Eighth Circuit Court Judge Chris Cohron has been appointed special judge to preside over the murder case against former Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines.
Cohron, who hears cases in the circuit covering Warren and Edmonson counties, was named the judge in Stines’ case by Kentucky Chief Justice Laurance Vanmeter. Cohron was elected as a circuit judge in 2022 after spending 20 years as a commonwealth’s attorney.
Boyle County Circuit Clerk Cortney Shewmaker has also been appointed circuit clerk for Stines’ case. Stines, 43, was charged in connection with the shooting of District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, on Sept. 19 in Mullins’ chambers in the Letcher County Courthouse. Stines retired from his position shortly after his arrest and a grand jury indicted him.
The former sheriff entered a not guilty plea at his arraignment last month, and was ordered held without bail. According to published reports, Stines tried calling his daughter on Mullins’ phone and then his own phone just before the shooting. A detective testified at a preliminary hearing that Stines and Mullins met for lunch with other people at a restaurant near the courthouse on the day of the shooting, according to reports.
Video footage of the shooting was played at the hearing, in which a man identified by police as Stines pulls out a gun and shoots the judge as he sat at his desk. Mullins died from multiple gunshot wounds. No motive has been given for the shooting, but Stines’ attorney argued at the preliminary hearing that the former sheriff was experiencing extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the incident, according to reports.
By Tom Latek, Kentucky Today
