Kentucky Sheriff's Possible Motive For Killing Judge Inside Courthouse Revealed: 'In Fear For Safety of Wife and Daughter'

A former Kentucky sheriff who shot and killed a judge amidst an ongoing sexual extortion scandal plans to pursue an insanity defense, according to a report.

In 2024, Sheriff Shawn "Mickey" Stines shot and killed 54-year-old District Judge Kevin Mullins. The shooting, captured on security cameras, happened as the two men were talking in the judge's chambers.

Defense attorney Jeremy Bartley was interviewed on Thursday by News Nation, claiming Stines was under tremendous pressure.

Bartley said that Stines was giving a deposition in a civil case related to claims that people in the county's judicial system were using their positions to extort sex from defendants.

The attorney told the news outlet that Stines feared he might upset the wrong people or say something people didn't want to out in the open. "Ultimately, he was in fear for the safety of his wife and his daughter, and I think what you see there is the result of that," Bartley said, adding that "his mental health" was affected.

Bartley's comments came after a recent court filing indicating that the defense planned to "present a defense of insanity, as well as a defense of extreme emotional disturbance."

The sexual extortion scandal dates back to March 2022, when two women, each a former inmate of Letcher County Jail, filed a lawsuit. The women sued Ben Fields, a court security officer who also worked monitoring people on house arrest, The Mountain Eagle reported. Stines was also named in the suit for not training and supervising Fields properly.

In January 2024, Fields pled guilty to raping a female prisoner while she was on home confinement. He received 7 years but only six months in jail. The rest of the sentence is probationary, the newspaper reported. Once the criminal case was resolved, the civil case proceeded and Stines was eventually called to give a deposition.

Bartley said that the deposition took place on Monday the week of the shooting and that Stines had been under a great deal of stress leading up to it. "He felt very much threatened about how what he might say. Would he say too much that would put his family in danger?"