Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Major Update in Judge Killed in Chambers 'Sex Scandal' Case

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Mickey Steins claiming he was insane when he shot and killed a judge in his chambers. I look at what this means with his lawyers and trace Steins' steps in the hours before he killed his longtime friend. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. When Mickey Steins shot and killed Judge Kevin Mullins in his chambers, it was absolutely unbelievable. This was the top cop in Letcher County, Kentucky, firing a gun at a sitting judge in his chambers, and it was all recorded by a surveillance camera. And so was much of Steins' and Mullins' day before the shooting, which I'm going to show you here in just a bit. Not only was Kevin Mullins a judge, he was Mickey Steins' one-time boss and longtime friend.

Starting point is 00:01:01 But it seemed like something changed in a matter of minutes, maybe even seconds. The sheriff may have snapped. At least that's what the latest filing from his lawyers would suggest. Steins is charged with murdering Kevin Mullins. His lawyer, Jeremy Bartley, filed a notice stating, Defendant intends to present expert evidence relating to a mental disease or defect or mental condition bearing on the issue of guilt and punishment. Defendant intends to present a defense of insanity as well as a defense of extreme emotional disturbance. On top of this, Steins' lawyers are telling the court that they

Starting point is 00:01:36 want their expert to be present when a state expert evaluates him. Steins' attorney, Jeremy Bartley, is going to be here shortly to explain all of this. This shooting happened last September 19th, and we're getting a look at Steins before he pulled the trigger through surveillance cameras in and around the courthouse. That day seemed like any other in Letcher County. Judge Kevin Mullins was in his chambers around noon. Mickey Steins was sitting across from him in a chair, and there was a man to his left, and another man, a pastor, stood to Mullins' side. There's no audio, so we don't know what the men were discussing, but Mullins, at least, seemed relaxed. He was even smoking in his chambers.

Starting point is 00:02:16 The group sat for several minutes, chatting away. It's probably something they had done many, many times over the years. Around 12.07 p.m., Steins walked out of the judge's chambers. Mullins says something and he stops, but then he keeps walking. Again, we don't know what was said, but the people in the room certainly know. From outside, you can see Mickey Steins walking away from the courthouse. It's 12.11 p.m. at this point. Another camera shows Steins walking back into the courthouse for just a moment. Then he turns around and walks back out. Mullins and Steins had lunch at a local restaurant. It was something they did often. They ordered the same thing they always did.

Starting point is 00:02:56 And by all accounts, there was no tension at this lunch. By 1.16 p.m., Mickey Steins is walking back to the courthouse from lunch. If only we knew what he was thinking on that walk. By 1.30, Judge Mullins was back in his chambers, talking with some people for a little bit. Eventually, he's back on the bench. Judge Mullins presided over cases from about 1.45 to 2.35 that afternoon. Then around 3 p.m. that day, Mullins was in his chambers with Steins. What the men were discussing remains a mystery. Steins made a phone call first from his phone and then Judge Mullins' phone, and then Steins fired several shots at the man he once called a friend. You can see people in Mullins' chambers rush out after hearing the shots. They likely had no idea what was happening other than a gun had

Starting point is 00:03:46 been fired. Troopers' dash cameras showed Steins being led to a cruiser in handcuffs after 4 p.m. that day, and Steins sounded paranoid. Come on now. Come on. I can't sit like this. I can't. Come on now. Be fair to me. We're being good to you, brother. Stick your leg up in there. Come on now, guys.

Starting point is 00:04:17 Please don't do this to me. Please don't do this to me. Please. You want to scoot on over a little bit to the left? Come on now. Try to scoot on over a little bit more. That way we don't hit you. Can you go any bit farther? That's what will hit you with the door.

Starting point is 00:04:27 Put your knee in there, my friend. Hey, Jason. Hey, Bates. Hey, Bates. Can we loosen this up a little or get the window down? I'm sorry? Can we loosen this up a little? Be fair to me, man.

Starting point is 00:04:43 I got some air. I'll crack the window for you, but I can turn the air on back here. OK. Yeah. Be fire to me now. I promise. God, please. I promise. It's hot back here, man. I can't breathe. During the nearly hour drive to the Leslie County Jail, troopers tried to get Steins to talk to them. OK, Mickey. Anyway, so. do you want to talk about it? Is this to do with anything for your family, your daughter or anything? The world can be really unpredictable and scary, so having a great lawyer really matters,

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Starting point is 00:06:05 So if you're ever hurt, start a claim at ForThePeople.com slash CrimeFix or click the link in the description and pinned in the comments. We later found out that Steins had been deposed days before the shooting in a civil suit filed by a woman named Sabrina Atkins. She had been arrested in 2021 on a drug charge and a deputy named Ben Fields told her he'd help her with an ankle bracelet for home incarceration in exchange for sex. Atkins said she and Fields had sex in Judge Mullins' chambers six times and she told investigators with the Kentucky Attorney General's office it wasn't just Fields having sex in the judge's office. He does have some videotypes of having sex in the to further be able to get out of jail. Who was having sex? Ben and just some higher ups up there. Who?

