Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Sheriff Charged With Murder Wants Judge Kicked Off Case

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

Shawn "Mickey" Stines is charged with murder in the shooting death of his onetime friend and former boss, Judge Kevin Mullins. A special judge has been assigned to preside over Stines' murder trial. But now, Stines is questioning whether Judge Christopher Cohron can be impartial after his defense team discovered a video of Cohron and Mullins sitting near each other seven days before Mullins was killed. Stines' defense team is asking Cohron to recuse himself. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at Stines' claims and the video in this episode of Crime FIx — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Grow your own audience today – go to https://opus.pro/crimefix for 1 week free plus 50% off the first 3 months of Opus Pro. Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Mark Weaver https://x.com/MarkRWeaverCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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. Once that issue is addressed, we will reset a date for all pending motions. The special judge presiding over Mickey Stein's murder case is being asked to accuse himself after a video surfaces showing him sitting next to Judge Kevin Mullins at an event A week before Stein shot and killed Mullins in his chambers. I take a look at Stein's request that the judge step aside and the video at the center of it all. I'm Ann Janette Levy, and this is Crime Fix.

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videos today. When Mickey Stein shot and killed Judge Kevin Mullins in his chambers in September of 2024, it was absolutely shocking. Security cameras recorded the shooting and the incident left so many people asking questions about why a sheriff who swore to uphold the law would take out his service weapon and shoot a man he had worked for. and a man he had considered a friend. Since that time, Steins' lawyer has said his client was suffering from some mental health problems and body-worn camera footage from the moments after the shooting shown that Steins was certainly acting oddly. Come on, guys.

No, come on now, guys. There's two body cameras running, Mickey. Where it's all recorded and it's an original recorder. That will be, look, you'll show you this, right? Look. Come on now, guys. No, look. We've known each other a long time.

Look, it is recording. That one's recording. Clayton has a backup recorder running. Come on, guys. What do you think? We can't talk in the hallway at the courthouse. Yeah, there's people here. I mean, there's people in that room.

There's people in that room. We can't do that. So what's the problem? I'll get another one. I'll put one on me. But I can't be in the room. Come on. Is there somebody that you trust other than us that you would prefer to

with us. Now, Steins was paranoid. There was no doubt about it. Do you want to talk at all, Mickey? Earlier, you said you were talking about it. Listen, if you don't want to talk, it's fine. I'm going to force you to it. Okay. We're not going to force you. If you don't want to talk, that's your right and you don't have to. Yeah. You know, you're the sheriff. You know just as much as we do. Okay. But it's up to you. If I can see my daughter in person here before.

you leave. Is that what you want? At the jail. At the jail? Yeah, at the jail, through the screen, on the phone, I want to see my daughter in person, and then after that, I'll tell you everything. At that jail, went in front of cameras, video recorded. Where did your daughter at? Huh? How do we, where's your daughter? How did we track her down? Where she got? She is at LCC. So, now, Mickey, I want to kind of, for your daughter, let's talk about this, for your daughter, okay, if she finds out that her dad is being arrested for shooting the judge, and she's in high school, I didn't know how she was, so I didn't know. So if she's in high school, what is she assuming?

That's going to be hard. She will want to see me. She will want, come on, guys, be fair to me now. It's all I'm asking. I don't be fair. That's the only thing I just wanted you to think about that. is she 18 be fired to me now guys

is she 18 be fired to me now no I'm asking you come on I want to see my daughter in person is she 18 I want to see my daughter in person how old is she

Mickey I do have a kid I've got grandkids I got five grandkids five grandkids listen to you I just want to see my daughter right

if she's not 18 we're going to ask your wife we have to ask your wife if it's okay you know that is she 18 Christine and Shana both said they were both on her way here when they were in here there's all kinds of people in here just running around chaotic so okay how am i going to tell you what happened to the judge yeah you know

christine lachan i said my wife and daughter's on her way you just said how are you going tell us what happened everybody's running out of chaotic it was I just want to see my daughter is she 18 how does she if your wife's out there with her If she ain't 18, we can ask if that's okay. But if she's 18, we just ask your daughter. That's what I'm getting at. If she's not 18, we have to ask your wife. Do you think they're outside?

Well, Shauna and Christine said they was on their way. Let me talk to them, too. You want to go ask them about it? Get that button. This is recorded. His guys come off the court there. Mickey, we're not being unfair to you. You want there to drink the water? Yeah, and we fire through guys. You're all going to kill me. You don't? No. Is Mickey's wife and kid out here?

Since that time, we've learned through court documents that Steins had been evaluated following his arrest, and those evaluations determined that he was an active psychosis at the jail and had been given medications prior to those evaluations. Steins' lawyer, Jeremy Bartley, told me in March of 2025 that his client's mental state could be a major issue at trial. Well, so in terms of what this specific mechanism or diagnosis is at the time, I'm going to defer questions on that, but I will say this. There was no doubt to anyone that was around Mickey and 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 norm. 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 illness or defect. I'm not going to get into that now. I'll wait until we hear more from the experts. But I'll just say this. There's zero doubt that the combination of his mental health, which was, was exacerbated by the pressure put on him because of this deposition played a role in what we saw.

