How Did Mickey Stines Go From Running the County Jail to Not Recognizing a Cell?

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.

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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.

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