Video that shows Eastern Kentucky judge being shot by sheriff made public

The Sept. 19 slaying of an Eastern Kentucky judge by the county sheriff was captured on video in the judge’s office.

The harrowing video was played for the first time in public Tuesday. It began with then-Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines standing in the office of District Judge Kevin Mullins, who was sitting at a desk in his black robe, with papers on his desk and a quilt with figures of coal miners on the wall behind him.

The video showed that when Stines pointed his gun at Mullins, the judge raised one hand, as if to ward off the threat, and then turned away from Stines and hunkered over in a defensive position. That’s when Stines shot him the first time, sending Mullins crashing to the floor.

Stines then went to the other side of the desk to get a look at Mullins. The judge raised his head, then ducked behind the desk for cover and Mullins shot him again, the video showed.

Stines walked quickly to the door and opened it to leave, but then quickly turned toward Mullins, who was on the floor and appeared to still be moving. Stines fired again and then turned and left.

There was no sound with the 24-second video clip.

The special prosecutor in the case, Jackie Steele, played the video during a preliminary hearing for Stines Tuesday in district court in Morgan County.

Several woman in the courtroom wept loudly as the video played.

Stines, 43, is charged with murder in the Sept. 19 shooting death of Mullins.

He surrendered to police immediately after the shooting and has pleaded not guilty.

Tuesday’s hearing was to determine if Judge Rupert Wilhoit III would find probable cause to believe Stines committed the crime.

Wilhoit ruled there was probable cause and sent the case to a grand jury to consider whether to indict Stines.

The standard to find probable cause is lower than what would be required to convict Stines at trial.

Stines has been jailed since the shooting and retired this week.

He was at Tuesday’s hearing, handcuffed at the wrists and chained at the ankles. He did not speak publicly.

The hearing provided several new details publicly in the high-profile case.

Clayton Stamper, a detective with the Kentucky State Police who is leading the investigation, testified that earlier on the day of the shooting, Mullins and Stines ate lunch together at a restaurant near the courthouse in Whitesburg.

Stamper testified the judge asked Stines at lunch whether they needed to meet privately in Mullins’ office.

Stamper said he does not yet know the subject of the meeting.

Stamper testified that when Stines went to Mullins’ office later, there were several people in the office, but they left.

Some were in a room adjacent to the office when shots rang out.

One woman also reportedly heard a man say, “Help, help,” Stamper said.

Stamper said before the shots, Stines tried to call his daughter — who was not identified during the hearing — on his phone. He then tried to call her on Mullins’ phone.

The daughter’s number was in the judge’s phone, Stamper said.

Stamper said Stines stood up from his chair in the judge’s office after looking at Mullins’ phone and shot him seconds later.

One of Stines’ attorneys, Jeremy Bartley, asked Stamper if the investigation had turned up any evidence so far to demonstrate that the motivation of the shooting was anything other than a reaction to what was on Mullins’ phone.

No, Stamper said.

Bartley said later he doesn’t yet have information on the contents of the judge’s phone.

After the hearing, Bartley declined to answer a Herald-Leader reporter’s question if Stines believed there was something inappropriate in Mullins’ contact with the daughter.

There has been no evidence offered publicly about Mullins’s contact with Stines’ daughter.

The hearing also offered a window into a possible defense Stines was suffering a mental-health crisis at the time of the shooting.

Bartley raised that issue during the hearing, noting that extreme emotional disturbance is a defense in a murder charge.

Stamper said Stines seemed relatively “mostly calm” when he saw him after the shooting. Stines didn’t say what happened, but asked other police to treat him fairly, Stamper said.

However, Stamper also said he was told Stines made a comment to another officer after he was arrested, saying, “They’re trying to kidnap my wife and kid.”

State law says a person shall not be found guilty of murder “if he acted under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance for which there was a reasonable explanation or excuse, the reasonableness of which is to be determined from the viewpoint of a person in the defendant’s situation under the circumstances as the defendant believed them to be.”

A person can still be found guilty of first-degree manslaughter or other crimes under the provision.

The death penalty is one potential punishment if Stines is found guilty of murder because Mullins was a public official.

But if Stines was suffering extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the shooting, it could take capital punishment off the table, based on Kentucky law.

Bartley argued he had heard nothing during the hearing “that indicates this is not an example of extreme emotional disturbance relative to the phone.”

Steele responded that while extreme emotional disturbance is a potential defense later in the case, there was sufficient evidence to find probable cause that Stines killed Mullins, which was the only issue in Tuesday’s hearing.