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Video of Kentucky judge being shot to death shown at hearing for ex-sheriff charged in his murder
Video showing a Kentucky judge being gunned down in his chambers was played Tuesday during a court hearing for the ex-sheriff who is charged in the killing that stunned their Appalachian community.
The short video clip was presented by prosecutors during the preliminary hearing for Shawn “Mickey” Stines, the former sheriff of Letcher County who is accused of fatally shooting District Judge Kevin Mullins on Sept. 19. Stines allegedly entered Mullins chambers at the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg and opened fire, police say.
Mullins, 54, who held the judgeship for 15 years, died at the scene, and Stines, 43, surrendered without incident. Stines stepped down as sheriff Monday.
The video, with no audio, showed a man identified by police as Stines pulling out a gun and shooting the judge as he sat at his desk. The man walked around the desk, pointed the gun at the judge — who had fallen to the floor — and fired again, it showed. Some people in the courtroom gallery sobbed as the video was played, while Stines looked down.
Mullins died from multiple gunshot wounds, Kentucky State Police Detective Clayton Stamper testified Tuesday. Stines pleaded not guilty to murder last week and is being held in another Kentucky county.
Timothy D. Easley / AP
Stines allegedly killed Mullins after an argument, Kentucky State Police spokesperson Matt Gayheart said after the shooting. Police did not reveal the nature of the argument.
“We know that it was an argument between the two that led up, but what exactly transpired prior to the shots being fired, that’s still things that we’re trying to get answers to,” Gayheart said at the time. He told reporters following the judge’s death that the shooting was an isolated incident.
Police have given no motive for the shooting involving two prominent members of the county near the Virginia border, but Stines’ defense team delved into what occurred beforehand — first when Stines and Mullins met for lunch that day and then in the moments before the gunfire.
Stamper, the lead police investigator in the case, said he reviewed video that showed Mullins’ chambers right before the shooting — a segment not played at the hearing.
Asked to describe what he saw, Stamper replied: “Sheriff Stines uses his telephone to make some phone calls. He then borrows Judge Mullins’ cellphone and appears to make a call on that.”
Stamper said he was told Stines had tried to call his daughter on his phone and the judge’s phone. He said police confirmed Stines’ daughter’s phone number was on the judge’s phone.
As for Stines’ reaction when he looked at the judge’s cellphone, Stamper said Stines’ face wasn’t shown in the video. The judge’s phone was found later on his desk and Stines’ phone was with him when he was arrested, Stamper said.
Investigators have found nothing to indicate the shooting was planned, the detective testified.
“It occurred after a phone call was made,” Stamper said later. “I don’t know what was said.”
Asked if the shooting was the result of recent content found on the phone, Stamper replied: “It could be, but I don’t know that for a fact.”
Both phones are being downloaded at a police forensics lab, he said.
When asked if he was aware of any prior issues, personal or professional, between the ex-sheriff and the judge, Stamper said he “heard things” regarding a lawsuit involving the sheriff’s office.
Timothy D. Easley / AP
Stines had been deposed in a lawsuit filed by two women, one of whom alleged a deputy sheriff forced her to have sex inside Mullins’ chambers for six months in exchange for staying out of jail. The suit accuses the now-former sheriff of “deliberate indifference in failing to adequately train and supervise” the deputy.
The now-former deputy sheriff, Ben Fields, pleaded guilty to raping the female prisoner while she was on home incarceration. He was sentenced this year to six months in jail followed by six and half years on probation for rape, sodomy, perjury and tampering with a prisoner monitoring device, The Mountain Eagle reported. Three additional charges related to a second woman were dismissed because she is dead.
Stines fired Fields, his successor as Mullins’ bailiff, for “conduct unbecoming” after the lawsuit was filed in 2022, The Courier Journal reported at the time.
Other details about the events before and after the judge’s shooting death emerged during the hearing.
Police investigators found no weapon on Mullins or in his chambers, Stamper said.
On the day of the shooting, Mullins and Stines met for lunch with several other people at a restaurant near the courthouse in Whitesburg, the detective said.
“I was told that the judge made a statement to Mickey about, ‘Do we need to meet private in my chambers?'” Stamper said, adding that he didn’t know what it was about.
A handful of people were in a room next to Mullins’ chambers when the shots rang out. Stines was in custody by the time he arrived at the courthouse, Stamper said.
“He was mostly calm, I thought,” Stamper said. “I talked to him but he didn’t say nothing about why this had happened. But he was calm. … Basically all he said was ‘treat me fair.'”
Timothy D. Easley / AP
At the end of the hearing, Judge Rupert Wilhoit III determined probable cause exists to believe Stines committed the crime, allowing the case to go to a grand jury to decide whether to indict Stines.
Stines’ defense team said they left the hearing with more questions than answers and said they are conducting their own “parallel investigation” of the case.
