Start here
The Twisting Case of Sheriff Mickey Stines
That Chapter's 30-minute breakdown, the fullest single telling on file.
Watch on YouTubeWhat happened
On September 19, 2024, District Court Judge Kevin R. Mullins was shot and killed at the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Letcher County Sheriff Shawn "Mickey" Stines was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the shooting.
Mullins, born June 25, 1970, was a native of Pikeville, Kentucky, and a graduate of the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville School of Law. He served as an assistant commonwealth's attorney in Letcher County beginning in 2001 and was appointed district judge for the 47th Judicial District in 2009 by then-Governor Steve Beshear. He won election to the seat the following year and was re-elected in subsequent cycles.
Stines, born in 1981 in Whitesburg and a resident of Fleming-Neon, had worked as a sheriff's deputy and previously as a Court Security Officer for the Letcher County District and Circuit Courts before being elected sheriff in 2018. He was reelected in 2022.
According to security video, on September 19, 2024, at approximately 2:30 p.m. EDT, Stines walked into Mullins' chambers, and other courthouse employees left the room. Stines closed the door behind them, and several minutes later the video shows him shooting Mullins. Stines subsequently surrendered to police. Kentucky State Police did not release a stated motive for the shooting. Stines was charged with one count of murder and has pleaded not guilty; his attorney has publicly indicated an intent to pursue an insanity defense.
The shooting prompted reactions from Kentucky's judicial and legal leadership. Chief Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court Laurance B. VanMeter said the state court system was "shaken by the news." Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said his office would work with a regional prosecutor serving as special prosecutor, after county prosecutor Matt Butler recused himself citing social ties with Mullins. Letcher County courts closed the Friday following the shooting. Hundreds of mourners attended Mullins' funeral service at Jenkins Middle and High School on September 22, with several judges, including Kentucky Supreme Court deputy chief justice Debra H. Lambert, speaking about him.
In the months after the shooting, a Kentucky woman made public statements alleging that Mullins had used his position to extort sex from women, describing what she called a "sex and orgy ring" she said she had been inducted into. A former corrections officer separately said Mullins was known among local officials to treat the lockup "like a brothel," though she stated she had never personally witnessed anyone initiating sex. Separately, three days before the shooting, Stines had given a deposition in a federal lawsuit, filed in 2022 by two unnamed women, alleging that Letcher County deputy sheriff Ben Fields had repeatedly raped and sexually extorted a female prisoner over six months, with the abuse allegedly occurring in Mullins' chambers; the lawsuit did not accuse Mullins of wrongdoing. The suit alleged Stines failed to properly train and supervise Fields. Fields was sentenced in 2024 to six months in prison after pleading guilty to rape, sodomy, and perjury in connection with that case.