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 that goes to at the moment he acted did his emotions become so enraged disturbed or inflamed that he acted uh almost you know basically out of control i think that'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 he was unable to conform his conduct

based upon some mental health issues that were going on during that week. Now, in the background of all of this is the fact that Mickey Steins and the Sheriff's Office was being sued by a woman named Sabrina Atkins, who was an inmate at the jail. And one of Stein's sheriff's deputies, Ben Fields, had sex with Atkins in Mullins's chambers in exchange for help getting a GPS monitoring bracelet so she could be out of jail on bail. Fields pleaded guilty to a charge related to the allegation in Stein's had been deposed in the lawsuit days before the shooting. And there have also been allegations that Judge Mullins, who worked with women who were struggling with addiction through the courts was involved in taking advantage of the women

by having sex with them himself. Now, these are allegations. We have not seen any videotapes that are alleged to have exist or anything like that. A special judge, Christopher Corrin, was appointed to preside over Mickey Stein's murder case. Corrin is from Bowling Green, Kentucky. That's about four hours west of Letcher County. Judge Corrin will decide several key motions in Mickey Stein's case, including whether he gets bail and whether a change of venue will be granted in the case. The Commonwealth, and that's the prosecution in this case, is asking for a change of venue, and that's actually pretty rare. Usually defendants are the ones asking for a change of venue, but not in this case. Several residents of Lechard County have signed affidavits, including the

Commonwealth's attorney for Lechard County, saying they don't believe Mickey Steins or the Commonwealth can get a fair trial in Lechard County. The Commonwealth filed those affidavits in. in support of its motion for a change of venue. But now Mickey Steins is questioning whether Judge Corrin should be on the case at all. And it's all because of this video. This video is from September 12th, 2024, just seven days before Judge Kevin Mullins was killed. You can see Judge Mullins sitting at a table during a meeting of the Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health. Good afternoon, everyone. And welcome to our September quarterly meeting of the Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health.

Mullins is sitting there with some colleagues, and then a man sits down next to him, and that man, which Judge Christopher Coron, the same judge who is now presiding over the murder case of Sean Mickey Steins. Mullins and Judge Koran sit next to each other with an empty seat in between them for less than an hour. They don't speak to one another. At one point, Judge Mullins speaks to the group. As someone who was actually working on a program and actually

experiencing a problem and within months having that problem addressed was just very wonderful. Also, I was able to speak quite a bit about Senator Adams' Women's With Dignity Bill 1 and 2. And in all these different pieces of legislation, we were able to show how these particular pieces were able to positively influence and even save lives of our Kentucky citizens. So it was a great opportunity. Now this video has led Mickey Steins' lawyer, Jeremy Bartley, to file a motion asking Judge Koran to recuse himself or to have him disqualified. Bartley quotes the legal standard for recusal writing, a judge must disqualify themselves

in any proceeding, where their impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to instances where the judge has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts. He continues, the statute provides in relevant part that a judge shall disqualify himself in any proceeding where he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceedings or has expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the proceeding. The statute also requires disqualification where a judge has knowledge of any other circumstance

in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned. Similarly, the Kentucky Code of Judicial Conduct provides that a judge shall disqualify himself or herself in any proceeding in which the judge's impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to the following circumstances. The judge has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party or a party's lawyer. So Bartley believes that Judge Koran sitting a seat over from Judge Mullins during the meeting, seven days before his murder could possibly impact his ability to be impartial. Bartley writes, had this video been taken even months prior, then the appearance would not be so

concerning. However, this video creates an impression to the public that there is a bias in favor of his colleagues seated next to him. As noted in a recent court order from the court, videos create a strong presumption that is extremely difficult to rebut. Bartley wrote that he believed this judge has made some decisions already that may have shown a lack of impartiality. Bartley writes by way of example, at the juncture when the foregoing was discovered by the defense, a hearing on bond was set. However, despite the consent of the defendant, the mental health report from the state's own expert has been disallowed as evidence in the bond hearing. While the undersigned is restrained by the previous order from discussing the findings in the

report or the contents, our client made multiple revelations to the examiner that fall into the category of evidence that would conflict with this judge's professional knowledge of the deceased. At this point, there has been no legal basis as support for the refusal to unseal the KCPC report. While that issue is one to be addressed further at a later date, the objective observer would rationally believe there is inherent bias from the video, and this would lead the judge to prohibit this normally admissible report from coming into evidence. Bartley wrote that things in his view would be different had Koran disclosed the existence of this video much earlier. All right. So to discuss this motion to disqualify the judge in this case, I want to bring in Mark Weaver. He works as a

