As previously reported, a Kentucky judge was shot dead in his chambers on Thursday.
Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines, 43, fatally shot District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, after an argument.
“Sadly, I have been informed that the district judge in Letcher County was shot and killed in his chambers this evening. There is too much violence in the world, and I pray that there is a path to a better tomorrow,” said Andy Beshear.
Sadly, I have been informed that the district judge in Letcher County was shot and killed in his room this afternoon.
There is so much violence in the world, and I pray that there is a path to a better tomorrow. ^ AB
– Gov. Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) September 19, 2024
Stines turned himself in without incident and was charged with first-degree murder. Mullins died in the room.
What the two men were arguing about leading up to the shooting is unclear, but new details about the lawsuit involving the sheriff have emerged.
“We know that there was an argument between the two, but what happened before the shots were fired, that’s still something to be answered,” Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayheart told reporters this week. , according to CBS News.
Sheriff Stines was fired in a federal lawsuit for failing to investigate claims that Ben Fields, a deputy who worked as a prison guard at the courthouse, sexually assaulted two female inmates in the judge’s chambers.
Ben Fields is charged with seven felony and one misdemeanor counts of assaulting at least two women. Fields was sentenced to 7 years but will only serve 6 months in jail and another six and a half years on probation for rape, sodomy, perjury, and tampering with inmate monitoring devices.
“The woman claimed that Fields told her that she would not pay for surveillance if she would do it” please. Fields turned off the device, told the monitoring company that bail conditions had been changed so that the device was no longer needed, and then used the threat of arrest to force the woman to have sex with him. When Letcher Circuit Judge James W. Craft II asked Fields for GPS coordinates for one of the subjects to appear in court, Fields said he could not find him and filed escape charges against him, court records show. The Mountain Eagle reported.
“After the deadly shooting in Letcher County, our Office will collaborate with the Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 27th Circuit Justice Jackie Steele as the special prosecutor in this case,” Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said.
“We will investigate fully and seek justice,” he said.
Following the deadly shooting in Letcher County, our Office will be working with Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 27th Judicial Circuit Jackie Steele as the special prosecutor in this case.
We will investigate fully and seek justice.
– Attorney General Russell Coleman (@kyoag) September 19, 2024
Quote from CBS News:
The sheriff who allegedly shot and killed a rural Kentucky judge in a courtroom is accused in a federal lawsuit of failing to investigate allegations that one of the deputies repeatedly sexually assaulted a woman in the same judge’s room. Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines has been charged with murder in the first degree in Friday’s shooting.
Stines was dismissed in a lawsuit filed by two women, one of whom alleged that deputies forced her to have sex in Mullins’ room for six months in exchange for staying out of jail. The lawsuit accuses the sheriff of “deliberate indifference in failing to train and supervise” the deputies.
The current deputy sheriff, Ben Fields, pleaded guilty to raping a female prisoner while she was under house arrest. Fields was sentenced this year to six months in jail and then six and a half years on probation for rape, sodomy, perjury and tampering with a prisoner’s monitoring device, The Mountain Eagle reported. Three charges related to the second woman were dismissed because she is now dead.
Stines fired Fields, who was Mullins’ successor as bailiff, for “unbecoming conduct” after the lawsuit was filed in 2022, The Courier Journal reported at the time.