The prosecution will be handled by the Kentucky Attorney General, a separate office of the state attorney.

Kentucky State Police continue to investigate the death of Letcher County District Judge Kevin Mullins, who was allegedly shot and killed Thursday afternoon by County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines.

Kentucky State Police are investigating after Stines allegedly shot Mullins in his chambers at the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg. Stines surrendered to law enforcement without incident after the shooting, officials said.

The Courier Journal will have a reporter and photographer in Letcher County today. Stay tuned for updates.

Letcher County Courthouse Shooting: Ky. judge shooting stuns Letcher County. Who is Sheriff Mickey Stines? Who is Kevin Mullins?

1:00 p.m.: Letcher County District Attorney withdraws from Stines case

Letcher County District Attorney Matt Butler posted a video on Facebook Friday morning announcing that his office has “removed itself from the investigation of Sheriff Mickey Stines in the death of Kevin Mullins” due to personal and professional ties to the two individuals.

Butler explained that he was related to Mullins by marriage but had to recuse himself from the case due to his professional ties to both Mullins and Stines, per Kentucky law.

Butler said a member of his staff was also in the courtroom at the time of the incident and will likely be a witness in the case. The case will be jointly prosecuted by the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office and Jackie Steele, the district attorney for Laurel and Knox counties.

“From the prosecutor’s point of view, this case is in the best of hands,” he said.

12:30: “I think all the lawyers in this case are stunned”

Attorney Bethany Baxter, who represents a woman who filed a federal lawsuit alleging that a former Letcher County sheriff’s deputy forced her to engage in sexual acts in exchange for favorable treatment, said she was as shocked as anyone else when she learned of the shooting.

“I was stunned,” the Lexington attorney told The Courier Journal on Friday. “I think all the lawyers in this case are stunned. I have no context about what happened yesterday, so like everyone else, I’m interested in seeing why it happened and learning more.”

Baxter was not in Whitesburg at the time of the shooting and said she did not know the motive, but confirmed that Stines was questioned in the ongoing trial Monday for more than four hours. Stines was named as a defendant in the case on allegations that he failed to properly train and supervise then-Deputy Ben Fields, who has pleaded guilty to state charges of third-degree rape, third-degree sodomy, tampering with an inmate monitoring device and second-degree perjury.

Fields spent several months in jail but was recently released, Baxter said. The federal lawsuit is still pending.

Baxter said Stines claimed he had no knowledge of the allegations in the case until after the 2022 lawsuit was filed during a recent deposition.

Stines served as Mullins’ courthouse bailiff before being elected sheriff in 2018. Fields replaced him in that position, and Baxter said the abuse against her client occurred in Mullins’ offices.

12:10: Kentucky Sheriffs’ Association calls incident ‘unbelievable tragedy’

Jerry Wagner, executive director of the Kentucky Sheriffs’ Association, told The Courier Journal on Friday that the courthouse shooting that killed Mullins is an “unbelievable tragedy.”

“You know, (sheriffs) work with our court system and our judges every day, every day, even on weekends. … That’s one of our primary responsibilities. And sheriffs are the primary law enforcement officers in the counties,” Wagner said. “That’s our responsibility, to protect the courts, to protect the judges. And I don’t know why this happened. I just know it’s an unbelievable tragedy.”

9:25: Officials release comments after shooting

Lawmakers and community leaders in Letcher County and across the state continue to respond following the deadly shooting that occurred Thursday at the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg.

In a Facebook post published Thursday, Letcher County Jail officials offered their condolences to both families affected by the shooting.

“Letcher County Jail would like to offer our prayers to the wives who don’t have their husbands tonight, our prayers for their children who don’t have their fathers tonight,” officials said. “We as a community need to be there for each other during this time. Please stop (and) just pray for all those involved and keep them all in your thoughts and prayers as we go through the days.”

Letcher County District Attorney Matt Butler also took to social media Thursday asking for prayers and kindness from the community.

“Our community has experienced an act of violence that apparently occurred between two men I worked with for 17 years and loved like brothers,” he wrote. “My oldest children have lost their beloved ‘Unkie,’ and the children are hurting and reading what you write. … This will be the hardest day of their lives for many, including my children, and I ask for your respect and love for these children.”

What charges does Mickey Stines face?

Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with a shooting that occurred Thursday at the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg, KSP officials said.

Who is Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines?

Stines, 43, is from Neon, Kentucky, and lives in McRoberts, an unincorporated community in Letcher County, according to his Facebook account. According to a 2007 article in The Mountain Eagle, Stines was previously a bailiff in the Letcher County Circuit Court before being elected sheriff in 2018.

In a 2022 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court accusing a Letcher County sheriff’s deputy of offering “favorable treatment in exchange for sexual favors,” Stines was named as a defendant “for allegedly failing to properly train” the deputy, the Courier Journal previously reported.

The lawsuit said abuse occurred in Mullins’ chambers, but it did not say whether he was aware of it or whether he claimed to have been involved in any wrongdoing. The lawsuit also alleged that Stines failed to “reasonably respond” to reports or suspicions.

As the Courier Journal previously reported, Stines fired the deputy for “inappropriate conduct.”

In 2019, Stines was vocal about a “meth epidemic” plaguing Letcher County after a group of five students were involved in a meth incident, according to a report in the Owensboro Messenger-Enquirer.

Stines was scheduled to file a bond Monday in connection with a 2022 lawsuit involving a former sheriff’s deputy and a woman who claimed she was promised “favorable treatment in exchange for sexual favors,” according to an electronically filed deposition notice.

Who is Judge Kevin Mullins?

Mullins was a district judge in the 47th Judicial District, which presides over Letcher County. He was appointed to the position in 2009 by former Gov. Steve Beshear, according to an archived article in The Mountain Eagle. He was elected to the position the following year, election records show.

Before becoming a judge, he served as an assistant district attorney in Letcher County since 2001.

He graduated from the University of Kentucky and then pursued graduate studies at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville.

Mullins has also been an advocate for programs that steer people with substance use disorders toward treatment rather than jail. He championed a program in Letcher County that allowed people with mental health issues to have their charges dropped in exchange for successfully completing a treatment program, The Mountain Eagle previously reported.

What happened in Letcher County Circuit Court in Whitesburg, Kentucky?

KSP spokesman Matt Gayheart said Hazard Precinct 13 received reports around 2:55 p.m. Thursday that shots had been fired at the Letcher County District Court building.

Multiple first responders responded to the scene and found Mullins, 54, of Jackhorn, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene by the Letcher County Coroner’s Office.

Investigators determined the shooting occurred after an argument between Stines and Mullins, Gayheart said. Stines was arrested a short time later without incident.

The Mountain Eagle, a local newspaper in Whitesburg, reported that Stines went into the judge’s outer office and told court employees he needed to speak with Mullins alone. The pair went into an inner office, closed the door and shots rang out shortly thereafter, according to the report. Stines then walked out of the room with his hands raised and surrendered to police.

This article originally appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky judge went live: Attorney General Coleman to try case