Two former prosecutors say that the insanity defense planned by the defense attorney representing former Letcher County, Kentucky, Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines will not hold up.

Stines is accused of shooting and killing District Judge Kevin Mullins in the judge’s chambers inside the Letcher County Courthouse on Sept. 19, 2024, in an attack that was captured on surveillance video.

“It’s very rare in most states, including Kentucky, the insanity defense and similar mental health defenses rarely work, because if the person knows right from wrong at the time they committed some criminal act, then any mental health issues are, I guess, secondary,” Phil Holloway, a former prosecutor and legal analyst based in Georgia, told Fox News Digital. “If they know right from wrong, they can still be convicted even if they have a mental health issue.”

‘EXTREMELY PARANOID’ KENTUCKY SHERIFF QUESTIONED BY POLICE MOMENTS AFTER JUDGE’S FATAL SHOOTING: VIDEO

Last week, Fox News Digital released video footage of a Kentucky State Police (KSP) investigator and two troopers questioning a paranoid Stines in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. 

“I leave this building, I won’t draw another breath,” Stines told KSP Investigator Clayton Stamper, who led the investigation. 

“Y’all are gonna kill me, aren’t you?” he asked at one point in the interview. “Y’all are gonna kill me, I know you are. Let’s just get it over with. Let’s just go.”

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Holloway said even if the sheriff was paranoid, he still knew that the killing was wrong. 

“If you look at the sheriff’s video from his discussions with law enforcement in the hallway right after the shooting, the sheriff expresses that he’s concerned that the police or some other unnamed third party might hurt him or kill him,” Holloway said. 

KENTUCKY SHERIFF SEEN IN FOOTAGE SHOOTING AT JUDGE IN SHOCKING PRELIMINARY HEARING

A Kentucky State Police trooper and former Letcher County Sheriff’s deputy tries to calm Shawn Stines, right, down during questioning.  (Kentucky State Police)

“And he’s asking the cops, you know, he’s even alleging that the police might stop en route to the jail to allow somebody else to do something. Now, those things might seem paranoid, and they may seem irrational, but at the same time, when he expresses those things to the officers, to me that indicates that he knows that killing is wrong. 

“It’s interesting because he’s telling the cop, he’s telling the police not to do it. So, in a way, he’s telegraphing that he knows right from wrong. And he knows that killing is wrong because he’s asking the police to not kill him.”

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Michael Wynne, a former prosecutor based in Houston, agrees with Holloway, especially given the surveillance footage from Mullins’ chambers in the moments leading up to the shooting. 

“I think this is a frivolous defense,” he told Fox News Digital. “The video shows he knows what he’s doing is wrong. If you don’t know what you’re doing is wrong, you don’t usher everybody else out of the room, and you don’t go ahead and make sure the door is closed. Those are all things that show that he has an ability to make cognizant decisions.”

KENTUCKY COURTHOUSE WHERE SHERIFF ALLEGEDLY KILLED JUDGE PLAGUED BY SEX ABUSE ALLEGATIONS: LAWSUIT

Former Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines looks over at the prosecutors during his arraignment at the Morgan County Courthouse in West Liberty, Kentucky, on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. Stines is accused of killing District Judge Kevin Mullins. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

Wynne said he believes the best Stines will be able to do is plead guilty to the charges in hopes of taking the death penalty off the table, or potentially being given an opportunity for parole. 

“Based on the facts, he will lose the case [and] there will be a guilty verdict,” Wynne said. “Now, the jury and judge are not supposed to weigh the fact that the defense puts on a case here of insanity. But people are people. And, you know, he’ll be punished by the judge and the jury for raising what I think this is a frivolous defense.”

According to Stines’ attorney, Jeremy Bartley, his defense is closely tied to allegations of sexual abuse that plagued Letcher County authorities, including some in the courthouse. 

Three days before the shooting, Stines was deposed in a civil sexual assault case against his former deputy, Ben Shields, who was accused of sexually abusing a woman. Stines was also named for failing to supervise Fields.

