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True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

The Sheriff, the Judge & the Courthouse Murder: What Really Happened in Letcher County?

True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

Tony Brueski

News, True Crime, News Commentary

4.2612 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In one of the most shocking criminal cases in recent memory, a sitting sheriff walked into a Kentucky courthouse and executed a judge in his own chambers. But this wasn’t a random act of violence — it was the detonation point of a system that had been rotting from the inside out.

On this episode of Hidden Killers with Tony Brueski, we dig into the case of Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines, now indicted for the murder of Judge Kevin Mullins inside the Letcher County Courthouse in 2024. Surveillance captured the whole thing. He walked in. He shut the door. He opened fire.

But this isn’t just about a single shooting. Three days earlier, Stines had been deposed in a federal civil rights case — Adkins v. Fields — alleging rampant sexual coercion, abuse of power, and misconduct inside that same courthouse. One official has already pleaded guilty to rape and sodomy. Others, including Judge Mullins, were named in the lawsuit. Some of the alleged misconduct? Took place inside Mullins’ chambers.

Now, Robin Dreeke, retired FBI Special Agent and former chief of the Bureau’s Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, joins us to break down the behavioral spiral that may have led a law enforcement officer to kill a judge — and what it reveals about power, silence, and systemic corruption.

We’ll examine post-arrest bodycam footage, explore how intimidation keeps victims quiet, and ask the hard question: Was this murder an act of madness — or of reckoning?

This case isn’t just about Kentucky. It’s about what happens when power protects itself, and justice becomes a commodity. Don’t miss this one.

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#HiddenKillers #TrueCrimePodcast #JudgeMurder #ShawnStines #KevinMullins #LetcherCounty #RobinDreeke #CourthouseScandal #AbuseOfPower #JusticeSystemFail

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Bruske, Stacey Cole, and Todd Michaels.

0:08.5

All right. Today we are stepping into one of the most extraordinary and troubling cases,

0:14.0

I think, that we've ever covered and we still don't know most of the details.

0:18.0

That's what makes it so damn elusive.

0:19.5

It's the case that isn't just about one act of violence, but about what confessor inside a justice system when

0:26.8

power goes unchecked. In September of 2024, inside the Lecter County Courthouse in

0:32.5

Whitesburg, Kentucky, Sheriff Sean Mickey Steins walked into the chambers of District Judge Kevin Mullins.

0:39.5

It opened fire. We all saw it on video. Judge Mullins died there in his own office. The entire

0:45.1

shooting captured on courthouse surveillance. Stein surrendered immediately. He's now

0:51.4

indicted for the murder of a public official and awaiting trial, but that single moment didn't happen in a vacuum.

0:59.0

Three days earlier, Steins had been deposed in a federal civil rights lawsuit, Atkins v. Fields.

1:06.0

That alleges a pattern of sexual exploitation and coercion tied to the very courthouse where the shooting occurred.

1:14.6

In that suit, a former home incarceration officer has already pled guilty for SA, sodomy, and tampering.

1:22.7

Plaintiffs allege some of the misconduct took place inside Judge Mullins' chambers.

1:28.3

Stein's was named in that lawsuit for alleged failures of supervision,

1:33.6

though not accused of any sort of SA wrongdoing himself.

1:38.6

After the shooting body cam footage shows Stein's distraught and paranoid, pleading not to be harmed,

1:43.7

his lawyers have filed

1:44.6

notice of an insanity or extreme emotional disturbance defense. Prosecutors are opposing bond

1:50.8

and have not ruled out seeking the death penalty. At the time, women are now stepping

1:56.7

forward publicly. Some on the record with journalists like Brian Enten describing how power, fear,

2:03.3

and retaliation kept them silent for years. They've alleged S for favors arrangements, threats

...

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