FRANKFORT, Kentucky (AP) — A judge in a rural Kentucky county was shot to death in his courthouse Thursday and the local sheriff has been charged with murder, police said.
The preliminary investigation indicates that Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines shot District Judge Kevin Mullins multiple times after an argument at the courthouse, according to Kentucky State Police. Mullins, who served as judge for 15 years, died at the scene, and Stines turned himself in without incident.
Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter said he was “shocked by this act of violence” and the court system was “shaken by this news.”
The Letcher County Magistrate Judge signed an order Friday closing the district courthouse in Whitesburg, 146 miles southeast of Lexington.
Mullins, 54, was hit multiple times in the shooting, Kentucky State Police said.
Stines, 43, was charged with first-degree murder.
The investigation is ongoing, police said.
It was unclear whether Stines had an attorney. Kentucky State Police on Thursday referred inquiries about Stines’ legal representation to a spokesman who did not immediately respond via email.
In response to the shooting, Governor Andy Beshear said in a social media post: “There is far too much violence in this world and I pray there is a path to a better future.”
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said his office would work with a prosecutor in the region as a special prosecutor in the criminal case.
“We will conduct a full investigation and seek justice,” Coleman said on social media.
The shooting occurred at the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg, an Appalachian town in southeastern Kentucky, 235 kilometers southeast of Lexington, Kentucky.
Mullins has served as a district judge in Letcher County since being appointed by former Governor Steve Beshear in 2009 and elected the following year.
Mullins was known for promoting substance abuse treatment for people involved with the justice system, helping hundreds of residents get residential treatment, according to a program for a drug summit he spoke at in 2022. He also helped develop a program called Addiction Recovery Care, which provides peer support services in the courthouse. The program has been implemented in at least 50 counties in Kentucky.
Mullins was also a founding member of the Responsive Effort to Support Treatment in Opioid Recovery Efforts leadership team.
Following the shooting, several schools in the area were temporarily locked down, including Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College and Letcher County Schools, media reports said.
