Advertise on podcast: Chambers of Secrets: The Murder of Judge Kevin Mullins

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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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Former sheriff Mickey Stines shot and killed District Judge Kevin Mullins in his own chambers. It was caught on video. But now the defense has uncovered something that could derail the entire case — and attorney Eric Faddis is here to break it down. Video footage shows Special Judge Christopher Cohron, who was assigned to preside over the Stines trial, seated directly next to Judge Mullins at a Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health meeting. That meeting happened seven days before Mullins was killed. Cohron never disclosed this relationship to either side. Now the defense has filed a recusal motion arguing that in a case where mental illness is literally the entire defense, having a judge who worked alongside the victim on mental health issues creates an appearance of bias that cannot be ignored. Cohron has already denied the defense's motion to unseal Stines' psychiatric evaluation. He blocked them from using it at the bond hearing, saying "a bail hearing is not a trial rehearsal." The defense is connecting those rulings to that video. Eric explains what the legal standard for recusal actually requires, why the non-disclosure matters, and what happens if the Chief Justice of Kentucky has to step in. We also cover the Nick Reiner case, where celebrity attorney Alan Jackson just withdrew and left a public defender holding a capital murder case with thirty seconds' notice. Two insanity defenses. Two courtrooms in chaos. Eric Faddis explains what's really happening. #MickeyStines #JudgeRecusal #ChristopherCohron #KevinMullins #NickReiner #InsanityDefense #EricFaddis #KentuckyLaw #TrueCrime #SheriffMurder This video is for commentary and entertainment purposes only. All accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. 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

A former sheriff accused of killing a sitting judge. A special judge assigned to preside over the case. And now, a video that ties them together in a way nobody expected. Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis joins us to analyze the recusal motion filed by Mickey Stines' defense team. According to court documents, Special Judge Christopher Cohron appeared in footage from a Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health meeting — seated inches from District Judge Kevin Mullins — just seven days before Mullins was shot to death in his Letcher County chambers. The defense claims Cohron never disclosed this connection and is now arguing his impartiality cannot be trusted. This case already involves a sealed psychiatric evaluation, an insanity defense, a venue fight, and a defendant who's been held without bond for over fifteen months. The recusal motion adds another layer — one that asks a fundamental question: In a case where the victim was a judge and the defense is built entirely around mental health, can the presiding judge's undisclosed attendance at a mental health meeting with the victim be overlooked? Eric Faddis breaks down the legal standard under Kentucky law, what happens if Cohron refuses to step aside, and how this fight could reach the Chief Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court. We also discuss the broader implications for judicial impartiality and what this case reveals about the challenges of trying a case where everyone in the system already knows each other. #MickeyStines #SheriffStines #JudgeKevinMullins #JudgeCohron #EricFaddis #JudicialRecusal #KentuckySheriff #LawEnforcement #CriminalJustice #CourthouseShooting 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

Former Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines is fighting to remove the judge overseeing his murder trial — and the reason involves a video that was never supposed to surface. According to a defense motion filed December 29th, Special Judge Christopher Cohron appeared in footage from a Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health meeting held September 12th, 2024. In that video, the defense claims, Cohron sat inches from District Judge Kevin Mullins for roughly two hours. Mullins' widow was also in attendance. Seven days later, Mullins was dead — shot by Stines in his courthouse chambers. The defense argues Cohron never disclosed this to the parties, creating what they call "an appearance of impropriety." In a case where Stines' entire defense rests on his mental state — insanity, extreme emotional disturbance, documented psychosis — having a judge with an undisclosed personal connection to the victim raises serious questions about impartiality. Cohron has already ruled against the defense on several key motions. He denied their attempt to unseal Stines' psychiatric evaluation. He blocked them from introducing that evaluation at the upcoming bond hearing. The defense is now connecting those decisions to what they discovered in the video. Under Kentucky law, judges must recuse themselves when their impartiality might reasonably be questioned. The Bartleys are betting this video clears that bar. If Cohron disagrees, they can escalate to the Chief Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court. Stines has been jailed for fifteen months. No bond. No trial date. And now, no clarity on who will even judge this case. #MickeyStines #SheriffStines #JudgeKevinMullins #KentuckySheriff #LawEnforcement #JudgeRecusal #LetherCounty #CourthouseShooting #CriminalJustice #TrueCrime 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

