sadly it's not. There's a lot of people out
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Speaker 12: there that go through this experience.
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Speaker 1: Speaking of little Dakota, listen.
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Speaker 10: After stabbing Dakota through her bed sheets, throwing her to
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Speaker 10: the floor, and stomping on her head, Ronald Xantis turns
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Speaker 10: the Tiptons kitchen knife on six year old Logan sleeping
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Speaker 10: on the floor. Dakota comes too to Exanta's stabbing Logan
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Speaker 10: in the head and her brother's blood curdling screams, waking
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Speaker 10: up her older sisters. Lillie manages to slip past Xantis
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Speaker 10: downstairs to her parents' room, while Coral tries to turn Exantus'
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Speaker 10: attention away from Logan.
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Speaker 1: Logan to his sight.
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Speaker 6: I couldn't hear him screaming for mom and dad.
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Speaker 1: He was screaming for everybody. That from the official Wolf YouTube. Okay, Dane,
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Speaker 1: You've got to help me understand stand where you get
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Speaker 1: the strength knowing that this guy stabbed him while he
18:07
Speaker 1: was screaming mommy and daddy. I mean, that is just
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Speaker 1: an overwhelming tide of grief and guilt and pain.
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Speaker 5: Yeah. Honestly, some of this stuff that come out in
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Speaker 5: that podcast was the first time I heard it. When
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Speaker 5: everything happened, I laid in bed and gave up on everything,
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Speaker 5: and I didn't want to know what all had happened
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Speaker 5: to my kids because what I was dealing with, what
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Speaker 5: I had went through that night, was sending me over
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Speaker 5: the edge, and I was terrified that finding out exactly
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Speaker 5: what happened to them would have sent me completely over
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Speaker 5: the edge. So knowing that he was up there screaming
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Speaker 5: and yelling for me and his mom, I wish I
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Speaker 5: It goes back to I guess the survivor. I wish
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Speaker 5: I could have done more.
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Speaker 1: I wish you did.
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Speaker 5: You should know, Yeah, I hear his screams at night.
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Speaker 1: Joining us now tonight a very special guest, Theodore Joseph TJ.
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Speaker 1: Roberts in the Kentucky House of Reps for the sixty
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Speaker 1: six district. It's a real pleasure to have you on.
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Speaker 1: I normally don't wade into the cesspool of politics. I
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Speaker 1: admire all of you who have the stomach for it.
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Speaker 1: Representative Roberts, I greatly appreciate what you're trying to do.
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Speaker 1: Could you explain in a nutshell what you're trying to
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Speaker 1: do and how the hey, this guy walked free? Because
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Speaker 1: I know you're a trial lawyer, and it's completely inconsistent
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Speaker 1: that a jury give him n gbr I not guilty
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Speaker 1: by reason in sanity on murder and burglary and then
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Speaker 1: which require intent. They say he was insane and couldn't
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Speaker 1: inform intent and then convict him on two counts second
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Speaker 1: degree assault one count of misdemeanor fourth degree assault, which
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Speaker 1: specifically require intent. So you know what we had. I'm
20:25
Speaker 1: just putting it out there and I'm going to get
20:27
Speaker 1: attacked for this a bad jury because the verdict doesn't
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Speaker 1: even make sense that he was too crazy for intent
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Speaker 1: to murder, but he was sane enough for intent to
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Speaker 1: assault in the same moment that said, why is he
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Speaker 1: walking free? And what can you do about it?
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Speaker 5: Absolutely, and thank you for having me on.
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Speaker 13: So the reality is the Tipton family was victimized twice,
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Speaker 13: first by Ronald Exantis and then second by the Commonwealth
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Speaker 13: of Kentucky when we failed to put him away for
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Speaker 13: the rest of his life for what he did to
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Speaker 13: Logan Tipton. And the reason he got out was one
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Speaker 13: he was found not guilty by reason of insanity for
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Speaker 13: burglary and murder. That shouldn't have happened. He should have
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Speaker 13: been convicted. He was found sane for the assaults. But
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Speaker 13: then second, he was sentenced to twenty years in prison
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Speaker 13: for the assaults, which under Kentucky law at the time,
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Speaker 13: didn't even constitute a crime of violence somehow, and as
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Speaker 13: a result, he was eligible for a program that was
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Speaker 13: codified into statute in twenty eleven called mandatory re entry supervision.
