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A Kentucky judge who was allegedly killed by a local sheriff didn’t have a relationship with the county’s top cop’s daughter, according to new grand jury testimony.
Former Letcher County, Kentucky Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines allegedly shot and killed former Kentucky 47th Judicial District Judge Kevin Mullins on Sept. 19, 2024. The shooting happened following a lunch outing that included Mullins and Stines, officials said.
Video earlier obtained by Fox News Digital shows Stines entering Mullins’ chambers, where he asked everyone else to leave the room so he could speak with the judge privately. The pair talked for around seven minutes before Stines got up to lock the doors.
Mullins can then be seen giving his phone to Stines, who made a call that went unanswered. Stines can then be seen walking toward Mullins, when police say he fired at point-blank range. Stines has pleaded not guilty.
KENTUCKY JUDGE KILLED IN CHAMBERS ACCUSED OF TRADING SEXUAL FAVORS FOR INFLUENCE AT WILD PARTIES
Judge Kevin Mullins, sitting at his desk dressed in a suit, hands his phone over to Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines shortly before being shot dead in his own chambers. (Kentucky State Police)
Kentucky State Police Detective Clayton Stamper said during grand jury testimony that Stines’ wife denied that her daughter had “any contact whatsoever” with the judge. The daughter also denied speaking with the judge, according to the Courier-Journal.
Stamper said there were “rumors about [the girl] having some kind of relationship with Judge Mullins,” which Stines’ wife and daughter denied.
Two Whitesburg Police Officers who initially responded to the shooting said Stines came out of the courthouse with “just like a blank look on his face,” Stamper said.
“He takes his pistol out and he lays it on a table that’s just to the right of the doorway just inside the courthouse,” Stamper said. “He made a statement like, they’re trying to kidnap my wife and kid, or something like that, to one of the officers.”
KENTUCKY JUDGE KILLED IN CHAMBERS ACCUSED OF TRADING SEXUAL FAVORS FOR INFLUENCE AT WILD PARTIES
A Kentucky State Police trooper tries to calm Mickey Stines down during questioning. (Kentucky State Police)
Stamper told the grand jury that Stines’ wife and daughter had no concerns regarding their own personal safety, adding no evidence existed to “corroborate any statement that they had been kidnapped.”
Documents show Stines underwent a mental evaluation at the Leslie County Detention Center just four days after the shooting, which found he was “still in an active state of psychosis” and had “no recollection of the recent past.”
The grand jury testimony was briefly made public on Sept. 3 before it was sealed.
Stines’ attorney, Jeremy Bartley, previously responded to online rumors about the phone exchange in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“[Stines] had attempted multiple times to contact his daughter throughout the day, and including the time while he was in chambers, and he tried to contact her from the judge’s phone,” Bartley said.
Some had speculated that the phone exchange indicated some kind of relationship between the judge and Stines’ daughter, which Bartley said is untrue.
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District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, was allegedly killed by Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines, 43, in the judge’s chambers. (Kentucky Court of Justice ;Letcher County Sheriff’s Office)
Stines had been experiencing paranoia that his family was in danger prior to the shooting, which was caused by a civil lawsuit where he was named and deposed.
“Specifically, in the approximate two-week period prior to the incident in the judge’s chambers, pretty much all the witnesses the investigators talked to support what those close to Mickey had said as well,” Bartley said. “And that’s simply this: Mickey had become extremely paranoid. He’d become sleepless, basically wasn’t sleeping. [He] slept little, if at all. He had sort of become withdrawn. And you know, it was of such a concern that his co-workers urged him to go to the doctor, and he ultimately did the day prior to the shooting.”
Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.