Judicial Security

Former Letcher County Sheriff Shawn "Mickey" Stines acknowledged in newly filed Kentucky court documents that he fatally shot District Judge Kevin Mullins inside the judge’s chambers in Whitesburg as his defense prepares an insanity/extreme-emotional-disturbance strategy. Stines faces first-degree murder and murder-of-a-public-official charges, is held without bond, and a judge recently sealed part of his mental-health evaluation; in a Nov. 12 civil filing responding to the widow’s wrongful-death suit, he also admitted the shooting and described paranoid, psychotic behavior.