On September 19, a distress call was made from the Letcher County Courthouse in Kentucky, reporting a shooting incident. The caller urgently requested medical assistance, stating that a judge had been shot. The alleged perpetrator was identified as 44-year-old Shawn Stines, who was serving as the sheriff of Letcher County at the time.
Stines reportedly arrived at the courthouse in Whitesburg, a city in southeastern Kentucky, that afternoon. He requested a private meeting with Judge Kevin Mullins. Local news outlet The Mountain Eagle reported that the two men then proceeded to the judge’s chambers.
Once inside the chambers, a heated argument broke out between Stines and Mullins. Investigators claim that Stines shot the judge multiple times before surrendering to law enforcement. The incident was recorded in both audio and video formats by law enforcement.
Stines’ legal team is currently preparing his defense. His attorney, Jeremy Bartley, has referred to a separate criminal case involving a woman named Sabrina Adkins. Adkins alleged that she had seen footage of Mullins engaging in sexual activities with women in exchange for preferential treatment.
Adkins, who was under house arrest at the time, filed a federal lawsuit in January 2022. Stines, who had been a close friend of Mullins for about 30 years, had been deposed in the ongoing case just three days before the shooting, as reported by the Louisville Courier Journal.
During the investigation into Ben Fields, one of Stines’ former deputies, Adkins told police, “I saw Judge Mullins having sex with a girl … in the judge’s chambers.” She also claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Fields in his office.