Cops are investigating a ‘sex scandal’ motive among other leads in the sensational death of judge Kevin Mullins who was allegedly murdered by the sheriff of his tiny Appalachian community, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

Sheriff Shawn ‘Mickey’ Stines is accused of pumping eight bullets into his close friend after entering the judge’s chambers at Letcher County Circuit Court in Kentucky for a private word and then shutting and locking the door.

Moments before shots rang out, it is reported that yet-to-be released video footage revealed the two men looked at each other’s cellphones after a short discussion.

Lurid sexual allegations about married district judge Mullins began circulating almost immediately among some folk in and around the small town of Whitesburg, where the killing happened on the afternoon of September 19.

Cops are investigating a ‘sex scandal’ motive among other leads in the sensational death of Judge Kevin Mullins

Kentucky State Police, the lead agency in the investigation, confirmed to DailyMail.com that detectives were including the sex claims among many other lines of inquiry as a possible reason for the baffling killing.

Asked if the allegations were in the mix, Trooper Matt Gayheart said: ‘Absolutely. We are not ruling out anything as a possible motive.

‘The whole thing will be investigated thoroughly. It’s just going to take some time to make sure we can make the right determination. It could be weeks, it could be months.

‘Our investigators seized the two cell phones and they’re being analyzed.’

The claims ignited tensions in the picturesque mountain town while its 1,771 residents still reel from the shock of the shooting involving two of its most prominent officials.

So much so that a front page story this week in The Mountain Eagle, the town’s respected newspaper, included an apparent appeal for calm.

‘Rumors, apparently none true, have raced through the community, setting a torch to other relationships,’ its lead story on the killing said.

‘The community is split between those bent on spreading salacious gossip and those determined to protect the families of two men they saw as pillars of the community.’

Stines told the court he did not have a lawyer and was given a public defender for the preliminary hearing on October 1

Stines and Mullins had worked together on drug policy iin the rural Kentucky county that has been badly hit by the opioid epidemic 

However, one thing is certain, as DailyMail.com discovered when it visited Whitesburg this week that the two men were indeed close friends of some 20 years – making the shooting even more mystifying.

Just hours before it happened, they shared an outside table at the popular Streetside Grill & Bar on Main Street for lunch, only a few hundred yards from the courthouse.

The pair were lunchtime regulars together at the sports bar and on that fateful Thursday ordered their usual – both having the $13.99 wings with salad.

‘Everything seemed fine between them. There was no clue that anything was wrong at all,’ one of the staff attending them that day told DailyMail.com. 

‘You wouldn’t have guessed there was the slightest problem.

‘It’s fair to say we had a lot of business from the judge and the sheriff. They’d been coming here together for lunch for years. Nobody I know can understand what happened between lunchtime and the judge’s death.’

One thing undoubtedly preying on the mind of Stines, who was the 54-year-old judge’s bailiff before becoming sheriff in 2018, was a civil lawsuit against one of his deputies who was convicted and sentenced for rape.

The 43-year-old sheriff was accused of not properly training and supervising ex-deputy Ben Fields, who coerced a woman on home incarceration into sex for favors – ironically in Judge Mullins’s chambers. 

Fields got six months jail and six and a half years’ probation.

Just hours before it happened, the  two men shared an outside table at the popular Streetside Grill & Bar on Main Street for lunch, only a few hundred yards from the courthouse

There is no accusation of sexual impropriety by Stines or criticism of father-of-two Mullins in the case.

However, the accused lawman had been acting ‘erratically’ since Labor Day according to friends and co-workers, The Mountain Eagle reported this week. 

‘He was quieter than usual and had stopped regular communications with the community and the press,’ it wrote.

Stines admitted to the paper that he was having ‘some issues’ and revealed he shed 40lbs from his hulking 300lb frame in just two weeks.

He deleted his office’s Facebook page in mid-August, telling the local paper people were criticizing him and he was ‘afraid’ someone might use the page against him in a court case.

Strictly speaking, Stines – who has a teenage child and a stepson with 52-year-old wife Caroline – is still Letcher County Sheriff until he officially resigns the $115,000-a-year position.

Yet as DailyMail.com approached the sheriff’s office building behind the courthouse, a worker was busy removing his name from the glass frontage.

