Lawyer for Sheriff Who Killed Judge Says It Wasn’t Planned

• A lawyer for Shawn “Mickey” Stines, the Kentucky sheriff accused of killing District Judge Kevin Mullins, says the fatal shooting wasn’t planned
• Defense attorney Jeremy Bartley claimed the incident “occurred in the heat of passion,” and added, “For us, the highest level of culpability should be manslaughter based on the partial defense of extreme emotional disturbance”
• Stines served as the bailiff in Mullins’ court before he became sheriff in 2018

A lawyer for Shawn “Mickey” Stines, the Kentucky sheriff accused of killing a district judge, says the fatal shooting wasn’t planned.

“It was not something that was planned and occurred in the heat of passion,” defense attorney Jeremy Bartley tells PEOPLE. “For us, the highest level of culpability should be manslaughter based on the partial defense of extreme emotional disturbance.”

Letcher County Sheriff Stines, 43, is accused of killing 54-year-old District Judge Kevin Mullins in the judge’s chambers in the city of Whitesburg on Sept. 19.

A video of the shooting was played during a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 1. The short video clip, which did not include audio, The short video clip, which did not include audio, appeared to show Stines firing at the judge multiple times while the judge was sitting at his desk and then after when he fell to the floor.

“We believe there had to be a compelling reason for Sheriff Stines to feel like he had to take action,” Bartley says. “We are looking forward to obtaining additional information and begin to tell his story.”

The case has rocked the small community of Letcher County, Ky., where Stines and Mullins were longtime friends and colleagues. Stines served as the bailiff in Mullins’ court before he became sheriff in 2018, per the Louisville Courier Journal.

“We’re all in state of shock over it,” Mullins’ friend and former mayor of Jenkins Garnard Kincer Jr. tells PEOPLE. “It practically immobilized us. We just can’t believe it happened.”

Before the shooting, Kentucky State Police Detective Clayton Stamper testified during the preliminary hearing that the two men had eaten lunch earlier that day with a group of people, per the Courier Journal.

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“I was told that the judge made a statement to Mickey about, ‘Do we need to meet private in my chambers?’” Stamper testified, according to the Associated Press.

The shooting allegedly occurred after Stines attempted to call his daughter on his own phone and then on Mullins’ phone, Stamper said, per AP. 

“I was told that Sheriff Stines had tried to call his daughter, and he had tried to call his daughter from the judge’s phone also,” testified Stamper, per CNN.

Stamper said Stines’ daughter’s phone number was stored on Mullins’ phone, per AP.

When questioned if the killing happened because of what Stines might have seen on the phone, Stamper responded: “It could be, but I don’t know that for a fact,” the AP reported.

The two men had eaten lunch earlier that day with a handful of people, Stamper testified, per the Courier Journal.

Stamper said Stines didn’t divulge a motive behind the slaying.

“I talked to him, but he didn’t say nothing about why this had happened,” Stamper testified, per the AP. “But he was calm. … Basically, all he said was, ‘Treat me fair.’”

Stamper also mentioned that when Stines was taken into custody, “I was told by one of the other officers there that he made the comment, ‘They’re trying to kidnap my wife and kid,’” he alleged, according to CNN.

Stines, who has pleaded not guilty, resigned last week as sheriff.

At the end of the hearing, a judge determined there was enough evidence for the first-degree murder case to go to a grand jury, per CNN.