Chambers of Secrets: The Murder of Judge Kevin Mullins

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True Crime Today
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Delve into the intricate and unsettling case of Judge Kevin Mullins' murder in Letcher County, Kentucky—a story that intertwines justice, betrayal, and scandal. This podcast provides an in-depth investigation into the events of September 19, 2024, when Judge Mullins was fatally shot in his chambers, allegedly by Sheriff Shawn "Mickey" Stines, a longtime friend and colleague. We explore the complex relationship between Mullins and Stines, tracing their history from courtroom collaborators to the tragic confrontation. Through comprehensive analysis and exclusive interviews, we uncover the alleged sex-for-favors scandal within the courthouse, including claims that Judge Mullins' chambers were misused for illicit activities. The podcast also investigates the legal proceedings leading up to the incident, including a federal lawsuit involving a deputy under Sheriff Stines' command, and how these events may have influenced the fatal encounter. Join us as we navigate the murky waters of this case, seeking to understand the motives, implications, and the profound impact on the local community. This series offers a comprehensive exploration of a tragic event that has left a lasting mark on the justice system in Letcher County.

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  1. Jan 22

    HOW TO LISTEN to PREMIUM PLUS AD-FREE, ADVANCE Episodes!

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  2. Jun 18

    How Did Mickey Stines Go From Running the County Jail to Not Recognizing a Cell?

    Mickey Stines ran the Letcher County jail system for years. Four days after his arrest for allegedly shooting Judge Kevin Mullins, a social worker found he couldn’t recognize a cell. He was in an active state of psychosis. Unaware of his surroundings. No recollection of the recent past. He had to be pepper-sprayed during episodes of combativeness. That evaluation is central to the insanity defense Stines’ attorneys are building. New testimony from his aunt paints a picture of the days before the September 2024 shooting: seven nights without sleep, obsessive monitoring of his home security cameras, forty pounds lost in two weeks, and a FaceTime call minutes before the shooting where he asked for a grandmother who’d been dead for two and a half years. His doctor saw him the day before and sent him home with melatonin and Benadryl. His friends, his staff, and his family all agree something was catastrophically wrong. The prosecution is pushing back hard. Stines closed the door to the judge’s chambers before firing. He had lunch with Mullins the same day. And if the defense proves he was mentally ill enough for an insanity defense, the prosecution argues he’s too dangerous for bail. In this Mickey Stines case update: three major rulings are pending — bond, venue change, and whether prosecutors get their own mental health expert. The death penalty hearing still needs to be scheduled. No trial date set. END LINKSJoin Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod DISCLAIMERThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. HASHTAGS#MickeyStines #KevinMullins #StinesTrial #LetcherCounty #CourthouseShooting #KentuckyCrime #InsanityDefense #MentalHealthDefense #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast

    How Did Mickey Stines Go From Running the County Jail to Not Recognizing a Cell?

  3. Feb 18

    Mickey Stines Case: What Happens When a Sheriff Breaks Down

    The Mickey Stines case raises hard questions about mental health in law enforcement — and what happens when warning signs get ignored by everyone who sees them. Before former Letcher County Sheriff Stines shot and killed Judge Kevin Mullins in September 2024, multiple people in the courthouse saw him deteriorating. According to court documents, staff watched him lose forty pounds in two weeks. He stopped sleeping. He expressed paranoid beliefs that his family was going to be murdered. He made phone calls to dead relatives. One employee told Kentucky State Police she believed he was "in a psychosis." A local attorney warned the judge directly that Stines was "losing it." The police chief reportedly said he'd "lost his mind." An attorney was so alarmed he contacted the Kentucky Bar Association to figure out what he could do. The day before the shooting, friends brought Stines to his doctor. According to medical records cited in court filings, Stines denied psychosis or homicidal thoughts. He was diagnosed with acute stress and sent home. Twenty-four hours later, he walked into the judge's chambers and opened fire. This case forces hard questions: what systems exist to intervene when a law enforcement officer is visibly breaking down? Who has the authority to act? In Letcher County, the answer appears to have been no one. Stines' defense is pursuing insanity, claiming psychosis and lack of capacity. Whether that succeeds is up to the courts. But the institutional failure deserves examination regardless. #MickeyStines #LawEnforcementMentalHealth #KevinMullins #SheriffShooting #LetcherCounty #CourthouseShooting #MentalHealthCrisis #PoliceAccountability #InstitutionalFailure #TrueCrime Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872 This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

    Mickey Stines Case: What Happens When a Sheriff Breaks Down

  4. Feb 13

    Mickey Stines' Defense Just Played Their Biggest Card — Does the Evidence Support It?

