(The Center Square) – Florida’s attorney general on Tuesday called for the state to consider placing limits on the use of the insanity defense after a Kentucky parolee who killed a 6-year-old was found living near a school in Marion County.
“The facts of this case are tragic,” Attorney General James Uthmeier said at a news conference. “A 6-year-old was brutally stabbed in his sleep and killed. What’s even more tragic is that this guy was released after only seven years behind bars.”
Ronald Exantus, 42, was found not guilty by reason of insanity on the murder charge and was convicted instead of assault charges, receiving a lesser sentence, Uthmeier said.
Florida authorities learned that Exantus had moved from Kentucky to Marion County after his release from prison but had not registered as a convicted felon with the local Sheriff’s Office.
“The home he was residing in was immediately adjacent to Sunrise Elementary School and just a few blocks away from Horizon Academy,” the attorney general said in a release.
He was charged with a parole violation and extradited back to Kentucky on Tuesday, Uthmeier said.
A few states have narrowed insanity defenses, Uthmeier said.
“I hope that the leaders of Florida will look at adding Florida to that list of states,” he said. “I believe the insanity defense is often abused and allows people to evade accountability and get out early. It impedes the work of prosecutors who stick their necks out and go face to face with dangerous criminals every day in the courtroom.”
Exantus was charged in 2015 with the stabbing death of Logan Tipton, 6, in Versailles, Ky., Uthmeier said.
A jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity and convicted him instead of two counts of second degree assault and one count of fourth-degree assault. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and paroled after seven years, the attorney general said.
“There is no excuse for stabbing a 6-year-old child repeatedly and ending his life,” Uthmeier said.
