The sheriff of a rural county in eastern Kentucky walked into a courthouse Thursday afternoon and shot and killed a district judge in his chambers after an argument, police said.
Mickey Stines, 43, the Letcher County sheriff, turned himself in after shooting Judge Kevin Mullins and has been charged with first-degree murder, Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayheart said at a news conference Thursday night.
The shooting occurred at approximately 2:55 p.m. inside the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg, a city in southeastern Kentucky.
The sheriff was taken to a local jail and had been cooperative with investigators, Trooper Gayheart said.
“This community is small by nature and we are all in shock,” the police officer said.
Judge Mullins, 54, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene, Trooper Gayheart said.
Investigators were interviewing witnesses who were in the building at the time of the shooting. Police were still trying to determine what sparked the argument.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said on social media that he had been informed of the shooting.
“There is too much violence in this world and I pray there is a path to a better tomorrow,” the governor wrote.
The shooting sparked concerns in the community about an active shooter and prompted the closure of area schools. Police later said the shooting was an isolated incident and there was no threat to the public.
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said his office would work with local officials to investigate and prosecute the case.
The news stunned residents of Letcher County, which is about 110 miles southeast of Lexington and is home to about 21,500 people.
According to Ballotpedia, which tracks elections, Judge Mullins was first elected by county residents in 2010. He had recently been appointed to a state judicial commission on mental health.
Mr. Stines, also known as Shawn M. Stines, was elected sheriff in 2018 and is up for re-election in 2022.
Since becoming sheriff, Mr. Stines has been named as a defendant in two federal cases.
In 2020, a judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former sheriff’s office employee who claimed Stines eliminated his job upon taking office in 2019 because he had expressed support for another sheriff candidate.
Stines was also questioned earlier this month in a separate case involving a former sheriff’s deputy who was accused of sexually abusing an inmate. Stines fired the deputy, Ben Fields, shortly after the lawsuit was filed in 2022.
The lawsuit alleges Fields forced the inmate to perform sexual acts late at night at the Letcher County Courthouse. Fields is serving a five-year sentence in state prison after being convicted of charges related to the actions he is accused of in the federal lawsuit.
Mr. Stines was named as a defendant in the lawsuit because he was accused of “deliberate indifference in failing to adequately train and supervise” Mr. Fields.
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