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Speaker 13: And as a consequence of that, Ronald Exantis, who murdered
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Speaker 13: a six year old who burglarized a home and viciously
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Speaker 13: assaulted the murder victim's family, was let out after only
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Speaker 13: seven years. And that is one of the greatest failures
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Speaker 13: under Kentucky law. So I have introduced two bill requests
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Speaker 13: that will be filed on day one of the twenty
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Speaker 13: twenty six session. The first one is Bill Request ten
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Speaker 13: to fifty, which abolishes the mandatory re entry supervision program.
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Speaker 5: We have a parole board for determining wins.
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Speaker 1: Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, You've gone death,
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Speaker 1: come for it abolished. It abolishes the automatic re entries.
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Speaker 1: That what you just said. It abolishes what yes, ma'am.
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Speaker 13: It abolishes the automatic re entry into society for convicted
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Speaker 13: criminals who have been sentenced to incarceration. And I think
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Speaker 13: that's one of the most important ways to address this.
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Speaker 13: Make sure that violent criminals serve their full sentence and
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Speaker 13: for those who are nonviolent, that's what the parole board
22:43
Speaker 13: is for. A group of nine people to determine whether
22:47
Speaker 13: or not this person is truly repentant of their crimes,
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Speaker 13: whether or not the crime was so severe that they
22:52
Speaker 13: need to serve the full sentence and give that discretion
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Speaker 13: back to human beings who can make the judge and
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Speaker 13: call for themselves. Do I really want this person paving
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Speaker 13: with me? Representative TJ.
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Speaker 1: Roberts of the sixty sixty district there in Kentucky. So,
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Speaker 1: Kentucky has what you're calling automatic re entry that regardless
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Speaker 1: of what the parole board says. Because I love to
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Speaker 1: attack parole boards, but this parole board actually did try
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Speaker 1: to keep him in every time they had a chance
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Speaker 1: to let him out. I was all ready to blame them,
23:29
Speaker 1: but that's not what happened. He got out because of
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Speaker 1: the automatic re entry in Kentucky. Let me ask you
23:38
Speaker 1: a question. You're a try lawyer. You ever heard of
23:41
Speaker 1: a jnov a judgment notwithstanding the verdict? I swear I
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Speaker 1: don't understand why this judge when the jury came back
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Speaker 1: guilty on assault, which requires intent, but m GB all right,
23:54
Speaker 1: not guilty reason in Sandy on murder, which requires intent.
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Speaker 1: How can he be saying count one insane for count
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Speaker 1: one and same for count three. The judge could have
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Speaker 1: done a jnov judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Basically Latin phrase,
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Speaker 1: screw the jury verdict and do the right thing. The
24:17
Speaker 1: jury clearly didn't get it.
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Speaker 5: Right.
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Speaker 1: That's correct.
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Speaker 13: And the only way that I see you being sane
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Speaker 13: for the assaults but insane for the murders is blatant
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Speaker 13: jury misconduct where they decided to negotiate on a split verdict.
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Speaker 13: And that's why I requested bill Request ten fifty one,
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Speaker 13: which makes it to where if you plead insanity and
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Speaker 13: you present that defense, and there's multiple charges associated with
24:46
Speaker 13: the same set of actions, then the jury must come
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Speaker 13: to a conclusion of sanity or insanity on all of
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Speaker 13: the charges, and it has to be the same for
24:57
Speaker 13: all of the charges. Model Exantus should have been convicted
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Speaker 13: of murder. He should have spent the rest of his
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Speaker 13: life in prison. And it's a gross miscarage of justice
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Speaker 13: that the jury failed to do the right thing and
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Speaker 13: that the court failed to do the right thing.
