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.