Bodycam footage taken minutes after then-Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines allegedly shot District Judge Kevin Mullins to death last September shows Stines telling state troopers he was in fear for his life. Early in the questioning, a trooper explained to Stines that they would take him to the Leslie County Detention Center, rather than the local jail.
“You know how it is, something like this, we're going to be worried about you in the jail down here with local people. You know.”
“Right now I'm alive and well, no weapons on me. I leave this building, I won't draw another breath.”
Despite repeated reassurances from state troopers, some of whom he’d known for years, Stines remained agitated.
“You all are gonna kill me, I know you are.”
“No. Would you think that, Mickey?”
“Let’s just get it over with. Let’s go.”
“You don't want to let us know what happened? Okay.”
Despite being asked repeatedly, Stines never explained what happened. Days before, he’d testified in a civil suit against a deputy in charge of the county’s home incarceration program who went to prison for sexual abuse. Stines’ attorney Jeremy Bartley has said he’ll pursue a defense of insanity and extreme emotional disturbance.