    A former sheriff caught on video shooting a sitting judge is now asking the court to rule that he's too mentally ill to face the death penalty. Shawn "Mickey" Stines' attorneys filed a motion Monday under Kentucky's 2022 mental illness exemption statute, requesting a hearing to determine whether their client has a serious intellectual disability or serious mental illness. The filing offers no named diagnosis and no attached medical documentation. This episode focuses on the legal mechanics — what Kentucky's HB 269 actually requires, how the only previous case under this statute played out, and where the evidence lands for and against Stines' claim. We walk through the four qualifying diagnoses the law recognizes, the documentation and symptom requirements, and the 120-day filing and 90-day ruling timelines the defense is now working against. On one side: witness accounts of a sheriff spiraling into paranoia, a jail intake describing active psychosis, and staff members who told state police they believed he had lost touch with reality. On the other: surveillance footage prosecutors say shows deliberate actions, a doctor's visit where Stines denied any mental health symptoms hours before the shooting, no public record of a qualifying pre-existing diagnosis, and a sealed psychiatric evaluation the defense hasn't been able to leverage. We also look at the broader strategic picture — with no trial date set, a judge recusal motion pending, and Kentucky's death penalty functionally dormant since 2008, what this filing may really be designed to accomplish. #MickeyStines #SheriffStines #JudgeMullins #LetcherCounty #KentuckyLaw #DeathPenaltyExemption #MentalIllnessDefense #HB269 #CourthouseShooting #LawEnforcement Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872 This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

    Mickey Stines' Defense Just Played Their Biggest Card — Does the Evidence Support It?

  5. Jan 13

    FBI's Robin Dreeke: Judge Kevin Mullins Got a Warning About Mickey Stines — He Did Nothing

    A lawyer told Judge Kevin Mullins directly that Sheriff Mickey Stines was falling apart. Said he couldn't take the pressure. Said he needed a mental health evaluation. Mullins had worked with Stines for years — Stines was his bailiff before becoming sheriff. They had lunch together the day of the shooting. Hours later, Mullins was dead in his own chambers. Both men were tied to a lawsuit alleging sexual exploitation by Stines' deputies — misconduct that allegedly occurred in Mullins' chambers. Stines gave a deposition in that case days before the killing. It was described as tense. Fifteen months later, still no official motive from prosecutors. Former FBI Behavioral Analysis Program Chief Robin Dreeke spent decades studying how trust becomes a vulnerability. How people dismiss threats from familiar faces. How secrets between powerful people become leverage. And what happens when someone who belongs somewhere — someone with a badge, a title, years of institutional trust — becomes the threat nobody sees coming. Today he breaks down what went wrong in Letcher County. The warning signs that were visible. The pressure dynamics that may have driven Stines to the breaking point. And why institutions keep failing to act when the danger comes from one of their own. #MickeyStines #KevinMullins #RobinDreeke #FBI #SheriffStines #CourthouseShooting #LetherCounty #TrueCrime #BehavioralAnalysis #LawEnforcement Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISDOES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872 This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

    FBI's Robin Dreeke: Judge Kevin Mullins Got a Warning About Mickey Stines — He Did Nothing

  6. Jan 12

    FBI's Robin Dreeke: When a Sheriff and a Judge Are Tied to the Same Scandal — And One Ends Up Dead

    Before Mickey Stines killed Kevin Mullins, both men were connected to a lawsuit alleging sexual exploitation by Stines' deputies — misconduct that allegedly occurred in Mullins' chambers. Stines gave a deposition in that case days before the shooting. It was described as "tense." Robin Dreeke spent over twenty years at the FBI studying how entanglement between powerful people becomes dangerous. How secrets function as leverage. What happens when exposure threatens someone who's already on the edge. This conversation examines the pressure dynamics behind the Stines killing — and asks a question nobody in an official capacity has answered: why hasn't the prosecution told us what drove this? #MickeyStines #SheriffStines #JudgeKevinMullins #RobinDreeke #FBI #LawEnforcement #Leverage #CriminalJustice Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISDOES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

