On September 19th, 2024, security footage of Sheriff Micky Stines was seen confronting and then shooting at County District Judge Kevin Mullins in Whitesburg. According to testimony in a preliminary hearing, police believe the reasoning behind Sheriff Mickey Stine’s shooting was his discovery of his underage daughter’s phone number in Judge Kevin Mullins’s phone. Kentucky State Police later investigated the situation further. They said they had no evidence that his daughter’s number was on the judge’s phone before the sheriff dialed it, even though court testimony implied it. The police are still looking for the motive for the murder of Judge Mullins. A state police spokesman, Matt Gayheart, said this was confusing and misleading.
September 20th, 2024, Sheriff Stines was arrested for the death and shooting of Judge Mullins. The murder case against Mickey Stines is now the jury’s decision to make if he gets charged with murder or not. Mickey Stines has recently stepped down from being County Sheriff after he was accused of the shooting of Kevin Mullins at the Letcher County Courthouse in September.
Three days before Sheriff Stines went to Judge Mullin’s office to kill him, he stated in a lawsuit that he was accused of failing to investigate a deputy sheriff who sexually abused a woman. Ned Pillersdorf was the attorney working on the 2022 lawsuit against the sheriff and his deputy. He said that Sheriff Stines acted odd during his lawsuit statement. Ned Pillersdof said, “I would describe him as depressed, subdued not surprisingly, he was cautious, but it was more than cautious. It was an odd performance.”
On September 25th, 2024, he pleaded not guilty to murder. Mickey Stines then appeared at the hearing virtually from the Leslie County Detention Center using Zoom. The hearing was very short, and most of the time was spent discussing who would be part of Mickey Stine’s defense team.
On October 21, 2024, the prosecution played the security footage played at the hearing in the courtroom, showing Sheriff Stines firing on the judge as he collapsed to the floor. The Sheriff is leaning over to fire again when he heads to the door; he turns around and shoots his last shots from a different angle.
In an interview with People magazine, attorney Bartly, handling Stine’s side, said the shooting “occurred in the heat of passion” and said attorney Bartly believes “the highest level of culpability should be manslaughter based on the partial defense of extreme emotional disturbance.”
Before being elected sheriff in 2018, Stines served as courtroom bailiff for Mullins in Letcher County. Kentucky State Police detective Clayton Stamper said Mullins and Stines met for lunch with several other people at a restaurant near the courthouse just before the shooting, according to the Associated Press.
As of 2024, the phones that Mickey Stines used to call numbers are being sent to the forensic lab for examination. Mickey Stines is still in custody of the court, and the next court date for the potential prosecution of Mickey Stines has not yet been announced.
