Kentucky
Sheriff charged in courthouse murder of judge enters plea as mystery motive rocks small town
A Kentucky sheriff accused of gunning down a judge in his own courthouse chambers pleaded not guilty to murder Wednesday — while a possible motive for the slaying that has rocked the small town remains a mystery.
Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines, 43, is accused of killing 54-year-old Judge Kevin Mullins at his Whitesville courthouse on Thursday, leaving the jurist riddled with bullets in the office where he’d served for 15 years.
Prosecutors did not offer a motive for the alleged killing during his arraignment but previous reports suggested the two — who had known each other well for years in their small town — had gotten into some kind of dispute prior to the shooting.
Stines remains behind bars and is being held without bond, according to CNN.
Shots rang out in the middle of the afternoon at the courthouse about 150 miles southeast of Lexington — just hours after the pair reportedly had lunch together.
A number of nearby schools were sent into lockdown as police descended on the scene and discovered Mullins’ body.
Just days earlier, Stines was deposed as part of a federal lawsuit into whether his office adequately investigated sexual assault allegations against a deputy.
That deputy was accused of trading sexual favors from a woman in return for her being placed on house arrest instead of going to jail — and those sexual favors allegedly happened in Judge Mullins’ office, according to Fox 19 Now.
Regardless of his guilt or innocence, Stines’ position as sheriff is in jeopardy as his office was charged with the security of the courthouse and its judges, CNN reported.
“It’s my understanding that he is in the process of losing his job as sheriff of Letcher County, obviously, and will not have income going forward,” said public defender Josh Miller during the arraignment.
Stines is charged with first-degree murder. He has served as Letcher County sheriff since 2018.
Kentucky
What channel is Kentucky vs Murray State on today? Time, TV schedule to watch Week 12 game
Kentucky football aims to snap its four-game losing streak when it plays Murray State today at Kroger Field.
The Wildcats (3-6, 1-6 SEC) have not won since their upset victory over Ole Miss in Week 5.
Kentucky leads the all-time series against Murray State, 2-0.
Watch Kentucky vs Murray State live on Fubo (free trial)
Here’s how to watch Kentucky vs Murray State game today, including time, TV schedule and streaming information:
TV Channel: SEC Network+
Livestream: Fubo (free trial)
Kentucky vs. Murray State will be broadcast nationally on SEC Network+ in Week 12 of the 2024 college football season. Tom Leach and Jeff Piecoro will call the game from the booth at Kroger Field, with Dick Gabriel reporting from the sideline. Streaming options for the game include FUBO, which offers a free trial to new subscribers.
- Date: Saturday, Nov. 16
- Start time: 1:30 p.m.
The Kentucky vs Murray State game starts at 1:30 p.m. at Kroger Field in Lexington.
Odds courtesy of BetMGM as of today
ODDS: Not available as of this morning
O/U: Not available as of this morning
- Aug. 31: Kentucky 31, Southern Miss 0
- Sept. 7: South Carolina 31, Kentucky 6
- Sept. 14: Georgia 13, Kentucky 12
- Sept. 21: Kentucky 41, Ohio 6
- Sept. 28: Kentucky 20, Ole Miss 17
- Oct. 12: Vanderbilt 20, Kentucky 13
- Oct. 19: Florida 48, Kentucky 20
- Oct. 26: Auburn 24, Kentucky 10
- Nov. 2: Tennessee 28, Kentucky 18
- Nov. 16: Murray State
- Nov. 23: at Texas
- Nov. 30: Louisville
- Record: 3-6
- Aug. 29: Missouri 51, Murray State 0
- Sept. 7: Butler 19, Murray State 17
- Sept. 14: Murray State 59, Mississippi Valley State 8
- Sept. 28: North Dakota 72, Murray State 35
- Oct. 5: South Dakota 59, Murray State 0
- Oct. 12: Indiana State 31, Murray State 27
- Oct. 19: Illinois State 40, Murray State 32
- Oct. 26: North Dakota State 59, Murray State 6
- Nov. 2: South Dakota State 52, Murray State 6
- Nov. 9: Missouri State 59, Murray State 31
- Nov. 16: at Kentucky
- Nov. 23: at Southern Illinois
- Record: 1-9
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Reach sports reporter Prince James Story at pstory@gannett.com and follow him on X at @PrinceJStory.
Kentucky
Mark Pope says Kentucky is in “a race to see how fast we can grow”
Kentucky’s comeback win over Duke signaled to the rest of college basketball that the Cats could be legit. For Mark Pope, it was just the next step in a sprint to San Antonio.