    FBI's Robin Dreeke: When a Sheriff and a Judge Are Tied to the Same Scandal — And One Ends Up Dead

  7. Jan 12

    FBI's Robin Dreeke: How Sheriff Mickey Stines Walked Into a Courthouse and Killed a Judge Unchallenged

    He had a badge. He had access. He had years of history with the man he killed. Nobody stopped Mickey Stines because nobody thought they needed to. Retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke — former head of the Bureau's Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program — breaks down what this case should teach every courthouse and law enforcement agency in America. When the threat comes from someone with legitimate authority, how do you see it? When a colleague is deteriorating, what triggers action? And why do the people closest to danger so often fail to recognize it? #MickeyStines #SheriffStines #JudgeKevinMullins #RobinDreeke #FBI #LawEnforcement #CourthouseSecurity #CriminalJustice Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISDOES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

    FBI's Robin Dreeke: How Sheriff Mickey Stines Walked Into a Courthouse and Killed a Judge Unchallenged

  8. Jan 11

    Mickey Stines Week In Review: Judge Recusal Motion, FBI Analysis, and the System That Couldn't Stop Him

    Everything we covered this week on the Mickey Stines case — the recusal motion that's frozen proceedings and the systemic failures that allowed a sheriff in crisis to keep his gun. The defense filed a motion to recuse Special Judge Christopher Cohron after discovering video footage showing him seated inches from Judge Kevin Mullins at a Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health meeting just seven days before Mullins was shot to death in his chambers. Cohron never disclosed this connection. Defense attorneys Jeremy and Kerri Bartley argue that in a case where Stines' mental state is the entire defense, this creates an appearance of bias. They point to Cohron blocking psychiatric evaluation from the bond hearing as evidence. Everything is frozen while we wait to see if Cohron steps aside or forces escalation to the Kentucky Supreme Court. We also examined what court filings reveal about the days before the shooting. Mickey Stines spiraled publicly. He called dead relatives on his phone. Lost weight rapidly. Stopped sleeping. Displayed paranoia. His staff pushed him to see a doctor. The diagnosis was acute stress reaction. They sent him home — with his badge, his gun, and his authority untouched. Twenty-four hours later, Judge Mullins was shot nine times in his own chambers. Former FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer exposed the structural failures. Kentucky has no red flag law. An elected sheriff cannot be suspended by subordinates. There was no mechanism to disarm him. The civil lawsuit accuses sheriff's employees of failing to warn Mullins. Their defense: Kentucky law imposed no duty to act. Stines has been held without bond for over fifteen months. No trial date. Prosecutors haven't announced whether they'll seek the death penalty. Civil lawsuits proceed while the murder case sits in limbo. #MickeyStines #JudgeKevinMullins #ChristopherCohron #JenniferCoffindaffer #FBI #LetcherCounty #KentuckySheriff #JudgeRecusal #MentalHealthCrisis #WeekInReview Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISDOES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

    Mickey Stines Week In Review: Judge Recusal Motion, FBI Analysis, and the System That Couldn't Stop Him
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Delve into the intricate and unsettling case of Judge Kevin Mullins' murder in Letcher County, Kentucky—a story that intertwines justice, betrayal, and scandal. This podcast provides an in-depth investigation into the events of September 19, 2024, when Judge Mullins was fatally shot in his chambers, allegedly by Sheriff Shawn "Mickey" Stines, a longtime friend and colleague. We explore the complex relationship between Mullins and Stines, tracing their history from courtroom collaborators to the tragic confrontation. Through comprehensive analysis and exclusive interviews, we uncover the alleged sex-for-favors scandal within the courthouse, including claims that Judge Mullins' chambers were misused for illicit activities. The podcast also investigates the legal proceedings leading up to the incident, including a federal lawsuit involving a deputy under Sheriff Stines' command, and how these events may have influenced the fatal encounter. Join us as we navigate the murky waters of this case, seeking to understand the motives, implications, and the profound impact on the local community. This series offers a comprehensive exploration of a tragic event that has left a lasting mark on the justice system in Letcher County.

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