MOTIVE REVEALED IN KENTUCKY SHERIFF’S ALLEGED KILLING OF JUDGE AS BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT ANALYZES NEW VIDEO

Defense attorney Jeremy Bartley asked questions of KSP Detective Clayton Stamper at Shawn “Mickey” Stines preliminary hearing at Morgan County District Court. Oct. 1, 2024. (Scott Utterback/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Bartley declined to comment for this story but previously told Fox News Digital, “I think one of the big things is that my client felt there had been pressure placed on him not to say too much during the deposition, and not to talk about things that happened within the courthouse, particularly in the judge’s chambers.”

Bartley said that threats against Stines’ family caused the paranoia to reach a fever pitch. 

“On the day that this [shooting] happened, my client had attempted multiple times to contact his wife and daughter, and he firmly believed that they were in danger,” Bartley said. “He believed that they were in danger because of what he knew to have happened within the courthouse. And there was pressure, and there were threats made to him to sort of keep him in line, to keep them from saying more than these folks wanted him to say.”

A Tennessee congressman viewed documents relating to the 2023 Covenant school shooting for the first time, praising the Director Kash Patel-led FBI for upholding the Trump administration’s “radical transparency” promise.

Rep. John Rose told Fox News Digital he was offered full access to the documents, including the writings of suspect Audrey Hale, a transgender woman who was a former student and killed three children and three adults on March 27 of that year.

The GOP lawmaker said he sent a letter to the FBI the month after the shooting and received a response in November telling him to effectively seek what he was looking for from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

He contrasted that with Patel’s FBI’s quick turnaround in accessing the documents.

COVENANT SCHOOL TRANS SHOOTER PLOTTED NASHVILLE ATTACK FOR YEARS, KEPT NOTEBOOKS AND PLANS: FINAL REPORT

“They are primarily comprised of the writings and work of the perpetrator of the Covenant School shooting. But they do provide a great deal of insight and I think confirm some of the suspicions that I’ve had all along,” Rose said.

“We really never received a response [regarding a document inquiry] from the Metro National Police Department (MNPD) one way or the other… We got a letter that was really non-responsive and basically indicated they would not release the information to us. So it’s remarkable that in just a little over 40 days that new FBI Director Kash Patel has made this information available for us to look at.”

Many of the documents have been under seal and are the subject of legal battles in the Volunteer State.

Nashville Chancery Court Chancellor I’ashea Myles ruled in 2024 that much of Hale’s writings are protected by copyright law, which trumps the state’s records statute.

An official with the MNPD told Fox News Digital there was also concern in the courts and among law enforcement that the detailed writings could inspire copycat violence.

“This investigation was meticulous and ran through this year and at the conclusion of the investigation we issued the 48-page summary,” the official told Fox News Digital on Thursday. 

“There exists to this day the Chancery Court, an order that restricts the shooter’s writing from being publicly released [but] through the 48-page summary, we’ve wanted all to know what our findings were in this mass shooting case; in the days after our officers responded so bravely into the building to stop the threat,” the official added.

NASHVILLE SCHOOL SHOOTING MANIFESTO: WHY KILLERS WRITE ABOUT MOTIVES

The MNPD said they were aware the FBI was contemplating releasing some of the material and echoed copycat-related concerns – and that the bureau understood those reservations and redacted parts of what has been witnessed by Rose.

However, Rose said that after Patel allowed him to view the documents, he is “more assured than ever” that the information within should be made public so that people can better understand the tragedy.

He disputed claims that the MNPD has been entirely forthright, saying, “I think they’ve just stonewalled… and frankly I think that makes it impossible for policymakers, legislators to take any action with respect to the incidents around this heinous act that happened back in March of 2023,” he said.

“We simply can’t be expected to take action when we don’t understand the nature of this crime. And so the public is entitled to that information, but as policymakers, I feel like we simply cannot be expected to make a policy based on innuendo and supposition when the information is available.”

Read the Nashville police report here.

“And had this been any other significant crime of this nature, including a mass shooting, we know from historic precedent that virtually all of this information would have been released in the normal course for public inspection and consideration.”

As for sensitivity, he said that there is “tough information” in what he has seen and that he has sympathy for the victims of the shooting, but that in order to protect society, the information currently being held should be accessible to better understand the perpetrator and more.

MNPD denied any stonewalling allegation and cited the Chancery Court order in its response.

