‘He Saved Many Lives’: Small Kentucky Community Mourns Slain Judge

The fatal shooting of the judge has rocked the town of Whitesburg. On Sunday, friends, family and community members gathered to remember the victim.

As a rural Kentucky town reeled from the fatal shooting of a judge, residents over the weekend mourned the victim whom many saw as a kind man who loved his community.

The judge, Kevin Mullins, 54, was remembered by many for providing second chances to people struggling with drug addiction in Letcher County, Ky., a tight-knit Appalachian community located about 150 miles southeast of Lexington.

Tributes to Judge Mullins poured in on social media over the weekend, from friends, relatives and others who simply knew him as a judge. Some posted memories of him chatting with colleagues outside the courthouse on smoke breaks and talking about his love for his wife and two daughters.

“Kevin was a lot of things to a lot of people,” his wife, Kimberly Mullins, wrote on Facebook. “But he was Everything to me and my girls.” Ms. Mullins said on Sunday that she could not comment further.

But the mystery around what transpired between Judge Mullins and Shawn Stines, the sheriff who is accused of shooting him, was still top of mind for many in the community.

On Thursday afternoon, Judge Mullins and Sheriff Stines, also known as Mickey, ate lunch together before meeting in the judge’s chambers in the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg. According to investigators, the two men got into an argument and, around 3 p.m., Sheriff Stines shot Judge Mullins multiple times in the chest before surrendering to the police. Sheriff Stines is facing a charge of first-degree murder and being held in the nearby Leslie County Detention Center.

Details about what happened in the lead-up to the shooting are still unknown. Officials have not announced a motive.

A memorial service was held on Sunday at a school gymnasium in Jenkins, where Judge Mullins lived. Hundreds of people were in attendance, including about 30 judges from across Kentucky. By 3 p.m., the visitation line stretched from the basketball court, where an open coffin lay under a hoop with floral arrangements on each side, to the entrance of the school.

At the service, Judge Mullins was remembered as a kind man who tried to help others inside his courtroom and beyond. He pushed for treatment instead of jail for people with drug addiction who had committed nonviolent offenses.

Several judges spoke at the service and emphasized Judge Mullins’s commitment to helping people gain access to addiction and mental health resources.

J. Foster Cotthoff, a district judge in Christian County, about 300 miles west of Whitesburg, said that Judge Mullins was “light-years ahead” of how those in other jurisdictions handled substance abuse cases.

“It was so obvious that he loved this place and that he would do anything to make it better,” Judge Cotthoff said at the memorial.

Kaci Lucas, 34, was one of the people Judge Mullins had helped. At the service, Ms. Lucas said that she had “unfortunately” wound up in Judge Mullins’s courtroom several times. Five years ago, he placed her into treatment, which helped her get sober after struggling with addiction for 15 years. She now works at an addiction treatment center in eastern Tennessee.

“He saved many lives, including my own,” she said. “I’m a mother now. I’m a daughter now.”

Randy Billiter, a 61-year-old retired coal miner, met Judge Mullins when Mr. Billiter moved to Jenkins in 2007. The next year, the judge officiated his wedding.

“He was always the type of guy that’d help you,” Mr. Billiter said. “If he could help you, he’d help you.”

The sheriff and the judge had worked closely together to take on drug addiction in their county, Mayor Todd Depriest of Jenkins said. The mayor said he was now trying to figure out how to move forward without them.

“How do we honor their work?” he asked. “Yes, somebody killed somebody, but a lot of good went on before. Those two men did a lot of good work.”

Several mourners knew both Judge Mullins and Sheriff Stines personally.

Among them was Emory Mullins, a 67-year-old distant cousin of the judge’s who owns Letcher Flower Shop, which provided the flowers for the service. Mr. Mullins remembered his cousin as a “wonderful person,” and said that “everybody” liked both Judge Mullins and Sheriff Stines.

“It’s hard on this little community,” Mr. Mullins said.

The county has been battered in recent years by the loss of jobs in the coal industry and by devastating flooding in 2022 that killed at least 37 people in eastern Kentucky and destroyed many homes. Tiffany Craft, who has served as mayor of Whitesburg since 2021, recalled thinking at the time of the floods that she had seen the worst tragedy her community would ever face. But the shooting last week was a fresh blow.

“The flood affected everyone; this affected everyone,” Ms. Craft said on Saturday as she pointed from her office toward the courthouse around the corner. “No matter who you are, both affected everyone.”

Ms. Craft said she saw Judge Mullins and Sheriff Stines eating together just about every time she went to StreetSide Grill & Bar near the courthouse. The restaurant is where the men went to lunch with other court employees on the day of the shooting.

Michael Clark, a pastor who has struggled with addiction, closed the memorial service on Sunday by thanking Judge Mullins for having given people a second chance. He also called for the grieving community to move forward with grace.

“We need to show kindness instead of cruelty,” he said. “We need to choose mercy over emotions and love over hate. We need to let the light inside of us drive out the darkness.”