Kentucky sheriff accused of fatally shooting judge testified in rape case days earlier

A Kentucky sheriff accused of fatally shooting a judge in his office Thursday was accused in a lawsuit filed earlier this week of failing to investigate reports that a local deputy sexually assaulted women while under house arrest.

Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines, 43, was unmasked in a lawsuit filed Monday by two women, one of whom said the deputy forced her into sex in the same judge’s chambers where the shooting occurred. The woman says the deputy repeatedly sexually assaulted her over a six-month period in exchange for avoiding prison time.

The lawsuit accuses the sheriff of “willful indifference to the proper training and supervision” of the deputy.

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Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines in his booking photo. Stines is charged with one count of first-degree murder in connection with the fatal shooting of District Judge Kevin Mullins. (Leslie County Detention Center via AP)

The deposition came just three days before District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, was shot multiple times in the Letcher County Circuit Courthouse after an argument with Stines in Whitesburg, Kentucky State Police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Stines was taken into custody at that location without incident and charged with one count of first-degree murder, police said. He is being held at the nearby Leslie County Detention Center, two counties away.

It is unclear what the couple were arguing about or whether it had anything to do with the lawsuit.

The lawsuit concerns the case of former deputy sheriff Ben Fields, who pleaded guilty in January to raping an inmate while she was serving a sentence of house arrest.

Fields, who previously worked as a deputy prison guard, was sentenced this year to six months in prison, followed by six and a half years of probation, for rape, sodomy, perjury and tampering with an inmate monitoring device, The Mountain Eagle reported. Three charges involving the second woman were dismissed because she is dead, having died of a drug overdose.

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Authorities said District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, left, was allegedly killed by Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines, 43, in the judge’s chambers. (Kentucky Court; Letcher County Sheriff’s Office)

Inmates under house arrest must pay for electronic monitoring. The women say Fields told them he wouldn’t charge them for the monitoring if they did him a “favor,” the outlet reported.

Fields turned off the women’s devices and told the monitoring company that the terms of their bond had been changed so the devices were not required. He then used threats of arrest to force the women to have sex with him, according to The Mountain Eagle.

The judge’s killing sent shockwaves through this tightly knit Appalachian town. Whitesburg is the county seat of about 1,700 residents, about 145 miles southeast of Lexington.

District Attorney Matt Butler described an outpouring of sympathy for having himself and his office removed from the investigation, citing his social and family ties to Mullins.

“We all know each other here. … Anyone from Letcher County would tell you that Judge Mullins and I married sisters and that we have children who are first cousins ​​but act like siblings,” Butler said in a statement from his office to The Associated Press. “For that reason, among other reasons, I have already taken steps to disqualify myself and my entire office.”

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A judge was murdered Thursday in the Letcher County District Courthouse in Kentucky. (Google Maps)

Mullins served in the 47th Judicial District, where he handled juvenile cases, city and county ordinances, misdemeanors, traffic violations, arraignments, probable cause hearings, claims of $2,500 or less, civil cases of $5,000 or less, voluntary and involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations and domestic violence cases, according to the court’s website.

He served as a district judge in Letcher County since being appointed by former Gov. Steve Beshear in 2009 and elected the following year. Mullins has promoted substance abuse treatment for people involved in the criminal justice system and helped hundreds of residents enter residential treatment, according to a drug summit program at which he spoke in 2022.

Louis Casiano of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.