As previously reported, a Kentucky judge was fatally shot 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 a district judge in Letcher County was shot and killed in his chambers this afternoon. There is far too much violence in this world, and I pray there is a path to a better tomorrow,” Andy Beshear said.
Sadly, I have been informed that a district judge in Letcher County was shot and killed in his chambers this afternoon.
There is far too much violence in this world, and I pray there is a path to a better tomorrow. ^AB
— Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) September 19, 2024
Stines turned himself in without incident and was charged with first-degree murder. Mullins died in his chambers.
What the two men were arguing about leading up to the shooting is unclear, however new details about a lawsuit involving the sheriff has emerged.
“We know that it was an argument between the two that led up, but what exactly transpired prior to the shots being fired, that’s still things that we’re trying to get answers to,” Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayheart told reporters this week, according to CBS News.
Sheriff Stines was deposed in a federal lawsuit for failing to investigate claims that Ben Fields, a deputy who worked as a jailer at the courthouse, sexually assaulted two female inmates inside of the judge’s chambers.
Ben Fields was indicted on seven felony counts and one misdemeanor for sexually assaulting at least two women. Fields was sentenced to 7 years but will only spend 6 months in jail and the other six and a half years on probation for rape, sodomy, perjury, and tampering with a prisoner monitoring device.
“The women claimed Fields told them he would not make them pay for the monitoring if they would do him “a favor.” Fields disabled the devices, told the monitoring company that bail conditions had been changed so the devices were not required, and then used threats of arrest to force the women to have sex with him. When Letcher Circuit Judge James W. Craft II asked Fields for GPS coordinates for one of the subjects for a court appearance, Fields said he couldn’t locate her and filed an escape charge against her, court records show.” The Mountain Eagle reported.
“Following the deadly shooting in Letcher County, our Office will collaborate with Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 27th Judicial Circuit Jackie Steele as special prosecutors in this case,” Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said.
“We will fully investigate and pursue justice,” he said.
Following the deadly shooting in Letcher County, our Office will collaborate with Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 27th Judicial Circuit Jackie Steele as special prosecutors in this case.
We will fully investigate and pursue justice.
— Attorney General Russell Coleman (@kyoag) September 19, 2024
Excerpt from CBS News:
The sheriff who allegedly shot and killed a rural Kentucky judge in his courthouse chambers was accused in a federal lawsuit of failing to investigate allegations that one of his deputies repeatedly sexually abused a woman in the same judge’s chambers. Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines has been charged with murder in the first degree in Thursday’s shooting.
Stines was deposed on Monday in a lawsuit filed by two women, one of whom alleged that a deputy forced her to have sex inside Mullins’ chambers for six months in exchange for staying out of jail. The lawsuit accuses the sheriff of “deliberate indifference in failing to adequately train and supervise” the deputy.
The now-former deputy sheriff, Ben Fields, pleaded guilty to raping the female prisoner while she was on home incarceration. 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 monitoring device, The Mountain Eagle reported. Three charges related to a second woman were dismissed because she is now dead.
Stines fired Fields, who was his successor as Mullins’ bailiff, for “conduct unbecoming” after the lawsuit was filed in 2022, The Courier Journal reported at the time.
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