The Sheriff of Letcher County (USA), Mickey Stines remains under arrest and faces a first-degree murder charge after shooting Circuit Judge Kevin Mullins Thursday afternoon at the Letcher County Courthouse in the rural eastern Kentucky town of Whitesburg. Mullins, a 15-year magistrate, was declared dead on site due to the shooting.
According to Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayheart, the 43-year-old officer said at a news conference: He surrendered to the authorities without resistance. after discharging his firearm at the magistrate and was later transported to a local jail. He added that at first, the origin of the dispute that allegedly led to the shooting of the officer, elected sheriff in 2018 and re-elected in 2022, is unknown.
Stines had recently been named as a defendant in a case trial against a civil servant of his dependencewho pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison for repeatedly raping a female inmate. The sheriff was accused in the complaint of “deliberate indifference in failing to adequately train and supervise” Ben Fields, the now-convicted former deputy.