Starting point is 00:07:10 The judge and. Now you saw the video? Mm-hm, yeah. What did you see on the video? I mean, you- I mean, I've seen judge Wellington having sex with a girl. Who was the girl? I don't know, cuz I don't know a lot of people from my-

Starting point is 00:07:23 Where was it at? In his office, in the judge's chambers. Is that the same place that you were meeting Ben? Is that how you know it was the judge's chambers? And this was Judge who? Mullins. But you don't know who the girl was? So Sabrina Atkins had told investigators she saw a video of Judge Mullins having sex with a girl in his chambers. Last fall, Kentucky State Police Investigator Clayton Stamper testified at a preliminary hearing for Mickey Stines

Starting point is 00:07:51 that Stines was concerned for his wife and daughter after the shooting. He was mostly calm, I thought. I mean, I talked to him, but not, he didn't say nothing about why this had happened, but he was calm. He was kind of afraid that, basically all he said was treat me fair. That's basically the comments he made. Did he also make a statement about I didn't see it in the citation. Somewhere along the line I saw a statement being attributed to him about protecting his family. I wasn't present, but when he

Starting point is 00:08:43 was taken into custody, I was told by one of the other officers that were there that he made the comment, they're trying to kidnap my wife and kid. So something is definitely going on in Letcher County, Kentucky. It's a small town with a lot of big secrets. I want to bring in Jeremy Bartley. He represents Mickey Stein's in this case. So, Jeremy, we kind of anticipated this. So tell me what you filed. You guys are going to claim that at the time that Mickey Stein shot Judge Mullins, which a defense, whether in whole or in part, that we file notice. And normally this is something we would do later in the proceedings. You know, as you know, we don't even have a trial date yet. But, you know, our hope is to expedite. The state will get their opportunity to have our client examined.

Starting point is 00:09:44 So we want to expedite, the state will get their opportunity to have our client examined. So we wanted to expedite those proceedings. I mean, you're looking at an 18-month or more backlog to get folks examined at the state facility. So normally we would wait much later, but we went ahead and filed that notice in the hopes to get that moving along. You said specifically in your filing that you're not saying he's not competent. That's not the question here. And you had said that in an earlier hearing as well.

Starting point is 00:10:12 This is specifically, you want him examined. You want your expert to be a part of it when the state does examine him. But you're saying basically, look, there was something going on with Mickey Stines when this happened. And that's why he stood there and just matter of factly hold out his gun and shot Judge Mullins. you're saying he's not incompetent. Do you have any idea about what may have been going on? We know about the deposition in the lawsuit regarding the sex with the inmates in the courthouse. What else have you been able to glean, if anything, that you can share with us? Well, so in terms of what this specific mechanism or diagnosis is at the time, I'm going to defer questions on that.

Starting point is 00:11:12 But I will say this. There was no doubt to anyone that was around Mickey in the days following the deposition, prior to the deposition, and certainly after the deposition and the days leading up to what you saw in the video, that he had not slept. Rarely, if any, had not slept in days that his demeanor was completely off. People described him as paranoid and just not acting in accordance with his normal demeanor. Now, again, I don't want to get into specifics. You know, the statute requires that there be a, you know, a mental disease or or uh defect and i'm not going to get into that now i'll i'll wait until we hear more from the experts but uh but i'll just say this there's zero doubt that um the combination of his mental health which was um exacerbated by the pressure put on him because of this deposition, played a role in what we saw.

Starting point is 00:12:30 And within that mental health defense, you really have two things. One, which I've said from the beginning for the preliminary hearing, we think sits the ceiling for the Commonwealth is extreme emotional disturbance, right? Because that's a partial defense. And that goes to at the moment he acted, did his emotions become so enraged, disturbed, or inflamed that he acted basically out of control. I think it's evident that something happened within those chambers and we'll get into more of that as the case progresses. But there was a moment at which his emotions, in a worst case for our client, it's extreme emotional disturbance, which would get us to manslaughter. But we believe that there's more. And we believe that we will put on evidence that

Starting point is 00:13:26 he was unable to conform his conduct based upon some mental health issues that were going on during that week. So you touched on this, and I know we've talked about this before as well, that he felt an imminent threat. You said something happened in those chambers. We've obtained video that shows Mickey Stines. We've kind of retraced his steps that whole day, walking away from the courthouse, walking to lunch, walking back in. Judge Mullins is on his bench.