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Speaker 1: Kentucky is guilty but mentally ill. Do you guys have
25:15
Speaker 1: any because with that, if you I don't know, I
25:18
Speaker 1: don't get one. They to do that. Guilty but mentally
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Speaker 1: ill GM I means you did it, but you were
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Speaker 1: mentally ill. So we're going to let you go to
25:27
Speaker 1: a hospital until you are rehabilitated, and then you're going
25:31
Speaker 1: to jail. Anyway, Can I just tell you something representative TJ. Roberts,
25:37
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful you're doing this. We can't do anything
25:42
Speaker 1: regarding Logan now except bring this to the forefront. And
25:46
Speaker 1: if we hadn't done that, if his dad and his
25:50
Speaker 1: sister were not speaking out right now, nobody would even
25:54
Speaker 1: know about this. It would never have even been brought
25:56
Speaker 1: to your attention. But you're on a crusade, and God willing,
26:01
Speaker 1: you're gonna be successful. I don't know what you are.
26:04
Speaker 1: You might be a Democrat, you might be a Republican,
26:06
Speaker 1: you might be a Greenie. But I'm voting for you.
26:10
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us.
26:12
Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
26:14
Speaker 1: I want you to hear more from Coral and Lily
26:18
Speaker 1: Tipton about the night their baby, their brother, Logan. What's murdered?
26:26
Speaker 14: He kicks the butter knife starts out, my belly button,
26:30
Speaker 14: goes up, my belly button up my face, cuts my
26:33
Speaker 14: nose right here. I had a little marking.
26:36
Speaker 4: On my chest and I go get my dad, and
26:40
Speaker 4: I remember exactly what I said to my dad that night.
26:42
Speaker 4: I said, Daddy, Daddy, there's a bad man upstairs. He
26:46
Speaker 4: just kept trying, he trying to tell me it was
26:48
Speaker 4: uncle Monk and this, and then I was like no, no,
26:51
Speaker 4: I was like, there's a bad man.
26:53
Speaker 11: Once Dean Tipton understands Lily truly has seen a stranger,
26:57
Speaker 11: he dashes upstairs, coming face to face with blood covered
27:00
Speaker 11: knife wielding Exempas. Dean tells Coral to get her siblings
27:04
Speaker 11: to safety and call nine one one. Coral grabs Dakota
27:07
Speaker 11: and Aiden, telling Logan she'll come back for him. With Lily,
27:10
Speaker 11: Dakota and Aiden locked safely in their parents' room, Coral
27:14
Speaker 11: calls nine one one. Dean tipped and holds exantas until
27:17
Speaker 11: police arrive, but first responders can do nothing to help.
27:20
Speaker 1: Logan straight back to Dean at tipped in this is
27:26
Speaker 1: Logan's dad. That was from the official Wolf YouTube. I'm
27:32
Speaker 1: surprised you didn't kill him right there on the spot, Dean.
27:38
Speaker 5: It's something I regret every day. I wish I had
27:42
Speaker 5: of but uh, I didn't know Logan was hurt. I
27:45
Speaker 5: didn't know. I didn't even know he was up there
27:47
Speaker 5: until after the police had got there, and uh I
27:53
Speaker 5: was fighting with Ronald Exans his monster. I didn't know
27:58
Speaker 5: until I started down the stairs and Coral met me
28:01
Speaker 5: and said, Daddy, you need to go get Logan. And
28:04
Speaker 5: that's when I found him.
28:09
Speaker 1: Carl, tell me what happened.
28:11
Speaker 15: I headed upstairs to just see what was going on, really,
28:18
Speaker 15: because the police were there, and once they got situated
28:22
Speaker 15: on Ronald Exanis my dad got up and was going
28:26
Speaker 15: to go back downstairs to check on everybody. But I
28:31
Speaker 15: told Daddy, I said, you need to get Bubby. He's
28:35
Speaker 15: still sleeping, and Daddy walked over to Logan and I
28:42
Speaker 15: just see my dad holding Logan in his arms, and
28:47
Speaker 15: Daddy's just screaming and crying for help, and Logan took
28:52
Speaker 15: his last breath and Daddy's on.
29:01
Speaker 1: Mister Tipton, when you saw Logan Steel lying there, you
29:06
Speaker 1: had no idea he had been attacked.
