A small town is shocked when its sheriff is thrown in jail for the murder of a prominent judge.

WHITESBURG, Ky. (AP) — Residents of a small Appalachian town were grappling Friday with a shooting involving two of its most important citizens: a judge who was shot to death in his courtroom and the local sheriff charged with his murder.

“It’s just so sad. I just hate it,” said Mike Watts, the clerk of the Letcher County Circuit Court. “They’re both my friends. I’ve worked with them for years.”

According to Kentucky State Police, a preliminary investigation indicates that Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines fired multiple shots at District Judge Kevin Mullins following an argument inside the courthouse.

Mullins, 54, who had been a judge for 15 years, died at the scene, while Stines, 43, surrendered without incident. He was charged with one count of first-degree murder.

The shooting, in which about 14 people were killed, rocked the county seat of Whitesburg, a town of about 1,700 people located 146 miles (235 kilometers) southeast of Lexington.

Watts said he saw Mullins and Stines together shortly before noon Thursday — about three hours before the shooting — when he went to the judge’s chambers to ask him to sign some papers. Mullins and Stines were getting ready to go out to lunch together, Watts said.

It seemed like a normal interaction, except that Stines seemed quieter than usual. He believed the pair had a good working relationship and didn’t know anything that might have prompted the violent encounter. Stines was a bailiff in Mullins’ court for years before becoming sheriff, Watts said.

Watts, who was on another floor of the courthouse, did not hear any shots and only learned of the shooting when his son called him and said there was an “active shooter” in the courthouse.

The key question is what could have caused the shooting.

Stines was unmasked Monday in a lawsuit filed by two women, one of whom said the deputy forced her to have sex in Mullins’ chambers for six months in exchange for avoiding jail time. The lawsuit accuses the sheriff of “willful indifference to inadequate training and supervision” of the deputy.

Former deputy sheriff Ben Fields has pleaded guilty to raping a female inmate while she was under house arrest. Fields 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’s monitoring device, The Mountain Eagle reported. Three charges involving the second woman were dismissed because she is now deceased.

As The Courier Journal reported at the time, Stines fired Fields, who replaced him as Mullins’ bailiff, for “inappropriate conduct” after the lawsuit was filed in 2022.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said his office will work with the state attorney for that region as special prosecutors in the criminal case.

“We will conduct a thorough investigation and seek justice,” Coleman said on social media.

Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter said he was “shocked by this act of violence” and that the judicial system was “shocked by this news.”

Jessica Slone, a distant relative of Stines and a longtime Letcher County resident, said she was shocked to hear the news. She was at the dollar store with her nephew when he told her Mullins had been shot.

“I thought to myself, ‘Really? Is he OK?’ And he said, ‘No, he’s dead,'” she said. “But I didn’t know at the time that Mickey had done it. When I found out, I was grocery shopping and I was so moved, I started praying.”

She described Stines as a family man who maintained a close relationship with his children and worked hard to get fentanyl and methamphetamine off the streets and to help people struggling with substance use disorder recover.

The Letcher County Judge-Executive closed the circuit courthouse on Friday.

It’s unclear whether Stines had a lawyer — state police referred inquiries to a spokesman, who did not immediately respond by email.

Mullins has served as a district judge in Letcher County since being appointed by former Gov. Steve Beshear in 2009 and elected the following year.

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