Kentucky governor defends actions of state parole board after alleged killer released from prison, arrested in Florida

FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — Governor Andy Beshear blames the white house for spreading false information, causing a flood of violent and racist threats on Kentucky parole board members and their families.

“You’ve got a huge following, if you’re the white house, and then to just simply push something like that out with no verification is irresponsible,” he said during a Team Kentucky press conference on Wednesday.

This comes after Ronald Exantus’ early prison release on good behavior. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2015 stabbing death of 6-year-old Logan Tipton in Woodford County. Convicted of lesser crimes, Exantus served less than half of his 20-year sentence.

Beshear said the state parole board followed the law, a state statute that a previous general assembly passed.

“For them [the white house] to simply retweet that wrong information,” Beshear added, “the parole board never made a decision to release Ronald Exantus; instead, every time it came in front of them, they voted against him and to keep him in prison.”

We asked the governor’s office to specifically point us to the wrong information he said was being spread. It directed us to an Oct. 4 social media post from white house press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

In which she said, “I can confirm the white house is looking into it. It’s wholly unacceptable for a child killer to walk free after just several years in prison.”

Governor Beshear said he has not heard from the white house in any official capacity.

“We understand people have First Amendment rights, we’re going to support those rights, but making threats of violence is not a protected form of speech or expression,” Kentucky State Police Sergeant Matt Sudduth said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] is joining KSP in investigating the threats.

KSP said it is making progress in the investigation.