29:10
Speaker 5: I didn't know he had been attacked at all. I
29:13
Speaker 5: knew something was wrong because when I found him, he
29:16
Speaker 5: was laid down in a puddle of blood, and uh
29:19
Speaker 5: as I was. When I was holding him, my fingers
29:23
Speaker 5: slipped into the cuts in the back of his head,
29:25
Speaker 5: and I knew then that he was gone. When he
29:29
Speaker 5: closed his eyes on me, he was gone and he
29:31
Speaker 5: wasn't coming back. Eventually, one of the detectives come over,
29:37
Speaker 5: or the officers come over and took Logan from me
29:39
Speaker 5: and start at CPR and I got up and I
29:43
Speaker 5: kicked him. I kicked him several times, this monster. I
29:47
Speaker 5: kicked him several times while he was laid their handcuffed,
29:51
Speaker 5: and I seen the knife laying on the floor and
29:53
Speaker 5: I grabbed it and picked it up and was ready
29:55
Speaker 5: to ready to kill him, but the police drug me
29:57
Speaker 5: down the stairs.
30:02
Speaker 1: With all of these witnesses will all this testimony, I
30:09
Speaker 1: don't understand the jury verdict. Dean. You told the jury
30:16
Speaker 1: what happened, right, Yes.
30:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, we We.
30:22
Speaker 15: Told him what we were about.
30:24
Speaker 5: We were we were kind of eliminated on what Gordy Shaw,
30:27
Speaker 5: which was our prosecuting attorney, would allow us to say.
30:33
Speaker 5: Me and Gordy Shaw had uh had had words once before,
30:37
Speaker 5: and he looked at me and told me that he
30:38
Speaker 5: would go through this trial with or without me, because
30:42
Speaker 5: I was questioning the way he was doing things.
30:47
Speaker 1: So getting to tell the jury.
30:55
Speaker 5: I didn't get to tell Jerry that the man begged
30:58
Speaker 5: me not to kill him. Uh because when I was
31:02
Speaker 5: when I had him down the second time, when I
31:05
Speaker 5: had him down on the ground, uh I was, I
31:09
Speaker 5: was mad. I was furious. I was like, this man
31:11
Speaker 5: is in my children's room and uh I told him,
31:14
Speaker 5: I said, I'm going to kill you. And I was
31:16
Speaker 5: starting to try to break his neck. And uh I
31:18
Speaker 5: had just had shoulder surgery two weeks before that, and
31:22
Speaker 5: uh I was hearing this ripping and tearing. I thought
31:25
Speaker 5: it was his neck, but it was It ended up
31:28
Speaker 5: being me tearing my shoulder back apart. And as I
31:30
Speaker 5: was trying to kill him, he begged me, begged me
31:34
Speaker 5: not to do it. He said, I know you should
31:36
Speaker 5: do it, but please do not kill me. Please, I
31:39
Speaker 5: beg you not to kill me.
31:41
Speaker 1: Oh my stars, right there, Greg Morries, don't fight with
31:48
Speaker 1: me on this. But isn't it true The definition of
31:51
Speaker 1: insanity is the old mc naughton test, do you know
31:54
Speaker 1: right from wrong? At the time of the incident, and
31:57
Speaker 1: he said, he said to Dean tempting, I know you've
32:00
Speaker 1: got a right to, but please don't kill me.
32:03
Speaker 12: I mean no, on this we agree. I don't know
32:06
Speaker 12: why that's a defendant statement that comes in. There's no
32:09
Speaker 12: reason under the rules of evidence. I'm not sure why
32:13
Speaker 12: that wouldn't be part of the story that is told
32:15
Speaker 12: by the witnesses that you.
32:17
Speaker 1: Know, experience this tragedy.
32:19
Speaker 12: So that's that is bizarre, But I'm not sure would
32:22
Speaker 12: have led to a different result.
32:24
Speaker 5: While I agree with.
32:25
Speaker 1: You, I can tell you right now, Morse, the litmus
32:30
Speaker 1: test for insanity is do you know right from wrong
32:33
Speaker 1: at the time of the incident? Karen Starr, Yes, you're
32:36
Speaker 1: the renowned psychologist for someone to say, I know you
32:41
Speaker 1: have a right to kill me, but please don't kill me.
32:45
Speaker 1: That so c knows what he did was wrong.
32:48
Speaker 9: Absolutely knows you have the right. I don't blame you.