If convicted of murder, Stines could serve 20 years to life in prison. Since he’s accused of killing a public official, he could potentially face the death penalty.
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Home equity borrowing has traditionally been one of the most cost-effective ways to access extra money. But, in recent years, it’s been one of the only ways to do so. With inflation surging and interest rates soaring in response, borrowing costs rose accordingly, sometimes in an exponential fashion as homebuyers saw with mortgage interest rates. Rates on home equity loans and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs), while not quite immune from this trend, tended to stay in the single digits. And they’re coming down again now that the Federal Reserve issued a rate cut in mid-September.
For those homeowners looking for a relatively modest sum of $25,000, then, it makes sense to start crunching these potential costs. Just note that some lenders will require a larger sum to approve your application. But even if you find a lender who will offer this loan amount, it doesn’t mean that you should act without doing the math first. To that end, below we’ll calculate exactly how much a $25,000 home equity loan will cost monthly now that interest rates have been reduced.
See how low of a home equity loan rate you could secure online now.
Here’s what a $25,000 home equity loan costs monthly now that rates were cut
The average home equity loan interest rate as of October 2 is 8.39%, but it’s a bit higher for two common repayment terms: 10-year and 15-year loans. Here’s what a $25,000 home equity loan would cost with the average rates tied to those repayment terms:
- 10-year fixed home equity loan at 8.50%: $309.96 per month
- 15-year fixed home equity loan at 8.41%: $244.87 per month
While these rates may not be quite as low as borrowers would prefer right now, it’s critical to compare the alternatives. And, unfortunately, they’re not very attractive right now.
HELOCs, for example, currently come in at almost half a percentage point higher (8.94%). Cash-out refinancing, meanwhile, would have you lose your existing, presumably lower mortgage rate in exchange for the extra money. Personal loan rates could also soon be declining but are still averaging close to 13% now, while credit card interest rates are right around a record 23%.
So, sure, calculate borrowing $25,000 with those alternatives. But, right now, a home equity loan is likely to be your cheapest option.
Learn more about your current home equity loan options here now.
The bottom line
A $25,000 home equity loan could cost borrowers between $245 and $310 per month right now, post-rate cut. But remember that home equity loan interest rates are fixed. If they fall after you’ve opened your loan, your rate will remain the same. So it’s important to weigh the potential for rate cuts against what can be locked in right now. And, if you think that rate cuts to come could be significant, it may be worth opening a HELOC instead. Rates on that product will adjust monthly on their own and it won’t require the refinancing (and refinancing costs) a home equity loan will.
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A doctor criminally charged in connection with the death of Matthew Perry pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal charge of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, which carries a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison.
Mark Chavez agreed to surrender his medical license after being charged in connection with the actor’s death in August, along with four other defendants including another doctor who federal prosecutors say conspired with him to deal an illegal, unethical and dangerous amount of ketamine to Perry in the last month of his life.
Chavez previously agreed to plead guilty. On Wednesday, he entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
KCAL News
The other people charged in Perry’s death include the L.A.-area physician accused of conspiring with Chavez, Salvador Plasencia, Jasveen Sangha — an alleged North Hollywood drug dealer who prosecutors have said is known as the “Ketamine Queen” — Perry’s former live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and Erik Fleming, a Hawthorne man federal authorities have described as a street dealer who acted as a middleman.
In a plea agreement, Chavez admitted to taking ketamine and other prescription drugs from a ketamine infusion clinic in San Diego where he used to work. He also confessed to falsifying a prescription to provide Perry with the drug; using a patient’s name to have the prescription filled without that person’s consent or knowledge and making false statements to a wholesale ketamine distributer so he could supply more of it to Perry.
Nine days before Perry died, on Oct. 19, 2023, Chavez was interviewed by investigators with the Medical Board of California and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, according to federal prosecutors. When he spoke with them, he concealed the fact that he had distributed ketamine to Plasencia who then allegedly provided the drug to Perry, prosecutors said.
KCAL News
The plea agreement states that Chavez is aware that the federal charge he is agreeing to plead guilty to, conspiracy to distribute ketamine, carries a maximum possible sentence of 10 years imprisonment, 3 years of supervised release and a fine of $500,000 — or twice the gross gain or gross loss due to offense depending on which is greater — as well as a mandatory assessment of $100.
On Aug. 30, Chavez appeared in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles but did not enter a plea at the time. He had previously agreed to plead guilty to his role in Perry’s death.
While he avoided questions from reporters as he entered the court in August, his attorney, Matthew Binninger, spoke outside the courthouse afterwards.
“He’s incredibly remorseful for what happened — not just because it happened to Matthew Perry but because it happened to a patient,” Binninger said. “He’s trying to do everything in his power to right the wrong that happened here.”
Just days before Chavez appeared in court, his physician’s license had been suspended and he was not permitted to practice, according to records from the Medical Board of California.
