Defense attorneys’ strategy of using an insanity plea for former Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines is unlikely to succeed, according to two former prosecutors.
Stines faces accusations of fatally shooting District Judge Kevin Mullins inside the judge’s chambers at the Letcher County Courthouse on September 19, 2024, with the incident recorded on surveillance footage.
“In most states, like Kentucky, the insanity defense and other mental health defenses seldom prevail because if the accused knew the difference between right and wrong when the crime was committed, then mental health issues are deemed secondary,” explained Phil Holloway, a former prosecutor and legal analyst in Georgia, to Fox News Digital. “Even with a mental health condition, if they understand right from wrong, they can still face conviction.”
Defense attorney Jeremy Bartley asked questions of KSP Detective Clayton Stamper at Shawn “Mickey” Stines preliminary hearing at Morgan County District Court. Oct. 1, 2024. (Scott Utterback/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Bartley declined to comment for this story but previously told Fox News Digital, “I think one of the big things is that my client felt there had been pressure placed on him not to say too much during the deposition, and not to talk about things that happened within the courthouse, particularly in the judge’s chambers.”
Bartley said that threats against Stines’ family caused the paranoia to reach a fever pitch.
“On the day that this [shooting] happened, my client had attempted multiple times to contact his wife and daughter, and he firmly believed that they were in danger,” Bartley said. “He believed that they were in danger because of what he knew to have happened within the courthouse. And there was pressure, and there were threats made to him to sort of keep him in line, to keep them from saying more than these folks wanted him to say.”