32:52
Speaker 9: You have the right to kill me, but please, I'm begging,
32:55
Speaker 9: even begging him not to be kissed. Don't kill me.
33:00
Speaker 9: Awareness that's somebody who knows the difference between what he
33:04
Speaker 9: was supposed to do and what he did do, which
33:06
Speaker 9: was horrific. So I don't understand. I don't know the
33:10
Speaker 9: law the way you do, Nancy, But how could it
33:13
Speaker 9: possibly be that they decide that he's insane?
33:17
Speaker 1: You know what Karen Starr, You don't have to know
33:19
Speaker 1: the law to know that this jury got at bass
33:23
Speaker 1: Ackwards even with the tip to testifying. As you have
33:28
Speaker 1: heard them speak tonight, this is what the jury did.
33:33
Speaker 5: The jury has returned the fall of burden. Were found
33:41
Speaker 5: is not guilty.
33:47
Speaker 1: My children lived through hell every single day and I.
33:51
Speaker 12: Had to tell them this morning that he was found
33:54
Speaker 12: not guilty of killing their brother.
33:57
Speaker 1: That they witnessed. They saw it, they heard.
34:01
Speaker 11: Him say he did it, and he's not guilty.
34:06
Speaker 1: That is an insane verdict. Elie X eighteen Crime Stories
34:16
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace. How did this jury let Exantus slip
34:26
Speaker 1: through their fingers? Joining us tonight Logan's dad and sister,
34:32
Speaker 1: Dane and Coral. So first there is the horrific news
34:37
Speaker 1: that there's a split verdict, which doesn't make any sense.
34:41
Speaker 1: You have to explain to your children what happened. And
34:45
Speaker 1: now a few years pass and he's suddenly out. How
34:50
Speaker 1: did you find out Xantas has walked?
34:55
Speaker 5: I found out in June Lily he had contacted the
35:01
Speaker 5: pro board and was wondering what was going on. The
35:06
Speaker 5: pro Board told her that he was going to be
35:08
Speaker 5: released sometime in October so our pro hearing really wasn't
35:15
Speaker 5: going to make sense because our pro hearing was going
35:17
Speaker 5: to be in November, so there was nothing that we
35:20
Speaker 5: could do. I didn't find out until the day of
35:25
Speaker 5: October first that he had been released that day, so
35:29
Speaker 5: he was done. I'm assuming he was done out of
35:31
Speaker 5: the state of Kentucky by the time I found out.
35:36
Speaker 1: Long gone, Long gone headed to Florida. So when you
35:44
Speaker 1: find out they have released him, he hadn't even done
35:49
Speaker 1: half of his time. Even on the minimal charges on
35:53
Speaker 1: which he was convicted, he would have done twenty So
35:57
Speaker 1: how did you break that to your family that Exantis
36:01
Speaker 1: has walked free.
36:04
Speaker 5: We all was sitting here together. We've been my father
36:08
Speaker 5: passed away August twenty second. We were all spending all
36:12
Speaker 5: a lot of time here at my mom's and we
36:14
Speaker 5: were all here discussing it together. When we found out.
36:20
Speaker 5: There was a lot of emotions, a lot of tears,
36:22
Speaker 5: a lot of anger, a lot of anxiety because that
36:27
Speaker 5: night he told Coral that he was going to kill
36:30
Speaker 5: all of us. And now we're nervous, we're scared that
36:35
Speaker 5: he may come back and try to finish what he started.
36:40
Speaker 1: It's still a mystery to most people, how this happened,
36:45
Speaker 1: how he walked in less than half the time of
36:49
Speaker 1: his already paltry sentence. This is what we've learned.
36:54
Speaker 11: Ronald Exantis, who attacked the Tipton family in their sleep,
36:57
Speaker 11: killing six year old Logan, release from prison more than
36:59
Speaker 11: ten years early. The Tiptons and the nation outrage, calling
37:04
Speaker 11: exeantus release a gross miscarriage of justice, members of the
37:07
Speaker 11: parole board receiving death threats but blaming the states mandatory
37:11
Speaker 11: supervised release law.
