The prosecution wants to move this trial. Not the defense—the prosecution. The Commonwealth of Kentucky is asking the court to relocate the murder trial of former Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines, who shot and killed District Judge Kevin Mullins inside his chambers on September 19, 2024. The entire shooting was captured on security footage. There's no question about what happened. The question is why—and whether Stines was mentally capable of forming intent when he pulled the trigger.



Court documents reveal a man in freefall. The day before the shooting, Stines was diagnosed with acute stress reaction. Witnesses told investigators he was "losing it," that his anxiety was "completely off the charts," that they believed he was in psychosis. He'd lost forty pounds in two weeks. He told coworkers "they" were going to kill his wife and daughter—but never said who "they" were. Four days after the shooting, a jail social worker found him still in active psychosis, unaware of his surroundings, requiring antipsychotic medication and pepper spray to control.



The shooting came just three days after Stines was deposed in a federal lawsuit alleging his deputy coerced women into sex inside Mullins's chambers. That lawsuit also named Stines for failing to supervise. Multiple women have made allegations about what happened in that office—allegations that have never been proven and that Mullins, now dead, cannot answer.



Prosecutors say they can't try this case in Letcher County. The crime scene is the courthouse. Both men were elected officials everyone voted for. The defense says keep it local—national coverage means nowhere is untouched. Meanwhile, Stines faces the death penalty, and his lawyers are building an insanity defense around a paper trail of warnings nobody acted on.



#MickeyStines #Letcher County #TrueCrime #KevinMullins #KentuckySheriff #CourthouseShooting #InsanityDefense #TrueCrimeNews #MurderTrial #CriminalJustice





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