Former Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines appeared in court Friday in a pretrial hearing for his 2024 murder case.
He’s charged with the murder of Letcher County Judge Kevin Mullins.
Stines was caught on video shooting and killing Mullins in his chambers in September of 2024. His lawyers are pursuing an insanity defense, arguing he “lacked the capacity to intend” to shoot Mullins.
The hearing involved whether or not bond should be posted and whether to grant a change in venue.
As part of an argument that bond should be posted, Stines’ defense team argued he was under extreme emotional disturbance leading up to the shooting, and that he was exhibiting unusual behavior.
The night before the shooting, Stines stayed at his aunt’s house. Sherri Stines, who was called as a witness by the defense, said her nephew was paranoid and unable to sleep, claiming his wife and daughter were in danger.
“He acted different,” she said. “I've never seen Mickey act like that.”
Judge Christopher Cohron said if he were to allow bond to be posted, it would be much higher than the defense’s suggested amount of $50,000.
His defense team also argued the trial should stay in Letcher County, where he’s comfortable and close to family. The prosecution argued it would be more difficult to find impartial jurors locally for such a high-profile case.
“You would almost have to have 20,000 jurors in there to try to find 14,” said Letcher County Attorney Jamie Hatton, who also spoke as a witness. “It just seems like there's a very strong Team Mickey, and there's a very strong Team Mullins. Lots of people tend to fall on one team or the other.”
Cohron indicated he would grant the change in venue because of the amount of media coverage and local interest in the case, though no final ruling was made.
The prosecution also requested Stines undertake a second mental health evaluation by a private expert retained by the Commonwealth in order to rebut any insanity defense. Last year, Cohron denied a motion to unseal Stines’ original mental health evaluation from the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center.
Instead of making any decisions at the hearing, Cohron said he would file written findings with his final rulings at a later date.
