Kentucky judge had lunch with the sheriff now arrested in his killing, court clerk says

As residents of a small town in southeast Kentucky mourn the loss of a prominent district judge, they’re looking for answers about the argument that authorities say led up to his killing inside the judge’s chambers and the sheriff’s arrest in his death.

A local sheriff ate lunch with a prominent district judge hours before allegedly shooting the judge in his chambers, according to a court official, who said the killing last Thursday has stunned the small community of Letcher County, Kentucky. Circuit Clerk Mike Watt saw District Judge Kevin Mullins and Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines shortly before noon on Thursday, he told CNN affiliate WKYT, describing the kind of encounter that might happen among coworkers in any workplace across the country. “We were kind of joking around about national politics … And then I talked to the sheriff about attending the sheriff’s association (conference) last week in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and asked him how that went,” Watts said. “And then they went down the street to eat lunch.” Later that day, Stines, 43 – a man whose role made him responsible for judge’s personal security – fatally shot Mullins, 54, inside the Letcher County courthouse in Whitesburg, according to Kentucky State Police. Stines was arrested at the courthouse and is now facing a first-degree murder charge, authorities said. What transpired in the judge’s chambers moments before the fatal shooting that afternoon is unclear, though state police said the preliminary investigation indicated an argument took place between the two men inside the judge’s chambers. After the heated conversation, a 911 call reported shots fired on the second floor of the courthouse just before 3 p.m., then the district judge of 15 years was found with multiple gunshot wounds and pronounced dead, Kentucky State Police said.