Defense for former Letcher County Sheriff motions to recuse judge overseeing murder case
By Shepherd Snyder
January 5, 2026 at 4:26 PM EST
A motion filed by the defense team of former Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines looks to replace the judge presiding over his murder case.
Stines is on trial for the alleged murder of former Letcher County Judge Kevin Mullins in 2024. The ex-sheriff admitted in December to shooting Mullins in his chambers.
His defense team argues that Judge Chris Cohron may have personal ties to the case, which could influence his impartiality in ruling. A court filing says a video from a Kentucky Judicial Commission committee meeting on mental health shows Cohron and Mullins sitting together a week before the shooting.
The defense argues the video could cause observers of the trial to assume the judge has a bias against Stines.
“The fact that these two men served on this very worthwhile committee is not enough to draw an objectively reasonable inference of impartiality,” the filing says. “However, there will be proffered evidence that contrasts with the presentation seen on the video. It is difficult to understand how this close proximity with Mullins, in both time and distance, would not lead the reasonable observer to impute a bias in favor of disbelief of negative statements and the propensity to disallow the same.”
Stines’ lawyers are pursuing an insanity defense, arguing he “lacked the capacity to intend” to shoot Mullins. Last month, Cohron denied their motion to unseal a mental health evaluation from the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center. In the new filing, the defense argues it includes findings that conflict with Cohron’s “professional knowledge” of Mullins.
“At this point, there has been no legal basis as support for the refusal to unseal the KCPC report,” the filing reads. “While that issue is one to be addressed further at a later date, the objective observer would rationally believe there is inherent bias from the video and this would lead the judge to prohibit this normally admissible report from coming into evidence.”
Last month, a scheduled hearing for Stines was postponed by Cohron without explanation.