Kentucky District Court Judge Kevin Mullins was fatally shot in his courthouse chambers by Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines in September 2024. Stines immediately turned himself in and was charged with murder, though new details are still coming out after the killing was caught on surveillance cameras. On the latest episode of Us Weekly’s Uncovered, investigative journalist Kristin Thorne questions why there was a camera in the judge’s chambers in the first place.
“This story would be crazy enough if what we saw on that security camera, the shooting of this judge, was it,” Thorne said. “But it’s not.”
Investigators said that Stine shot Mullins nine times before he turned himself in. It’s not known what they were talking about before the shooting because the security footage doesn’t have audio.
Independent journalist Gavin Fish spoke to Thorne about the events that led up to the shooting, explaining that the case actually started with a lawsuit and the prosecution of deputy sheriff Ben Fields.
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Fields also worked in the Letcher County Courthouse as a bailiff, where he was in charge of the GPS monitoring of the inmates from the Letcher County Jail.
After several female prisoners claimed that Fields forced them to trade sexual favors in order for them to receive “preferential treatment,” the accusers filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office and Stines. The accusers claimed in the lawsuit that Stines “either knew or should have known what Mr. Fields was doing.”
Stine’s wife, his daughter and coworkers said in the weeks leading up to a deposition for the lawsuit, Stines appeared to experience mental health challenges, in which he couldn’t sleep and was acting paranoid.
Stines gave his deposition on a Monday, and he fatally shot Mullins just a few days later on Thursday.
Thorne later pointed out that there are not usually security cameras in a judge’s chambers. “If there’s one place in a courthouse that there are never cameras, it’s in the judge’s chambers,” she said. “It’s where the judges hold private meetings with attorneys and law enforcement. They don’t want cameras in there.”
“But there is one in Judge Mullins’ chambers,” Thorne continued.
Thorne went on to answer why the camera may have been in Mullins’ chambers.
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“After former deputy Ben Fields pled guilty to these charges and it was determined essentially that he was having sex with inmates in the judge’s chambers, the cameras were put in throughout the courthouse to keep an eye on things,” she said. “But it begs the question, did Judge Mullins know what was happening in his chambers?”
“It’s an answer we could get if the trial proceeds against Shawn “Mickey” Stines,” Thorne concluded. “In other words, I think this story is only beginning.”
The case into Mullins’ death remains ongoing and a trial date has not yet been set.
The defendant’s attorneys have asked the judge to hold a hearing to determine if Stines has a serious mental illness or intellectual disability. If the judge agrees, the death penalty would be taken off the table due to Kentucky law.
