The Kentucky sheriff charged with first-degree murder in the death of a district court judge pleaded not guilty Wednesday in his first court appearance since the shooting, which stunned the small hamlet of Letcher County.
Shawn “Mickey” Stines, 43, remains in jail without bond following the arraignment, which was held remotely in a Carter County courtroom, 100 miles from the courthouse where Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, was shot to death six days prior.
Prosecutors did not provide evidence at the arraignment, therefore the reason for the killing remains unknown. Stines appeared remotely from the Leslie County Detention Centre.
Stines did not remark on the charges during the hearing, but Judge Rupert Wilhoit inquired about his finances after Stines acknowledged that he wanted a court-appointed attorney.
The judge questioned whether Stines, who claimed to own two homes and earn $115,000 as sheriff, was genuinely impoverished.
“Sir, it’s my understanding that he is in the process of losing his job as sheriff of Letcher County, obviously, and will not have any income going forward,” public defender Josh Miller told the judge.
A preliminary hearing to present evidence in the case was set for October 1 in Morgan County, a venue located far from the crime scene.
Authorities are still investigating what happened in the judge’s chambers just before the fatal shooting that afternoon. Other people were in the courthouse when the judge was shot, but no one else was inside his chambers, Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayheart said.
According to the Kentucky Sheriff’s Association, Stines’ role required him to be in charge of county courthouse security, including the personal security of judges. He is now facing a first-degree murder charge, and it is unknown who will replace him as sheriff.
Cameras were inside the building, and all witnesses would be interviewed, Gayheart said, emphasizing that this is the county’s first “of this magnitude” catastrophe.
Circuit Court Clerk Mike Watts told CNN affiliate WKYT that Stines and Mullins ate lunch together several hours before the shooting.
“The whole county is just devastated by this,” Watts told WKYT, referring to the vacancy in the local court system. “We’ve not only lost our sheriff and district judge, but I’ve lost two personal friends that I worked with daily.”
Just days before the incident, on September 16, Stines was deposed in an ongoing federal lawsuit concerning a former deputy who pressured a woman into having sex with him in 2021, CNN reported.
According to the lawsuit, the sexual claims against the cop “were not appropriately investigated by Sheriff Stines,” who fired the policeman in 2022.
Jonathan Shaw, the attorney representing Stines in his professional capacity in the lawsuit, told CNN via email that he could not comment on Stines’ behalf in either the federal action or the murder prosecution.
Many neighbors knew the two major individuals in the neighborhood, and acquaintances of both the sheriff and the judge claimed they were taken aback by the killing and struggled to understand why it occurred.
The quiet, seemingly typical day in court became hectic when police received a 911 call shortly before 3 p.m. Thursday reporting shots fired from within the courthouse building, according to state police.
Hearing reports of an active shooter in the courthouse, court security officer Wallace Kincer and circuit court clerk Watts acted quickly, leading attorneys and court staff away from the unknown danger that lurked in the chambers, according to Matt Butler, commonwealth’s attorney for Letcher County.
Fear spread throughout the county when kids in Letcher County Public Schools were put on lockdown soon before 3:30 p.m.
Mullins was discovered with several gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.
Butler recused himself and his office from the sheriff’s prosecution because he and the judge married two sisters, and their children behave more like siblings than cousins, according to a statement released last week. “Our community has suffered an act of violence that appears to be between two men that I have worked with for seventeen years and loved like brothers,” Butler said on his social media page.
Some citizens, including Butler, are advocating for stronger security measures in the courthouse, such as putting a metal detector and boosting security at the entry.
“The Letcher County Courthouse is one of the last that you can walk into without a metal detector or security at the front door,” Butler said. He described it as “unacceptable.”
According to the obituary, Mullins is survived by his wife and two daughters. “He died in his chambers of the courthouse where he spent his career working to help people,” according to the funeral announcement.