WHITESBURG, Ky. — We could soon know the results of a psychiatric evaluation of a former sheriff charged with murdering a district judge.
Former Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Mickey Stines is charged with murder for the shooting death of Letcher District Judge Kevin Mullins while the two men talked in Mullins’ office last September.
Defense attorneys have said all along that they plan to pursue an insanity defense in the case, which resulted in Stines being evaluated at the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center.
That evaluation is now complete. Results of such exams are typically kept under seal, due to their sensitive nature.
But on Tuesday, Stines’ attorneys filed a motion asking that they be released publicly.
“The contents of the psychological evaluation are directly relevant to issues anticipated to be raised at the upcoming evidentiary hearing,” attorneys Jeremy and Kerri Bartley write in their motion. “The defendant seeks to introduce portions of the psychological evaluation at the evidentiary hearing to support his defense and ensure the court has a full and fair understanding of the relevant facts.”
Neither prosecutors nor the judge have yet responded to the request.
Stines is scheduled to appear in court Friday, Aug. 15, for a hearing on previously submitted motions to dismiss the indictment and set a bond. The psychiatric report is likely to come up during that hearing.
