The previous Letcher County, Kentucky Sheriff Sean “Mickey” Stines pleaded not guilty to murder Monday before District Court Judge Kevin Mullins in the same courthouse where the lawman was shot in September.
Attorney Jeremy Bartley said Monday that Stines has a “compelling defense” to justify shooting his longtime colleague in his office. Courier Journal Reported
According to the newspaper, Bartley added that the timing of the sheriff’s statement in the sexual assault case earlier this month “is certainly something that will be important in this case.”
“I believe it’s a piece,” Bartley said after Monday’s court proceedings, which lasted about five minutes. “This is a big story.. It’s a story that, in some ways, is hard to tell. We look forward to sharing a more complete version of this as it goes through the court process.”
Sean “Mickey” Stines during a preliminary hearing Oct. 1, 2024, in Morgan County District Court. (USA TODAY NETWORK via Scott Utterbeck/Courier-Journal/Amgen Images)
Prosecuting attorney Jackie Steele declined to comment when asked if she believed the statement was implicated in the shooting, but said she did not expect Stines to be charged with the killing of a public official. Any additional charges will be faced. He told the outlet that it’s too early to know if he plans to pursue it. Death penalty in the case.
The lawsuit in question was filed by two women, one of whom alleged that Letcher County Deputy Ben Fields forced her to perform sexual acts inside the judge’s chambers where the shooting took place, where there were no cameras. were A woman under house arrest accused the deputy of repeatedly sexually assaulting her for six months in exchange for staying out of jail.
Stines was accused in the lawsuit of “deliberate indifference in failing to properly train and supervise” Fields, who was convicted on state charges and spent several months in prison. That case is pending.
According to the Courier-Journal, attorneys for the plaintiffs in the case said Stines’ testimony went on for several hours, and that he was shocked by the shooting.
Ned Pillersdorf, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, told the outlet that he has heard differing opinions about whether the statement is connected to the Sept. 19 shooting. His co-lawyer took the statement, he said, and recalled that Stines had a “strange attitude” all the time.
Kentucky sheriff accused of killing judge didn’t plan murder, caught in ‘heat of passion’: lawyer
Former Letcher County Sheriff Sean “Mickey” Stines can be seen pointing his gun at District Court Judge Kevin Mullins. (Letcher County Handout)
Stines was denied bond on Monday. Bartley said he planned to file a motion for an adversary bond, but told the outlet it was “unlikely” to succeed.
Retired Judge Julia H. Adams, who was appointed to serve as a special judge in the Stines case, told the outlet that she decided not to grant the former sheriff bond after “significant consideration.” The decision
Defense attorney Jeremy Bartley asks questions of KSP Detective Clayton Stamper at Shawn “Mickey” Stines’ preliminary hearing in Morgan County District Court. October 1, 2024 (USA TODAY NETWORK via Scott Utterbeck/Courier-Journal/Amgen Images)
Stines pleaded not guilty on September 25. He officially resigned as sheriff in late September after receiving a letter from Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Kentucky General Counsel S. Travis Mayo. He is being held at the Leslie County Jail, two counties away, police said.
It remains unclear what motivated the former sheriff Pull the trigger.
The judge who fatally shot the Kentucky sheriff was impeached days earlier in the rape case.
District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, was killed in his judge’s chambers by Letcher County Sheriff Sean M. Stines, 43, authorities said. (Kentucky Court of Justice; Letcher County Sheriff’s Office)
Kentucky State Police Det. Clayton Stamper testified at the preliminary hearing that the two men had lunch with a group just hours before the shooting. Courier Journal Reported
According to Stamper, Stines tried to call her daughter on her phone, then on Mullins’ phone.
“Our investigators seized two cell phones, and they are being analyzed,” Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayhart said earlier. The Daily Mail.
“I was told that the judge made a statement about Mickey saying, ‘Do we need to have a private meeting in my chambers?'” Stamper testified. The Associated Press reported.
New video shows a Kentucky sheriff pointing a gun at a judge before the alleged fatal shooting
Formerly Letcher County Ky. Sheriff Sean “Mickey” Stines Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024 in West Liberty, Ky. Prosecutors look on during his appearance at the Morgan County Courthouse. Stines is accused of murdering District Judge Kevin Mullins. (AP Photo/Timothy D’Esley)
“It could be, but I don’t know that for a fact,” Stamper said when asked if Stines Mullins was encouraged to shoot Based on what he saw on the judge’s phone.
“I talked to him, but he didn’t say anything about why it happened,” Stamper said, according to the AP. “But he was calm … basically, he just said, ‘Be nice to me.'”
When Stines was taken into custody, he allegedly told another officer, “They’re trying to kidnap my wife and baby,” Stamper said.
Click here to get the Fox News app.
Bartley first Told people that the shooting was “not something that was planned and happened in the heat of the moment.”
“For us, the partial defense of extreme emotional disturbance must be based on the highest level of felony murder,” Bartley said.
The shooting in the town of Whitesburg has shaken the community in Letcher County, Kentucky, where Stines served as a bailiff in Mullins’ court before becoming sheriff in 2018.
“We’re all in shock over this,” Garnard Kinser Jr., Mullins’ friend and former Jenkins mayor, told PEOPLE. “It’s practically immobilized us. We can’t believe it happened.”