Kentucky Sheriff Arrested in Shooting Death of Judge

The police say a sheriff shot District Judge Kevin Mullins inside the courthouse on Thursday afternoon before turning himself in.

The sheriff of a rural eastern Kentucky county walked into a courthouse on Thursday afternoon and shot and killed a district judge in his chambers after an argument, the police said.

Mickey Stines, 43, the sheriff in Letcher County, turned himself in after shooting Judge Kevin Mullins and was charged with first-degree murder, Trooper Matt Gayheart of the Kentucky State Police said at a news conference on Thursday evening.

The shooting happened at about 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. He was being held in a nearby county, at the Leslie County Detention Center.

“This community is small in nature, and we’re all shook,” the trooper 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. The police were still trying to determine what had led up to the argument.

Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said on social media that he had been informed of the shooting.

“There is far too much violence in this world, and I pray there is a path to a better tomorrow,” the governor wrote.

The shooting prompted concerns in the community about an active shooter and prompted lockdowns at area schools. The police later said the shooting was an isolated incident and that there was no threat to the public.

Russell Coleman, the Kentucky attorney general, said that his office would work with local officials to investigate and prosecute the case.

In a statement, Chief Justice Laurence B. VanMeter of the Kentucky Supreme Court said on Thursday night that he was “shocked by this act of violence, and the court system is shaken by this news.” The courthouse where the shooting took place is closed until further notice.

The news stunned the residents of Letcher County, which is about 110 miles southeast of Lexington and is home to about 21,500 people.

Judge Mullins was first elected by county residents in 2010, according to Ballotpedia, which tracks elections. He had recently been appointed to a state judicial commission on mental health.

Mr. Stines, who is also known as Shawn M. Stines, was elected sheriff in 2018 and was re-elected in 2022.

Since becoming sheriff, Mr. Stines has been named a defendant in two federal cases.

In 2020, a judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by a former sheriff’s office employee who claimed Mr. Stines eliminated her job upon taking office in 2019 because she had expressed support for another candidate for sheriff.

Mr. Stines also gave a deposition earlier this month in a separate ongoing case involving a former sheriff deputy who was accused of sexually abusing an inmate. Mr. Stines fired the deputy, Ben Fields, not long after the lawsuit was filed in 2022.

The suit alleged that Mr. Fields coerced the inmate into performing sexual acts late at night inside the Letcher County Courthouse. Mr. Fields is serving a five-year sentence in state prison after he was convicted on charges linked to the actions he is accused of in the federal suit.

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.

Remy Tumin contributed reporting.