When asked how much confidence the win over the No. 6 Blue Devils gave his players, Pope said it was further proof of how eager they are to learn about each other and grow into a squad capable of cutting down the nets in April. That’s an especially tall task for a roster that was built in a manner of months.
“Hopefully, our confidence is growing all the time,” Pope said on Thursday. “I think mostly what it gives us is we’re just hungry to grow. You’re going to be so tired of me already talking about humility and curiosity, right, but I think that’s the biggest thing. Just go play again to find out who we are how we can get better and what we can do better and how we grow. It’s a race.
“With a team that’s constructed the way this team had to be, where every single person is new, it’s just a race from our first game on Nov. 4 to hopefully the Final Four. We know we have to get so much better and there’s limited time so it’s just a race to see how fast we can grow. I think that’s the biggest thing that this game did for us, that Bucknell did for us, that Wright State did for us; it just gave us more film and data and experience to try to figure out how we can become a great team.”
For fans, the Wright State game was a storybook start to the season, with Kentucky winning by 41 points, Pope’s jersey number. The Bucknell game showed that the Cats can still put up 100 points on a night they’re not firing on all cylinders. The Duke game was the most promising sign yet, proof that they can battle back from a nine-point halftime deficit against an elite team even when the threes aren’t falling. Just three games in, that bodes very well for the future.
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Kentucky may be in a race against time, but Pope is determined to enjoy every step of it. When asked about the three 2025 recruits that signed with Kentucky this week, Jasper Johnson, Malachi Moreno, and Acaden Lewis, Pope said his current players are setting the standard for what it means to play for Kentucky under his watch.
“I’m telling you, it’s a joy to coach here, and it’s hopefully it’ll continue to be a joy for BBN to watch because we have great young men in this program. I’m talking about, like, elite-level kids, like really special people, and it’s fun. Like, you know, I’ve got to sit next to Otega [Oweh] and Andrew Carr postgame after our last game, and just listen to them answer questions and them talk about what this program is and what it means to be for them to be here. And it’s beautiful, actually. Like, it is.”
The specific moment Pope is referring to is when Otega Oweh told reporters that wearing the Kentucky jersey inspires him to play even harder for fans and his teammates. Andrew Carr, who also had some big plays down the stretch vs. Duke, echoed that sentiment, adding that the team’s close bond is a major reason why they didn’t throw in the towel when the Blue Devils were surging. After Carr finished his thought, Pope looked around the room and said, “Who gets to coach guys like this? Come on, man. It’s awesome.”
“These are kids that are seeing something way bigger than just themselves, right and they care about the right things,” Pope said yesterday. “And it just guys that I want to coach, and it’s the way this should be, and it’s guys that are going to have that are in the middle of tremendous careers, are going to have great, massive professional careers, and then go on do even more important things after that. And that’s what we’re surrounded with in our locker room right now.
“So, that’s the first thing [in recruiting]. Our filters are really high in terms of bringing in great people. We want great people here, not perfect people. Like, we all screw up and make mistakes and do things like that, but people who are actually really eagerly trying to grow as human beings, right? So that’s number one.”
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Kentucky
What do analytics have to say about Kentucky after the win over Duke?
Right before the 2024-25 college basketball season started, the analytics websites didn’t seem to have a ton of confidence in Mark Pope’s Kentucky Wildcats. This was a bit of a surprise, knowing how good of an X’s and O’s coach the Wildcats have. Big Blue Nation believed it wouldn’t take long for the analytics to see what they saw.
That was exactly the case after the win over the Duke Blue Devils, as the Wildcats are moving up the Evan Miya rankings. Kentucky currently sits 13th in these rankings with their offense ranked 16th and the defense ranked 12th. It is a bit surprising that the analytics show that Kentucky’s defense ranks higher than the offense. Not because Kentucky’s defense hasn’t been great because it has. The surprise has more to do with how great the offensive scheme is for Coach Pope.
The reason the defense being better than the offense in these analytics should excite Kentucky fans is because Kentucky fans know how good the offense is going to be. It will be in the top 20 in college basketball, without question. This means that if the defense is better, this Kentucky team is a top ten team in college basketball.
The analytics are starting to back the Wildcats, and if they are top 20 in both offense and defense all season long, this team is going to be a three-seed or better in the NCAA Tournament. Coach Pope has done something special early into his tenure as the Wildcats head coach.
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