KY Sheriff Shoots/Kills A Judge

[Ben E Lou]

Throwing this one in its own thread. I suspect it doesn't really fit into any of y'all's mega-threads....and if rumors from the locals are remotely true, it sounds like it's going to end up being, uh, interesting. (LOTS of unsubstantiated chatter that the judge was sleeping with the Sheriff's wife and/or 17yo daughter, for example.) It's a very small town (1700 people) and I'm wondering if "he needed killin'" is going to be the essence of his defense. From one article...

The sheriff allegedly walked into the judge's outer office, told court employees and others gathered there he needed to speak to Mullins alone.
He and Mullins then entered the judge's inner office, closed the door and those outside heard gunshots, according to The Mountain Eagle.
Stines then walked out with his hands raised and surrendered to officers, who placed him in handcuffs. He was charged with one count of first-degree murder.

[cartman]

judge was shot by the sheriff
but was not shot by the deputy

[GrantDawg]

This one has lots of angles. I had read that deputies were caught sexually assulting women in the judges' chambers. The sheriff was supposed to be giving testimony about what he knew next week.

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[flere-imsaho]

Prime Video has already optioned the story.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

This one has lots of angles. I had read that deputies were caught sexually assulting women in the judges' chambers. The sheriff was supposed to be giving testimony about what he knew next week.

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Yup, and apparently the two had worked in close proximity for a long time. He'd been Sheriff since 2018, and prior to that as a deputy, he regularly worked as a bailiff in that judge's courtroom.

[HerRealName]

I've been to Whitesburg a couple times. That whole area is incredibly remote. Not a lot of branches on the family trees.

I have an ancestor that was granted land North of there after serving in the Revolutionary War.

[Ksyrup]

I was flying home when this broke on a lawyer subreddit yesterday. I actually alerted family back in KY about it, and sure enough, if became big news.

Surprised the guy decided to give himself up rather than kill himself. LE voluntarily going to jail doesn't sound like a good end-of-life situation. But I suppose this is like one of those "honor killing" situations where he did what he felt he had to do, and whatever the consequences, so be it.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I was flying home when this broke on a lawyer subreddit yesterday. I actually alerted family back in KY about it, and sure enough, if became big news.

Surprised the guy decided to give himself up rather than kill himself. LE voluntarily going to jail doesn't sound like a good end-of-life situation. But I suppose this is like one of those "honor killing" situations where he did what he felt he had to do, and whatever the consequences, so be it.

The Sheriff's family's pastor has come out on behalf of the mom and daughter and said that this story is false. That they expressed that mental illness is a problem that everyone should be concerned with.

[Ksyrup]

I saw that. Mental illness might have been an issue as well, but it seems the most obvious connection is to a lawsuit against the sheriff in which it was alleged that one of his deputies sexually assaulted at least one female inmate and he might have used the judge's chamber for the acts, and the sherriff was upset about that (even though the judge likely had no knowledge of it).