All that could be seen as we walked up were the letters M and I, the first part of Mickey, as he liked to be known.

‘Yeah, they’ve told me to get this off,’ the worker told us as he continued with his scraper.

As DailyMail.com approached the sheriff’s office building behind the courthouse, a worker was busy removing Stines’s name from the glass frontage

The removal came a day before Stines appeared for his arraignment via video link, where he pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

Bespectacled, he stood solemnly in drab prison garb with his hands clasped in front of him, but not cuffed. He appeared from Leslie County Jail, 50 miles from Whitesburg.

Chief Regional Judge Rupert Wilhoit – sitting in Carter County Circuit Court which is 115 miles from Whitesburg and an indication of the complexity of the case – revealed Stines could face the death penalty under Kentucky law.

Stines told the hearing he did not have a lawyer and was given a public defender to help with his next date, a preliminary hearing on October 1. 

But he was warned he might have to pay for a lawyer when his case gets to circuit court. His wife Caroline logged on to the virtual hearing, held on Zoom.

Police released the judge’s office from being a crime scene, but Letcher County Circuit Court has been closed since the horror shooting and will not open until Monday.

It is understood there were initially two shots shortly before 2.55pm inside the chambers of Judge Mullins, who was known to carry a weapon himself for self-defense.

Attorneys and staff, waiting for court to resume, were moments earlier laughing and talking just the other side of the closed door. 

The judge’s office is no longer from a crime scene, say police, but Letcher County Circuit Court has been closed since the horrific shooting and will not open until Monday

They heard the two bangs, after Stines allegedly drew a weapon, then a flurry of shots.

Deputy Wallace Kincer, the security officer for Mullins’ court, charged into his office and found the judge dead. 

Minutes later, Stines surrendered to Whitesburg Police and his own deputies, who by then had entered the building brandishing rifles.

All electronic devices inside the room were taken for analysis ‘as key pieces of evidence’, Trooper Gayheart told DailyMail.com. 

‘At least 50 witnesses who were in and around the court were interviewed for statements that same day,’ he said.

Around bustling Main Street, the heart of the compact town nestling below verdant mountain tops that frequently disappear in and out of thick mist, most folk remained stunned by the shooting.

Many DailyMail.com spoke with knew both men well and still couldn’t fathom what could have happened to suddenly fracture a long friendship in such a violent manner.

‘I’ve known both for years and I’m stunned, simply stunned,’ a woman in the town’s flower shop said.

‘They were pillars of this community. I’ve heard a lot of the speculation over why this happened, but I’m not sure what to believe.’

Mullins appeared in court via videolink from Leslie County Jail, 50 miles from Whitesburg

At the Cut-Away barbers shop, the mood was defensive when the subject of motive for the killing was broached. Some townsfolk, in an area built around coal mining, clearly didn’t welcome the sudden national attention.

At the Parlor Room tattoo parlor, three artists quietly worked on designs on their iPads while offering little direct opinion. 

But one of them said, in an apparent reference to unexpected behavior: ‘We’re hillbillies here, man. You kind of expect this kind of thing.’

Letcher Circuit Clerk Mike Watts told The Mountain Eagle: ‘I never knew of there being any kind of friction between them till it came to this. We all got along good, teased each other.’

Apart from being friends, Stines and Mullins worked closely together on drug addiction and recovery cases in the face of Kentucky’s devastating opioid epidemic.

Outside one premises on a nearby highway, DailyMail.com saw a large home-made sign advertising Narcan for sale – the drug that instantly resuscitates someone from a fentanyl overdose.

Mullins pioneered a local initiative focusing on linking people to treatment services after their arrest, reportedly helping the lives of 20,000 people. Stines worked with him, trying to get first-time offenders into rehab instead of jail.

The judge, who served for 14 years and was re-elected three times, said in 2018: ‘I suppose some judges want to appear “hard on drugs” by locking everyone up who has committed a drug-related crime.

‘I think there is a balance. If someone is a non-violent offender, but has a drug problem, it doesn’t make sense to lock them up with no treatment.’