Starting point is 00:13:59 We see that. And then whatever happens, happens. I mean, there's no audio, unfortunately. We don't know what was stated. Have you been able to learn what was stated? You said we'll get into that at trial. But do you know what, has Mickey client has told me. I will tell you that when Mickey entered the judge's chambers, there was no doubt in his mind that his wife and his daughter had been threatened. And based upon what transpired in those chambers, he believed that that threat was in motion. And immediate, I'm assuming, because you had said were an imminent threat. Yeah, he felt that his wife and daughter had been taken. And, you know, I think that, you know, there's a lot out there that touches on what was actually going on behind the scenes. We look at the Ben Fields deposition, the deputy that was convicted of having coercive sex with someone who was on probation and or on an ankle monitor at the time in the

Starting point is 00:15:31 judge's chambers. We've got a video. I mean, if we take a step back here, we're talking about a live feed in the judge's office. That's unheard speak, I can't speak for the rest of the country, but I can speak for Kentucky. I've been in a lot of judges chambers. I've seen a lot of cameras, but I've never seen one that, that was a live feed, basically a security camera. My understanding that camera went up after this prosecution of Ben Fields in the civil suit. So we know in those chambers there was things going on that shouldn't have been going on. And we believe that there were folks that didn't want it being told in this deposition what was going on in there before they put cameras up. And I believe that there is a history that would show us that there is a reasonable belief that, you know, that he was in danger, his family was in danger, depending on what he said in this deposition.

Starting point is 00:16:37 Now, again, we think that was exacerbated by his mental health or conversely these threats impacted his mental health but the bottom line is is that mickey felt that there was a threat to his wife and daughter and that it was imminent we know that sabrina atkins had told the attorney general's office in Kentucky sometime before this, that she was aware of a videotape of Judge Mullins having sex with somebody. I've read that. Yes. And I heard it. I mean, we have the audio of her being interviewed by investigators. So have you, through your investigation of this case, been able to uncover any more information about that. Yes, but I'm not going to comment on what that is. I'm not here.

Starting point is 00:17:35 If this is not the time and place I've, I've been very deliberate in not disparaging, um, the, the judge. Um, I'm, I'm not going to do that at this point. and not disparaging the judge. I'm not going to do that at this point. I will say, though, that we're pretty confident that there were matters that could have been revealed in the deposition that people didn't want told. Sure. And obviously, you know, we don't want to disparage Judge Mullins. But I mean, this is a key question in the case and what Mickey Stines knew and when and what have you. So you filed the notice. He's going to plead insanity.

Starting point is 00:18:24 What happens next? He has to be evaluated. So what's next? You said there's a backlog of 18 months for him to be evaluated by the state. So where do we go from here? So I'll take a step back. So the notice says that we may rely on that defense. We've given notice that we very well may introduce uh insanity as a defense and and i think that we very well may but you know what you have to understand is in in putting on this particular defense it's going to be vital to know what was going on around Mickey to understand why it was reasonable or unreasonable to believe that his family was threatened. And so, you know, I mean, there's a lot more to this than, um, you know, to say that we're relying on the insanity defense. Yes. But, you know, along with

Starting point is 00:19:22 telling the story of his mental health, there's a lot of surrounding story that's inextricably intertwined with it that we'll have to tell and as part of his defense. But in terms of procedurally, you know, we've given notice and we believe that if the state they've not responded, responded, saying they want to have him examined in writing. It's my understanding they do. They will, I'm sure. But once they do that and the judge orders him to be evaluated, then at that point, you know, it's up to the state facility and their experts as to when they conduct the testing that they see fit. And, you know, as I've said in my filing, I think the statute's pretty clear that our expert gets to participate.

Starting point is 00:20:17 Jeremy Bartley, as always, appreciate your time. Thanks so much for coming back on. And, Jeanette, it's always good talking with you. Thanks for having me on. And hopefully we'll talk more as this case goes along. Yeah, hopefully. Thank you so much. Thank you. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Major Update in Judge Killed in Chambers 'Sex Scandal' Case

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Major Update in Judge Killed in Chambers 'Sex Scandal' Case

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