37:13
Speaker 10: When sentenced to twenty years, Exantus has already served more
37:17
Speaker 10: than two. Exantus whittles down another seven and a half
37:20
Speaker 10: years with good behavior and participation in work in education programs.
37:25
Speaker 10: Kentucky's mandatory supervised release law requires convicts within six months
37:30
Speaker 10: of their estimated endate be released to parole early.
37:35
Speaker 1: It's the perfect storm. Mister Tipton, his good behavior, his
37:42
Speaker 1: going to a class behind bars. Then when you get
37:46
Speaker 1: six months to your release date, they cut you loose.
37:49
Speaker 1: I mean, it all factored in to early release. And
37:56
Speaker 1: then you find out the way that you did. Can
37:59
Speaker 1: you believe he goes and he's supposed to be on
38:03
Speaker 1: these meds, right, he goes from Kentucky straight to Florida
38:08
Speaker 1: and gets a place directly beside an elementary school.
38:14
Speaker 5: Did you know that it's sickening? Is what that is?
38:19
Speaker 5: It's a disgrace, Coral.
38:20
Speaker 1: I want to understand what went through your mind when
38:23
Speaker 1: you hear Exantis that you saw, you saw him in
38:30
Speaker 1: the home had walked free. First, there was a not
38:34
Speaker 1: guilty in gb R I by the reason of insanity
38:37
Speaker 1: split verdict, but sane for the simple salts assaults. But
38:43
Speaker 1: now he walks free and nobody even told you.
38:48
Speaker 15: I was in the doctor's office when I got the
38:50
Speaker 15: message and the call pop up across my phone that
38:53
Speaker 15: Ronald Exanders had been released, and I just broke down
38:58
Speaker 15: to my doctor and we had a little cry in session,
39:01
Speaker 15: and I told her I was scared. I was scared
39:03
Speaker 15: to be in brus Sales, where he knew that I lived.
39:07
Speaker 15: I was scared to go out because what if I
39:11
Speaker 15: turn and he's done made his way back and he's
39:13
Speaker 15: right behind me.
39:16
Speaker 1: So he walks free, then makes his way down to
39:19
Speaker 1: the Sunshine State and moves into a place all on
39:22
Speaker 1: his own, no insanity, directly beside an elementary school. Take
39:28
Speaker 1: a listen to Lieutenant Paul Bloom.
39:32
Speaker 16: After further check and looking into his case, we realized
39:36
Speaker 16: that he had failed to do one thing, and that
39:37
Speaker 16: was register here as a felon. In Florida, they have
39:40
Speaker 16: forty eight hours to register as a felon, and he
39:42
Speaker 16: had failed to do that. So he was told by
39:44
Speaker 16: the Department of Corrections, they're giving a given a form,
39:47
Speaker 16: just print it out in whatever language you speak. And
39:50
Speaker 16: he has given that and was told, you have forty
39:52
Speaker 16: eight hours to register at the Marion County Sheriff's office.
39:55
Speaker 16: And we have fellons that come here and register every
39:56
Speaker 16: single day of the week, so they know that they're
39:58
Speaker 16: told this.
39:59
Speaker 1: He just will. He flaunted that that is from Marion County, Florida.
40:06
Speaker 1: They acted because he examser failed to fill out a
40:11
Speaker 1: form that all parolice must fill out. And there's more.
40:16
Speaker 16: He was standing in his garage, out in his driveway
40:19
Speaker 16: and when we spotted him, and he's his I think
40:23
Speaker 16: his first words where he didn't know why he was
40:25
Speaker 16: being arrested. But whether he knew that or not, it's
40:29
Speaker 16: hard for me to believe because they are given this.
40:31
Speaker 16: I don't know how all the other one hundred foundins
40:33
Speaker 16: before him understood that, and I came here and registered
40:36
Speaker 16: and he's one hundred and first one did not understand this,
40:38
Speaker 16: So that argument is invalid for us and for him.
40:44
Speaker 1: Well, thank Heaven, Florida LA law enforcement acted. And did
40:50
Speaker 1: you hear that, Deane and Coral Tipton that when Ellie
40:54
Speaker 1: shows up, he's like, why are you arresting me? He
40:56
Speaker 1: knows exactly what's going on. There's no question.
