The Letcher County Sheriff was arrested for the fatal shooting of a district judge inside his chambers, after being embroiled in a scandal that included allegations of corruption and sexual misconduct.
Letcher County Sheriff arrested
Sheriff Shawn Stines, 43, was taken into custody without incident after allegedly gunning down District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, following a heated argument at the Letcher County courthouse in Whitesburg, Kentucky.
Just days before the deadly confrontation, Stines had been deposed in a lawsuit accusing him of failing to investigate claims that one of his deputies, Ben Fields, had sexually assaulted women who were under house arrest.
The lawsuit, filed earlier in the week by two women, alleged that Fields had forced them to have sex in exchange for avoiding jail, with one woman claiming the abuse occurred inside the same judge’s chambers where Mullins was shot.
The lawsuit accuses Sheriff Stines of “deliberate indifference in failing to adequately train and supervise” his deputies, including Fields.
According to court documents, Stines only fired Fields in 2022, after the lawsuit was filed, citing “conduct unbecoming” in a disciplinary letter obtained by the Louisville Courier-Journal.
The shooting has shocked the close-knit Appalachian town of Whitesburg, which is home to roughly 1,700 residents and located about 145 miles southeast of Lexington.
According to the Kentucky State Police, officers received a 911 call just before 3 p.m. on Thursday reporting shots fired inside the courthouse.
When law enforcement arrived, they found Mullins with multiple gunshot wounds. Despite efforts to save his life, the judge was pronounced dead at the scene by the county coroner.
Sheriff Stines, who was still at the courthouse, turned himself in to authorities and was taken into custody without resistance.
He has been charged with first-degree murder and is currently being held at the Leslie County Detention Center.
Mystery as to why the Letcher County sheriff shot a Kentucky judge
According to officials, Stines has been cooperating with investigators, but the exact nature of the argument between the sheriff and the judge is still unknown.
The lawsuit that preceded Thursday’s shooting centers on accusations against Ben Fields, a former Letcher County deputy sheriff, who was convicted earlier this year, according to The Mountain Eagle.
Fields reportedly used his position to manipulate women on house arrest, offering them leniency in exchange for sexual favors.
Prisoners under house arrest in Letcher County are required to pay for their electronic monitoring, and the lawsuit claims that Fields disabled the women’s devices and told the monitoring company that their bail conditions had been changed, so the devices were no longer required.
He then used threats of arrest to coerce the women into sexual acts.
The two women who filed the lawsuit against Fields and Sheriff Stines claim that the deputy sexually assaulted them multiple times over several months.
One of the women alleges that some of the assaults took place inside Judge Mullins’ chambers at the courthouse. The second woman’s charges were dismissed after she died from a drug overdose.
Sheriff Stines’ failure to act on the accusations against Fields forms the core of the lawsuit, which accuses him of turning a blind eye to the misconduct within his department.
Fields was eventually fired, but the lawsuit claims that the sheriff’s office took no meaningful steps to investigate or address the abuse before it was publicly exposed.
Fields pleaded guilty in January to raping a female prisoner while she was on home incarceration and was sentenced to six months in jail, followed by six and a half years of probation.
His crimes included rape, sodomy, perjury, and tampering with a prisoner monitoring device, according to The Mountain Eagle.
Community shocked by Kentucky judge’s brutal demise
The murder of Judge Mullins has left the community of Whitesburg reeling. Known for his work to combat drug addiction in the region, Mullins had served as a district judge in Letcher County’s 47th District Court since 2009, when he was appointed by then-Governor Steve Beshear.
He was subsequently elected to the position in 2010 and re-elected three times, most recently in 2022.
Mullins had deep roots in the community and was widely respected for his efforts to promote substance abuse treatment for individuals caught up in the justice system.
He helped launch Addiction Recovery Care, a peer support program that offers assistance to people struggling with addiction, and his courtroom was one of the first to incorporate peer recovery services into its daily operations. The program has since been adopted by at least 50 counties across Kentucky.
“We all know each other here,” said lead county prosecutor Matt Butler, who recused himself and his office from the case due to his personal and family connections with Mullins. “
“Judge Mullins and I married sisters, and we have children who are first cousins but act like siblings,” he added.
Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayheart echoed Butler’s sentiments, saying, “This community is small in nature, and we’re all shook.”
The shooting has also garnered attention from state political leaders. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, addressed the tragedy on social media, expressing his sorrow over the violence. “There is far too much violence in this world, and I pray there is a path to a better tomorrow,” the governor tweeted on Thursday.
