{"id":107330,"date":"2024-09-25T18:03:31","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T18:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/kentucky-sheriff-accused-of-shooting-judge-pleads-not-guilty-could-face-death-penalty\/"},"modified":"2024-09-25T18:03:31","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T18:03:31","slug":"kentucky-sheriff-accused-of-shooting-judge-pleads-not-guilty-could-face-death-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/kentucky-sheriff-accused-of-shooting-judge-pleads-not-guilty-could-face-death-penalty\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky sheriff accused of shooting judge pleads not guilty, could face death penalty"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/syndication.abcaudio.com\/files\/2024-09-25\/LeslieCoDetentionCenter_ShawnStiles_092524.png\" alt><figcaption>Leslie County Detention Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>(WHITESBURG, Ky.) &#8212; The Kentucky sheriff accused of fatally shooting a judge in his chambers last week could face the death penalty if convicted, according to a special judge appointed to preside over the case.<\/p>\n<p>Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines, 43, made his first court appearance Wednesday, where he pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Stines allegedly killed Kentucky District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, inside his chambers in the Letcher County Courthouse, officials said. The shooting allegedly occurred &#8220;following an argument inside the courthouse,&#8221; according to Kentucky State Police, and investigators are still searching for a motive.<\/p>\n<p>Stines did not appear to show emotion during the brief hearing on Wednesday, where he appeared over Zoom wearing a jail uniform alongside his public defender, who entered the not guilty plea on Stines&#8217; behalf.<\/p>\n<p>He is expected back in court on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n<p><em>This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leslie County Detention Center (WHITESBURG, Ky.) &#8212; The Kentucky sheriff accused of fatally shooting a judge in his chambers last week could face the death penalty if convicted, according to a special judge appointed to preside over the case. Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines, 43, made his first court appearance<span class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/kentucky-sheriff-accused-of-shooting-judge-pleads-not-guilty-could-face-death-penalty\/\">Read More &rarr;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}