Experts suggest jury is unlikely to believe Kentucky sheriff's insanity defense in fatal shooting of judge
Former prosecutors claim the Kentucky sheriff who shot a local judge dead in his chambers last year faces an uphill battle with his insanity defense.
Letcher County Sheriff Shawn 'Mickey' Stines gunned down Judge Kevin Mullins inside the county courthouse on September 19.
Exactly why Stines killed his close friend soon after they had lunch together remains a mystery, with only vague explanations from his lawyers so far.
The shooting and the moments leading up to it were caught on film.
Stines' lawyers plan to present an insanity defense if the case goes to trial, claiming two weeks of intense stress drove him to murder.
Defense attorney Jeremy Bartley claimed Stines irrationally feared for the lives of his family after being questioned at a deposition for a sexual assault lawsuit.
The sheriff told officers seconds after the shooting, 'They're trying to kidnap my wife and kid,' and expressed fear he would be murdered on the way to jail.
But two former prosecutors believe a jury is unlikely to believe he was insane as he appeared to know right from wrong when he pulled the trigger.
Georgia legal expert Phil Holloway pointed to Kentucky State Police bodycam footage of Stines being arrested minutes after the shooting.
Stines was terrified of being transported to the Leslie County Jail, an hour's drive away, and begged to be locked up in the one next door instead.
'I leave this building, I won't draw another breath,' he told them while handcuffed, with his leg nervously shaking.
Stines said he was worried the transport would stop along the way, and someone else would get in the car and kill him.
Holloway said Stines' fear that he would be killed, however paranoid or delusional, showed he knew that murder was wrong.
'If they know right from wrong, they can still be convicted even if they have a mental health issue,' Holloway told Fox News.
'He knows that killing is wrong because he's asking the police to not kill him.'
Michael Wynne, a former prosecutor in Houston, said the CCTV footage of the moments leading up to the shooting was even more damning.
He said: 'The video shows he knows what he's doing is wrong. If you don't know what you're doing is wrong, you don't usher everybody else out of the room, and you don't go ahead and make sure the door is closed.
'Those are all things that show that he has an ability to make cognizant decisions.'
Wynne said Stines risked a harsher sentence by trying an insanity defense, as the judge and jury could 'punish' him for pursuing it.
Bartley issued a legal filing saying his client's state of mind at the time of the shooting would be key to his upcoming trial.
He said the case would hinge on testimony that Stines gave at a deposition for a lawsuit by Sabrina Adkins days before the September 2024 shooting.
Stines in that interview answered questions about one of his deputies allegedly sexually assaulting jail inmates.
An accuser in that case claimed that she was forced by a deputy sheriff to have sex in Mullins' chambers for six months in exchange for staying out of jail.
Bartley claimed Stines was concerned about backlash from his deposition testimony, which caused him to fear that his or his family's lives were in danger.
The attorney claimed Stines' 'mental health' was affected by the perceived threat.
He wrote: 'Ultimately, he was in fear for the safety of his wife and his daughter, and I think what you see there is the result of that.'
Footage from just before the shooting showed Stines express concern about his family, and call his daughter from the judge's phone.
Adkins accused Judge Mullins of inappropriate behavior, claiming she had witnessed him engaging in sexual acts with women in exchange for special treatment.
This lawsuit, filed in January 2022, claimed Mullins was involved in a sex-for-favors scheme within his chambers.
Adkins also alleged former deputy Ben Fields was involved and filmed illicit encounters, some of which reportedly involved Mullins.
Stines, a close friend of Mullins for about 30 years, was mentioned in the legal proceedings just three days before the shooting.
Bartley said: 'I think the deposition has several important roles in this case... it's going to be a large portion of the story we tell.'
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