Funeral services for Mullins, who had two daughters with 38-year-old wife Kimberly, were held near his home in the former coal company town of Jenkins, 11 miles from Whitesburg, on Sunday.

On a Saturday where the Alabama Crimson Tide–Georgia Bulldogs clash stole the show, here are five (well, slightly more than five) takeaways from an exciting Week 5 across college football.

1. The Kentucky Wildcats validate strength of their defense in road upset of the No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels

Kentucky’s offense in 2024 remains a work in progress (to say the least), but after Saturday’s road upset of No. 6 Ole Miss—Big Blue’s first win in Oxford, Miss., since 1978—there’s very little dispute about the Wildcats’ defense.

They’re elite.

Kentucky recorded four sacks, seven tackles for loss and held a potent Ole Miss offense to just 3.2 yards per rush on 29 attempts and a 1-for-10 mark on third down.

Sure, the Rebels still racked up the passing yards, primarily in the form of the Jaxson Dart–Tre Harris connection that led to 11 completions for 176 yards and a touchdown. But everything else for Ole Miss was made difficult by Kentucky’s consistent defensive pressure all game long. 

The Wildcats showed their teeth defensively in a near home upset of then-No. 1 Georgia earlier this month, but validated their performance with another lights-out effort on Saturday.

Kentucky is now 3–2 and 1–2 in SEC play. It is not a conference title contender, but could certainly play spoiler to SEC hopefuls in the No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers and No. 1 Texas Longhorns that are still to come on the schedule this fall.

2. Controversial Friday night ending to the No. 7 Miami Hurricanes’ victory over the Virginia Tech Hokies underscores growing officiating problem in college football

No. 7 Miami was caught in a dogfight with preseason ACC darling Virginia Tech—a Hokies bunch that fell out of favor after dropping their opener on the road to the Vanderbilt Commodores and following it up three weeks later with a home loss to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

Virginia Tech head coach Brent Pry had a couple of game management decisions that he’d certainly like to have back. These decisions included a prematurely called timeout prior to a 57-yard field goal before halftime that allowed enough time for Miami to drive down the field with 25 seconds left and kick a field goal. The Hokies also tried a fake field in the third quarter off a Cam Ward interception that would have given them a 13-point lead.

But ultimately, it all came down to a final drive offensively for the Hokies. Trailing 38–34 with three seconds remaining, Virginia Tech quarterback Kyron Drones lofted a pass into the back left corner of the end zone. The ball was juggled by a host of players, before it appeared that Virginia Tech wide receiver Da’Quan Felton came up with the football. What was unclear was whether or not he gained sole possession before a Miami defender ripped it free in the scramble for the ball.

The officials concluded it was a Virginia Tech touchdown, which should have scored the Hokies one of their biggest road upsets in years. However, after a replay review that lasted for over five minutes, the conference’s officiating command center determined Felton never gained possession. 

There didn’t appear to be conclusive evidence to prove the call on the field should have been overturned, but it was anyway, scoring Miami a narrow victory.

Virginia Tech made plenty of mistakes that cost it a victory, but the game-ending kick in the teeth from the ACC officials underscored the growing sentiment across college football that the sport has an officiating problem.

3. The Auburn Tigers snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and once again, a turnover was the culprit

One week removed from turning the ball over five times in a 24–14 home loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks, Auburn again had turnover problems at the worst time in a 27–21 home loss to the No. 21 Oklahoma Sooners. 

With the Tigers leading 21–16 with just over four minutes to play, Auburn starting quarterback Payton Thorne felt pressure from his right side and threw an inexplicable pass over the middle right into the arms of Oklahoma linebacker Kip Lewis. The redshirt sophomore took the interception back 61 yards for the touchdown in the deciding score of the contest.

Auburn’s Hugh Freeze needs to right the ship, and fast, or things could go sideways quickly heading into Year 3 if the Tigers continue to let victories slip away by self-inflicted mistakes.

4. The Colorado Buffaloes win again as Travis Hunter continues to make his Heisman Trophy case

Colorado’s dominant 48–21 road win on Saturday at the UCF Knights marked not only the biggest win of the Deion Sanders era in Boulder, Colo., but also another step toward legitimizing Travis Hunter’s Heisman case.

