Former Letcher County, Kentucky Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines pleaded not guilty on Monday in the murder of District Court Judge Kevin Mullins in the same courthouse where the lawman opened fire upon the jurist in September.

Attorney Jeremy Bartley said Monday that Stines has a “compelling defense” lined up to justify the shooting of his longtime colleague in his office, the Courier-Journal reported.

The timing of the sheriff’s deposition in a sex abuse-related lawsuit earlier that month is “certainly something that’s going to be crucial in this case,” Bartley added, according to the newspaper.

“I do believe that that is a piece,” Bartley said after Monday’s court proceedings, which lasted about five minutes. “This is a large story. It’s a story that, in some ways, is difficult to tell. We look forward to sharing a more complete version of that as we go through this judicial process.”

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

“It could be, but I don’t know that for a fact,” Stamper said when asked whether Stines was motivated to shoot Mullins based on what he saw on the judge’s phone.

“I talked to him, but he didn’t say nothing about why this had happened,” Stamper said, according to the AP. “But he was calm… Basically, all he said was, ‘Treat me fair.’”

When Stines was taken into custody, he allegedly told another officer, “they’re trying to kidnap my wife and kid,” Stamper said.

Bartley previously told People that the shooting “was not something that was planned and occurred in the heat of passion.”

“For us, the highest level of culpability should be manslaughter based on the partial defense of extreme emotional disturbance,” Bartley said.

The shooting in the city of Whitesburg has shaken the community of Letcher County, Kentucky, where Stines served as a bailiff in Mullins’ court before becoming sheriff in 2018. 

“We’re all in a state of shock over it,” Garnard Kincer Jr., Mullins’ friend and former mayor of Jenkins, told People. “It practically immobilized us. We just can’t believe it happened.”