On September 19th, 2024, the justice system in Whitesburg, Kentucky ruptured in the most shocking way imaginable: Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines walked into Judge Kevin Mullins’ chambers and opened fire, killing his longtime friend — just minutes after they’d shared lunch. The entire murder was captured on courthouse surveillance, leaving the community stunned and searching for answers.In this gripping episode of Hidden Killers, Tony Brueski is joined by psychotherapist and author Shavaun Scott to examine the psychological unraveling behind a sheriff killing a judge on camera. Was this an act of madness? A collapse under pressure? Or something far more calculated?Just three days before the shooting, Stines had been deposed in a civil case involving allegations of corruption and misconduct inside his own office. Investigators are now asking whether mounting legal pressure pushed him toward a breaking point, or whether he believed silencing Mullins would somehow change his fate.Bodycam footage captured immediately afterward shows Stines muttering paranoid claims like “you’re going to kill me,” even as he surrendered without resistance. Was this genuine psychosis, trauma, or an attempt to set the stage for an insanity defense?In the second half, Tony, Stacy Cole, Todd Michaels, and attorney Eric Faddis break down newly released grand jury transcripts revealing that key evidence — including a mental-health diagnosis the day before the shooting — was never presented to jurors. Intake records describing Stines as “actively psychotic,” footage showing visible paranoia, and behind-the-scenes prosecutorial decisions all raise a critical question: was justice compromised before the trial even began?This is the story of a sheriff’s psychological collapse — and the cracks in a justice system now forced to confront its own failures.#MickeyStines #JudgeMullins #HiddenKillers #TonyBrueski #CourthouseMurder #TrueCrimePodcast #MentalHealthDefense #GrandJury #EricFaddis #PsychologicalAnalysisWant to comment and watch this podcast as a video?Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspodInstagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpodListen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

Two cases. Two different outcomes. One shared question the system still can’t answer.In California, police say they moved quickly after Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were found stabbed to death — confident they had enough evidence to arrest their son, Nick Reiner, within hours. The legal fight now centers on schizophrenia, medication changes, and whether mental illness excuses violence.In Kentucky, the opposite happened. Everyone saw Mickey Stines unravel — law enforcement, attorneys, medical professionals. But because he was an elected sheriff, no one had the legal authority to stop him. No red flag law. No suspension power. No override. Judge Kevin Mullins paid the price.In this full episode, retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer connects the dots between these cases and exposes the dangerous gaps in how the system handles mental illness when violence intersects with power, family, and authority.We explore how investigations unfold, how insanity defenses are built and challenged, and why prevention often fails not because people didn’t care — but because the law gave them no tools to act.These aren’t isolated tragedies. They’re warnings.And until the system changes, they won’t be the last.#TrueCrime #JenniferCoffindaffer #HiddenKillers #MentalHealthAndCrime #SystemFailure #NickReiner #MickeyStines #FBIAnalysis #TrueCrimeNewsWant to comment and watch this podcast as a video?Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspodInstagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpodListen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

The prosecution wants to move this trial. Not the defense—the prosecution. The Commonwealth of Kentucky is asking the court to relocate the murder trial of former Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines, who shot and killed District Judge Kevin Mullins inside his chambers on September 19, 2024. The entire shooting was captured on security footage. There's no question about what happened. The question is why—and whether Stines was mentally capable of forming intent when he pulled the trigger.Court documents reveal a man in freefall. The day before the shooting, Stines was diagnosed with acute stress reaction. Witnesses told investigators he was "losing it," that his anxiety was "completely off the charts," that they believed he was in psychosis. He'd lost forty pounds in two weeks. He told coworkers "they" were going to kill his wife and daughter—but never said who "they" were. Four days after the shooting, a jail social worker found him still in active psychosis, unaware of his surroundings, requiring antipsychotic medication and pepper spray to control.The shooting came just three days after Stines was deposed in a federal lawsuit alleging his deputy coerced women into sex inside Mullins's chambers. That lawsuit also named Stines for failing to supervise. Multiple women have made allegations about what happened in that office—allegations that have never been proven and that Mullins, now dead, cannot answer.Prosecutors say they can't try this case in Letcher County. The crime scene is the courthouse. Both men were elected officials everyone voted for. The defense says keep it local—national coverage means nowhere is untouched. Meanwhile, Stines faces the death penalty, and his lawyers are building an insanity defense around a paper trail of warnings nobody acted on.#MickeyStines #Letcher County #TrueCrime #KevinMullins #KentuckySheriff #CourthouseShooting #InsanityDefense #TrueCrimeNews #MurderTrial #CriminalJusticeWant to comment and watch this podcast as a video?Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspodInstagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpodListen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

Court filings in the Mickey Stines case reveal a chilling reality: everyone saw the breakdown coming — and no one had the power to stop it.An elected Kentucky sheriff spiraled publicly. He called dead relatives on his phone. Lost weight rapidly. Stopped sleeping. Displayed paranoia. His own staff pushed him to see a doctor. The diagnosis? Acute stress reaction. The response? Send him home — with his badge, his gun, and his authority untouched.Twenty-four hours later, Judge Kevin Mullins was shot nine times in his own chambers.In this deep-dive, retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer exposes the structural failures that allowed this to happen. Kentucky has no red flag law. An elected sheriff cannot be suspended by subordinates. There was no mechanism to disarm him — even as multiple people recognized he was in crisis.We examine the civil lawsuit accusing sheriff’s office employees of failing to warn Judge Mullins, and their defense that Kentucky law imposed no duty to act. Is that legally sound? Is it morally defensible?This isn’t just a tragedy — it’s a systems failure. One that raises terrifying questions about authority, mental health, and what happens when the person in crisis sits at the very top of the chain of command.#MickeyStines #JudgeMullins #JenniferCoffindaffer #TrueCrime #SystemicFailure #MentalHealthCrisis #HiddenKillers #FBIAnalysis #KentuckyCaseWant to comment and watch this podcast as a video?Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspodInstagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpodListen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872