For more than a year, this case has haunted a small Kentucky community with one unanswered question: why did Sheriff Mickey Stines walk into Judge Kevin Mullins' chambers and shoot him to death? They'd worked together for years. Stines used to be Mullins' bailiff. They ate lunch together hours before the shooting. None of it made sense. Until now.



Exposed court documents have finally revealed what was happening to Mickey Stines in the days before that shooting, and it paints a picture far more disturbing than anyone outside law enforcement knew. According to witness statements and filings from the defense, Stines had lost forty pounds in two weeks and couldn't explain why. He was taking ten breaks during a routine legal deposition, at one point telling the room he was "having an episode." He told a staffer that an attorney had instructed him to hand over money and kill himself, or shadowy forces would murder his wife and daughter. He made someone put a bulletproof vest on his wife. He was placing phone calls to family members who had been dead for years.



His own employees watched this happen. One told investigators she believed he was in a psychosis. An attorney warned Judge Mullins directly that Stines was "losing it." The local police chief said he'd lost his mind. And the intervention? They told him to see his family doctor.



The next day, Kevin Mullins was dead.



Now the judge's widow has filed a lawsuit against Stines and three sheriff's office employees, claiming they watched her husband's killer unravel and failed to warn him. This week, a judge denied Stines' motion to dismiss the murder indictment and granted a bond hearing. For the first time, we're seeing the full picture of what went wrong, who knew, and why no one stopped it.



#Letcher County #MickeyStines #JudgeKevinMullins #KentuckySheriff #TrueCrime #CourthouseShooting #TrueCrime2024 #CriminalJustice #MentalHealthCrisis #ShawnStines





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