Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder after he shot a Kentucky district judge to death in his chambers, authorities say.
On Thursday, pandemonium broke out at the Letcher County Courthouse after several shots were fired. Officers rushed to the scene after receiving a distress 911 call and found the body of District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, with several gunshot wounds.
“We have 120 sheriffs that work on a daily basis with our judges. We work more closely with them than any other elected officials. No one saw this coming. I don’t know how you prepare for this,” said Executive Director of the Kentucky Sheriff’s Association Jerry Wagner, according to CNN.
Stines allegedly shot Mullings after a heated argument between the two inside the courthouse. Though it's not established yet if the defendant used his service weapon to commit the crime, he was arrested without incident at the courthouse.
Law enforcement and judicial officers described both men as pillars in the community. As a result, the shooting has rocked the small town of Whitesburg to its core.
"Both men were my friends, and work family, and I saw them almost daily while we were at work. Even the judge and the sheriff ate lunch together that day," said Letcher County Circuit Clerk Mike Watts, according to ABC News.
Though the motive for the killing is still unclear, Stines had been deposed in a sexual lawsuit regarding his failure to investigate a former colleague, Deputy Sheriff Ben Fields, who sexually abused a woman in Mullings’ chambers. Until the fatal incident, the 43-year-old Stines had been the county sheriff for 8 years.
Mullins was appointed Kentucky’s 47th District Court judge in 2009 by then-Gov. Steve Beshear, the father of the current governor. The victim was described as an individual with a passion for helping inmates who need substance abuse treatments. He was a guest speaker at a drug summit in 2022.
Leave a Reply