The latest: Kentucky sheriff faces murder charge over courthouse killing of judge

The latest: Kentucky sheriff faces murder charge over courthouse killing of judge Show Caption Hide Caption Kentucky judge shot and killed by a sheriff Kentucky District Judge Kevin Mullins was shot and killed by a sheriff while in his chambers. Authorities say Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines, 43, shot District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, on Thursday afternoon after an argument inside the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Stines was being held in the Leslie County Detention Center Friday, authorities told the Louisville Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. Officers found Mullins suffering from “multiple gunshot wounds,” according to Kentucky State Police spokesperson Matt Gayheart. Stines was arrested without incident and is now charged with one count of murder, Gayheart said. According to Gayheart, Mullins was shot following an argument. Andy Beshear confirmed that a judge was shot and killed in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. “There is far too much violence in this world, and I pray there is a path to a better tomorrow,” Beshear wrote. Steve Beshear in 2009, according to The Mountain Eagle. Previously, he served as an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Letcher County since 2001, according to the Courier Journal. Mullins supported programs diverting people with substance use issues into treatment programs, instead of jailing them. Mullins pushed to expand The Hub, a local addiction recovery program, to give people involved in the criminal justice system another option, according to Mark O’Brien, a local site supervisor for the program. Mullins “always supported recovery in a community that has been hit hard with the opioid epidemic,” O’Brien posted on Facebook. Mullins earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky and later attended the University of Louisville’s Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, according to the Courier Journal. He is from Jackhorn, Kentucky, according to Gayheart. Stines, whose nickname is “Mickey,” was elected the county’s sheriff in 2018. Previously, he served as a bailiff at the Letcher County District Court, according to The Mountain Eagle. Stines was expected to give a deposition related to a 2022 lawsuit on Monday, the Courier Journal reported. The Kentucky woman who filed the suit accused former Deputy Sheriff Ben Fields of coercing her into sexual acts that were allegedly performed inside Mullins’ chambers after the woman said she couldn’t afford home incarceration. According to the suit, Fields asked the woman to meet him in the courthouse after dark and removed her ankle monitor. Stines, a defendant in the lawsuit, was accused of “failing to properly train” Fields and failing to “reasonably respond” to reports of the alleged abuse. He later fired Fields for “conduct unbecoming,” the Courier Journal reported. Stines was sued by another deputy sheriff in 2019, who claimed that he retaliated against her after she campaigned against him in an election, according to The Mountain Eagle. Stines is a native of McRoberts, Kentucky, according to Gayheart. Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said his office would collaborate with the Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 27th Judicial Circuit, Jackie Steele, to investigate the shooting. Letcher County Commonwealth’s Attorney Matt Butler said he will recuse himself from the case because of his “close personal relationship” with Mullins, and his “close professional relationship” with Stines, according to a video shared on Facebook. Butler said his entire staff would also be recused because one of his staff members was in the district court suite at the time of the shooting, and would “likely” be a witness in the case. Butler and Mullins “for many years were married to a pair of sisters,” and are the uncles of each other’s children, Butler said. Butler’s children called Mullins “unkie,” he said. “As a brother in law, I will never forget how kind he was to my children,” he said. While Butler served as the public defender, Mullins was the commonwealth’s attorney, he said. “We fought hard for our respective sides in court and tried cases against each other before he was the judge, and never had a disagreement outside of that courtroom,” he added. Jerry Wagner, executive director of the Kentucky Sheriffs’ Association, told the Courier Journal, “I do not know why this happened. Letcher County Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter said in a statement posted to Facebook, “I am shocked by this act of violence, and the court system is shaken by the news.” “My prayers are with his family and the Letcher County community as they try to process and mourn this tragic loss,” he wrote. The Letcher County Jail in a statement on Facebook asked people not to leave negative comments: “Letcher County Jail would like to offer their prayers to the wives that are both without their husbands tonight… prayers for their children that are without their fathers tonight.” Letcher County’s circuit court and district court, and the circuit court clerk’s office closed on Thursday “until court operations can be resumed,” according to a Facebook post. Letcher County is not accepting court filings, the post said. Letcher County Central High School, around 3 miles from the courthouse, said it was ordered to lockdown after a call from Kentucky State Police. Whitesburg is a town of around 1,700 and the county seat for Letcher County. Letcher County is in southeast Kentucky, near the Virginia border. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/09/20/kentucky-judge-killed-sheriff-shawn-stines-charged-updates/75303511007/