Hunter is arguably the best player in college football. He’s more than worthy of winning the Heisman. But in order to capture the sport’s most iconic individual award, team success is almost always a prerequisite. Hunter is one of the only players in college football who plays both offense and defense, and nobody plays both wide receiver and defensive back to the level he does.

Hunter caught nine passes for 89 yards and a touchdown and added an interception on defense against UCF.

Colorado is 4–1 and 2–0 in Big 12 play. The Buffs are off next week before hosting a ranked Kansas State Wildcats team. Colorado has improved after a rocky Year 1 under Sanders, but will need to continue to stack wins for Hunter to have a real shot of capturing the Heisman.

5. No Matthew Sluka? No problem for the Group of 5 CFP hopeful UNLV Rebels

It was quite the week for UNLV’s football program.

First came a late Tuesday social media post from starting quarterback Matthew Sluka, who announced his decision to sit out the rest of the season, redshirt and transfer amid alleged “representations” (NIL payments) that were not met.

Next came a PR messaging war that pitted UNLV and its NIL collective against Sluka’s camp. In the end, there was no executed written contract binding UNILV (yes, that’s the name of the collective) to any sort of payment obligation to Sluka.

On the field, UNLV needed to continue the momentum built by the program’s first 3–0 record in 40 years with the Fresno State Bulldogs in town to kick off Mountain West play. 

The result? A 59–14 drubbing by the Rebels in which newly minted starter Hajj-Malik Williams accounted for 182 passing yards, 119 rushing yards and four total touchdowns.

After a week marked by tumult, the Rebels have come out on the other side with their most lopsided victory of the season and perhaps their first AP Top 25 ranking in program history come Sunday.

OXFORD − There’s a downside to 11 a.m. kicks for Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin. When games start in the morning, it’s harder to move on from a loss.

“It’s 3 o’clock, so you’ve got all day to sit around and deal with this,” Kiffin said. “It could have went our way so many different ways and we didn’t make the plays. We didn’t close them out.”

Ole Miss lost 20-17 to Kentucky at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday. It was a cool, overcast homecoming game with a record crowd of 67,616 on hand to watch. That record wasn’t announced midgame on the videoboard.

As nervousness turned into dread, there weren’t many times where the fans were ready to celebrate. After four weeks of decimating teams, No. 6 Ole Miss (4-1, 0-1 SEC) played poorly in offense, defense and special teams. Kentucky (3-2, 1-2) took advantage.

That’s what made Saturday especially long for Kiffin. The loss was a result of team-wide scuffling.

“All three phases had chances to win the game, or at least tie the game, and didn’t do it,” Kiffin said. “Credit (Kentucky). Big win for them. But very discouraging, disappointing.”

Ole Miss special team’s chance was evident with 48 seconds to go. Senior kicker Caden Davis’ potential game-tying field goal sailed wide left. There was more to it than that, though.

The Rebels’ offense entered the game averaging 582 yards per game. On Saturday they gained 353. Third downs were especially problematic. Ole Miss moved the chains just once in 10 third-down snaps.

“We got caught in too many ‘third-and-longs’ and we play in the SEC and that’s really hard to convert,” quarterback Jaxson Dart said. “There’s a lot of things that we need to look at on tape and find ways not to be in that situation again.”

A season-low offensive output combined with lackluster defensive play. The Rebels defense did come up big at times, especially the defensive front that sacked Kentucky quarterback Brock Vandagriff five times. Surrendering late big plays and penalties, though, doomed the Rebels defense.

With Kentucky in desperation mode facing fourth-and-7 on its 20-yard line, the Wildcats hit a 63-yard pass down the left sideline with 3:49 left. Vandagriff stood in the pocket against pressure and sailed a deep ball to Barion Brown that beat man coverage with a go route. It led to the eventual game-tying touchdown.

“There’s good moments and there’s bad moments, we have to do a better job of relating to routes and making plays on the ball,” safety Trey Washington said. “We just have to get better overall as a team.”

Kiffin said all three phases playing poorly simultaneously was too much to overcome.

“Those things just aren’t going to add up very well,” Kiffin said.

Sam Hutchens covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at Shutchens@gannett.com or reach him on X at @Sam_Hutchens_