WHITESBURG, Ky. (LEX 18) — Former Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines was back in the Letcher County Courthouse, where he pleaded not guilty to murdering District Judge Kevin Mullins more than two months ago in the very same building.
Stines remains in jail after Judge Julia Adams declined to set bond for the former sheriff during an arraignment lasting about five minutes Monday.
"He's charged with a capital crime which in the commonwealth of Kentucky he's not entitled to bond under our Kentucky constitution and rules, so he does not have a bond at this point in time," Commonwealth Attorney Jackie Steele said.
Appointed as a special prosecutor working with Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman's office, Steele couldn't comment on a motive behind the shooting.
On the other side, Jeremy Bartley is representing Stines.
Indicted by a grand jury last week, Stines faces one count of murder of a public official. Steele had this update on the judge in the case.
"We suspect we'll have a judge here going forward in the next day or two and we'll know who that is," Steele noted.
Steele said prosecutors don't know at this point whether they will seek the death penalty in this case. As far as Letcher County, this is the county where Bartley wants the case to be tried.
"We believe we're standing a few feet from where this case should be tried right here amongst Mickey Stines' peers," Bartley added.
In court today, there were friends and family of Stines on one side and friends and family of Mullins on the other, much like the preliminary hearing in October held in Morgan County.
At that hearing, Steele played a silent video that appeared to show Stines walking into Mullins' chambers and firing multiple times at Mullins.
Although Bartley hasn't seen the rest of that video, he had this argument:
"We do understand a lot more clearly than we did at the preliminary hearing and we think that Mr. Stines has a very compelling defense," Bartley said.
Bartley adds that this is a complex case, asking the community to withhold judgment and let the story play out in the courtroom.
