Sex, Murder, and Small Town Politics: What's Going On In Letcher

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Nestled in the heart of Central Appalachia, Letcher County is one of the most remote places in Kentucky. In its earliest days, the families that settled the area made their living through timber logging, but by the early 20th century, it became a hub for coal mining. Today, this small community is home to just over 20,000 residents. And while its poverty rate nearly triples the United States average, it’s a tight-knit place where family and community are everything — the type of place where everyone knows everyone else. NPR described it as having a “culture of looking after one another when floods and other hardships arrive,” and there’s a banner inside the county public library that reads “These people are my family, these mountains are my home.”

What happened on Sept. 19, 2024, not only shook things up in Letcher County, but it also potentially exposed something much more sinister. That Thursday afternoon, District Judge Kevin Mullins and County Sheriff Shawn Stines had what looked like a normal lunch together at a sports bar in the county seat of Whitesburg before meeting up at the county courthouse a few hours later. While in the judge’s chambers, the two men allegedly had an argument before Stines pulled his gun and shot Mullins several times. The incident was caught on a security camera.

A local attorney who witnessed the aftermath of the alleged murder told NPR that he saw police show up in tactical gear and enter the courthouse, apparently looking for an active shooter, while the sheriff who was the actual shooter stood outside and watched. He found it odd that Stines, who was the head of the county’s law enforcement, didn’t involve himself. He was arrested moments later. While it’s still unclear — at least to the public — what the sheriff’s motive was for killing a man he worked with regularly, some pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together, and most of them are pretty disturbing.

“They are trying to kidnap my wife and kid,” Stines reportedly said as he was taken into custody. While it’s hard to say what he meant by that, the sheriff was obviously involved in some sort of domestic situation.

According to a NewsNation producer who visited the county and spoke to many people in the community, Stines was kicked out of his home the night before after a “dispute” with his wife, which is why he was dressed in street clothing and not his police uniform. While at lunch that day, he wanted to talk to Mullins about a particular topic, but the judge reportedly told him they should talk about it privately later, which is what likely led to the meeting in the judge’s chambers.

NewsNation also reports that Stines tried to visit his daughter earlier that day, but she refused to see him. He tried to call her from his phone while inside the judge’s chambers, but she wouldn’t answer. He then tried calling her from the judge’s phone, and that time, she did answer.

But here’s where things really get wild: A female witness told local police that the judge and other local authorities were involved in some sort of sordid sex scandal that allowed female inmates to exchange sex for various favors, such as getting out of jail. “It’s like they were running a brothel out of that courtroom,” that witness’s attorney told NewsNation.

The woman, a former inmate in the Letcher County jail, told police that she’d seen videos of Mullins and “other higher ups” having sex with women in his chambers. How did the woman know about all of this? She herself was having sex with a deputy sheriff, Ben Fields, in the judge’s chambers in exchange for favors. In her case, she was on house arrest and was unable to afford an ankle monitor but didn’t want to return to jail. That particular incident took place a few years ago, and Fields pled guilty to using his position to extort sex from women among other charges.

While it’s not clear whether Stines was involved in the sex scandal, two of the women had filed a lawsuit accusing the sheriff of “deliberate indifference in failing to adequately train and supervise” Fields. Stines is currently held in the Leslie County Jail in Kentucky, and he’s pled “not guilty” to murder. His attorney, Jeremy Bartley, told People magazine in October that “It was not something that was planned and occurred in the heat of passion.”