Rose did, however, appear to support some of the redactions, suggesting that a careful review process could allow documents from and about the shooter to be used in understanding the “heinous crime,” identifying others who may be responsible and examining how society may have missed chances to prevent it.

Nashville police also released their final report on the shooting, first reported at the time by Fox News Digital.

Rather than a highly anticipated manifesto, the report found that Hale left behind numerous notebooks, art books and computer documents about plans to commit the attack and gain notoriety, partly inspired by the Columbine school shooting in 1999.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.

While seven escaped prisoners, including two murder suspects, remain at large after a dramatic jailbreak from a New Orleans three days ago, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry joined “America Reports” and issued a stern warning to those inside the jail who might have helped the inmates escape. 

“They’re gonna go to jail as well,” said Landry. “Not only those people who may have aided and abetted them to get out, but those who continue to aid them, if we find them – if we find that you aided and abetted those fugitives – you’re going to jail as well.”

Landry said that authorities have reason to believe that most of the fugitives are still in the state of Louisiana, and most likely in the New Orleans area. 

“We’re gonna hunt these folks down, we’re gonna find them, and we’re gonna bring them back to a jail that they can’t break out of,” Landry said. 

He also said 

The Republican governor ripped the parish’s progressive soft-on-crime policies that he claims aided the escape in a Sunday night press conference. 

“The irony of the progressive promises that have been made to this city is clear. New Orleans handed the jail keys to those who vowed to keep criminals out of jail, and sadly, today we see that it worked,” Landry said during a Sunday night press conference. “I hope everyone understands that the video of those prisoners escaping epitomizes a progressive criminal justice system.”

Landry ripped politicians who “pander voters” which he said “lead[s] to a lack of safety and order.” 

7 FUGITIVES REMAIN ON THE RUN AFTER NOLA PRISON BREAK; INSIDE JOB SUSPECTED

During the press conference, Landry announced an executive order to audit the Orleans Correctional Facility by the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) and remove all DOC inmates from the local jail. He handed down another order directing the state inspector general to work with the Orleans Parish Sheriff to inventory all jail inmates awaiting trial and those awaiting sentencing. 

Ten inmates escaped the Orleans Parish Correctional Facility on Friday night, which was captured on the jail’s surveillance footage. Authorities say they crawled through a hold hidden behind a toilet. 

The inmates then reportedly scaled and then hopped the jail’s barbed wire fence and ran across the highway into a neighborhood before changing clothes. 

They left behind messages including “To Easy LOL” and “WE INNOCENT” on the wall next to the hole through which they escaped. 

Authorities believe the escapees had help from someone inside the jail, and that a female civilian employee who was monitoring the pod “stepped away” to get food, missing the escape. 

The seven fugitives still on the run are Jermaine Donald, 42; Antoine Massey, 33; Leo Tate, 31; Lenton Vanburen, 27; Derrick Groves, 27; Gary Price, 21; and Corey Boyd, 19.

Donald and Boyd were both facing second-degree murder charges. 

The captured inmates being led to a helicopter. ( Louisiana State Police)

NEW ORLEANS JAIL INMATES CHARGED WITH MURDER AND OTHER CRIMES ESCAPE

Donald had also been charged with aggravated battery, possession of a firearm or weapon by a felon and obstruction of justice. Boyd’s other charges were attempted second-degree murder, aggravated battery, illegal carrying of weapons involving a crime, and obstruction of justice.

Miles and Vanburen were each facing charges of battery of a correctional facility employee, among other crimes.

Groves pleaded guilty to manslaughter in October and was awaiting sentencing at the jail. 

The 10 inmates who audaciously escaped from New Orleans jail on Friday (Governor Jeff Landry)

“If he would have been sentenced by a court system, he most likely would not have had an opportunity to escape,” Landry said during his press conference. 

Authorities warned that the escapees may have traveled to other states. Bounties of $20,000 have been placed on their heads. 

“We’ve had troopers working alongside our local state and federal partners throughout the night and developing more leads,” the Louisiana State Police told Fox News Digital on Monday morning. 

The FBI did not return a comment request. 

The ATF declined to comment. 

Fox News’ Michael Dorgan, Alexandra Koch and Brooke Taylor contributed to this report.