The wife of a Kentucky sheriff accused of murdering a local judge has poured water on one of the most sordid rumors related to the case that is roiling their small town, court documents show.
Last year, former Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines was accused of murdering his close friend, District Judge Kevin Mullins. Surveillance camera video released by local police shows Stines shooting Mullins, 54, eight times in his own chambers after an intense confrontation on the afternoon of September 19.
Residents of Whitesburg, the small Eastern Kentucky town where the murder took place, speculated that Stines, 44, could have been motivated to kill Mullins because the judge was engaged in an illicit relationship with Stines’ teenage daughter.
The video of the shooting showed that Stines used Mullins’ phone to call someone shortly before he unloaded on the judge. That fact, combined with a state police detective’s testimony that Mullins’ phone had Stines’ daughter’s phone number in it, fueled the unseemly allegations against Mullins.
However, grand jury transcripts obtained by the Lexington Herald-Leader show that Stines’ wife, Caroline, and his daughter both denied that any relationship existed between either of them and the slain judge.
Per the transcripts, a state police detective told the grand jury that Caroline Stines and her daughter denied any contact via phone, text, or social media with Mullins.
That detective, Cole Stamper, also clarified his testimony from a previous hearing in which he said that Stines’ daughter’s number appeared on Mullins’ phone. He told the grand jury that Stines used Mullins’ phone to call his daughter moments before the fatal shooting