41:01
Speaker 5: Yeah. I think he was going to run. I think
41:04
Speaker 5: he never had intentions at all to turn that paperwork
41:07
Speaker 5: into the sheriff's office. I think he was going to
41:11
Speaker 5: run or he was going to kill. Again.
41:14
Speaker 1: Logan's father and sister with us tonight, Dane and Coral, Coral,
41:20
Speaker 1: what is your message to not only crime victims, but
41:26
Speaker 1: the Florida l e that apprehended him and the Kentucky government.
41:36
Speaker 15: First, I would like to send my thinks to Florida
41:41
Speaker 15: from on behalf of my whole entire family. But as
41:45
Speaker 15: far as victims of something like this has happened to you,
41:50
Speaker 15: don't give up, don't stop, and don't back down, because
41:54
Speaker 15: even though.
41:55
Speaker 8: You might feel like the government doesn't here, there are
41:57
Speaker 8: a lot of people around that aren't part of the
42:00
Speaker 8: that does care and.
42:03
Speaker 15: You will be heard eventually. Just keep fighting on behalf
42:09
Speaker 15: of Andy Bush here. We'd love to speak to you.
42:13
Speaker 15: You haven't spoke spoke to us. You shut us down
42:17
Speaker 15: every single time. To the Trump administration in the White House,
42:21
Speaker 15: you posted that you were investigating. We still haven't heard anything.
42:25
Speaker 15: And I believe we really need to get on the
42:27
Speaker 15: ball with this because my brother didn't die for no reason.
42:31
Speaker 15: This monster might have tooken taken him from no reason.
42:34
Speaker 15: But something needs to come up, something coral.
42:39
Speaker 1: Because you tell me what you want to be when
42:40
Speaker 1: you grow up.
42:43
Speaker 15: The mom I am now, but that's all that I
42:47
Speaker 15: want to be is a mom.
42:50
Speaker 1: You're going to be the best mom ever to Dane.
43:02
Speaker 1: Mister Tipton, you have a story about Logan and Sunday School.
43:08
Speaker 5: Yes, I've been asked several times how to describe who
43:13
Speaker 5: Logan was, and the best way I know to describing
43:18
Speaker 5: is his Sunday School teacher reached out to me after
43:23
Speaker 5: all this happened, and this was this was in November,
43:27
Speaker 5: the end of November, right a week or two before
43:31
Speaker 5: December seventh. She said they were the Sunday School class
43:35
Speaker 5: was writing down what they were going to give Jesus
43:38
Speaker 5: for his birthday for Christmas, and Logan hadn't written anything down,
43:43
Speaker 5: and the Sunday school teacher asked him, said Logan, why
43:46
Speaker 5: haven't you written anything down? And he said, I've already
43:51
Speaker 5: given Jesus. I've already given Jesus my gift. And she
43:56
Speaker 5: said what was that? She said, I gave him my heart.
44:00
Speaker 5: This is coming from a six year old little boy.
44:04
Speaker 5: That's who my son was. That's exactly who my son was.
44:11
Speaker 1: Mister Dean Tipton, what is your message to other crime victims?
44:21
Speaker 5: Don't don't give up? Like Korl said that, there are
44:24
Speaker 5: people out there who care. I care, and I'll continue
44:28
Speaker 5: to fight what's right for my son to the day
44:30
Speaker 5: I die. Whether it be we charge this man federally
44:33
Speaker 5: because he crossed state lines committed a murder. It's called
44:38
Speaker 5: dual simontry. Whatever it takes, I'm going to go to
44:41
Speaker 5: my grade fighting for justice for Logan and my family.
44:47
Speaker 1: Mister Dean Tipton and Karl, please know that we're going
44:53
Speaker 1: to go with you.
44:55
Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you so much.
44:58
Speaker 1: Good night, and now we remember American hero Trooper Nicholas Caton,
45:07
Speaker 1: Ohio State Patrol killed in the line of duty, leaving
45:12
Speaker 1: behind a grieving wife and two beautiful children. Sentenced to
45:18
Speaker 1: life without dad. American hero Trooper Nicholas Caton Nancy Grace
45:25
Speaker 1: signing off goodbye Mad