special prosecutor in the state of Ohio, just north of the bluegrass state of Kentucky, and also sits as a judge sometimes. So Mark, reading through this motion, basically, Basically, Jeremy Bartley, the attorney for Mickey Steins, is saying that Judge Koran didn't disclose this interaction or this sitting next to Judge Mullins seven days before he was murdered and should have done so. And so he should step aside from the case. What are your thoughts? Mark me down as skeptical about this motion. Let's start from the premise that this is not the judge that would normally have a case. This is a specially assigned judge. Normally when you see motions for disqualification,

it's because they're regularly assigned judge has a conflict because he lives nearby or knows the people in the courthouse. So we start from the premise that especially assigned judge should be somebody who doesn't have a conflict. Well, what's the basis of this conflict that they're claiming? He was at a judge's meeting sitting next to the judge who would eventually be murdered. Now, maybe you could say he was sitting next to the defendant who did the murdering. That might be a conflict, but those aren't our facts here. It's sitting next to the judge who's going to be murdered. I noticed when I watched that video when your viewers could see it, that there were placards or name cards around the little square about where the judges were

sitting. I've been to a lot of these conferences, particularly as a prosecutor. Many times, the staff has laid out where everybody sits and so you just go where your name tag is, your name placard and kind of a signed seating if you will so perhaps they were together because the staff put them together but simply

being at a professional event with the judge who would eventually be shot strikes me as a very weak reason to suggest that there should be a disqualification and there was a seat in between them an empty seat in between them. It doesn't appear that they speak to one another. So, and Bulling Green and

Letcher County, I mapped it. They're four hours apart, just about four hours drive apart. So, yes, a lot of judges do know one another, but from the video, I don't see any indication that they were, that they did know one another or that they were like buddy, buddy, or that they were even interacting with one another on a meaningful level at all. Well, I'll give you, I'll give you an example that might help viewers. At least in Ohio, a lawyer donating to a judge's campaign is not enough to disqualify the judge. That's considered to be part of the normal doing business as a judicial candidate.

So when I go to prosecutors conferences, and I go sometimes twice a year, from prosecutors from all around the state, I will often shake hands. How are you? Good to see you again. How's the family? What's new? Talk about sports. Talk about the weather. But then I've never been to their home. I don't know their spouse. It's really just a friendly professional conversation. Even that sort of relationship would not be enough to disqualify somebody. Jeremy Bartley, he writes in his motion, you know, the fact that these two men served on this very worthwhile committee is not enough to draw. an objectively reasonable inference of impartiality.

However, there will be proffered evidence that contrasts with the presentation seen on the video. It is difficult to understand how this close proximity with Mullins in both time and distance would not lead the reasonable observer to impute a bias in favor of disbelief of negative statements and the propensity to disallow the same. And he's talking about, like, basically, that he's sitting next to him at this conference, maybe he's not going to believe some of the evidence at trial where there's discussion about Mullins possibly being involved with the trafficking of these women or taking advantage of these women. That's like the allegation that's been made. That's been the talk. And that this somehow

was part of what led Mickey Stein's to shoot and kill Judge Mullins, his long-time friend and former boss, like that he thought his daughter and wife had been taken, and it was part of this whole thing. So maybe this judge sitting next to the, Judge Koran, sitting next to Judge Mullins, is thinking to himself, you know, I'm just not buying this. Yeah, this is all so speculative. It's all so attenuated. I've never been a criminal defense lawyer, but I know they have a job to do. Some of my friends were prosecutors, and now they're criminal defense lawyers, it's fine. It's a perfectly good profession. But I understand that they have to work with the facts in front of them. The facts they wanted is they wanted to have a video

of these two arm in arm at some meeting, smoking cigars and laughing and swapping stories. They don't have that video. They have them sitting at what looks like a very boring meeting. I'm not saying the topic isn't important, but it looks like a very boring professional meeting and trying to spin that up into some conflict relationship really does strike me as far-fetched. So basically, this judge, I would think, is going to seek an opinion from someone. Is that how this would work with this judge? Since he adjourned the prior proceedings, we discussed that, would he go seek legal advice or an opinion from, I don't know, a judge's counsel?

what do you think that he would do and then, I mean, he'd have to come back and then look at this or, you know, the Supreme Court would have to look at it, you know, what would happen? In most states, there are two steps towards disqualification. The first is a request for the judge to disqualify himself. And the U.S. Supreme Court, out of a case from West Virginia, about a decade ago, gave standards for when judges should voluntarily disqualify themselves from cases. If the judge decides that he or she does not need to disqualify themselves, then a party can ask, in this case, I think it's the Chief Justice,

that's certainly the way it is in Ohio, whoever appointed that judge to reconsider that appointment and disqualify the judge who didn't want to disqualify themselves. So it's a two-step process typically. hey judge i think you're conflicted would you step away if the judge says no then hey chief justice of the supreme court would you disqualify and appoint another special judge i think that's how it's going to go here i find it hard to believe that this judge judge koran is going to go back review the video and say you know what you're right i can't be impartial because i sat one seat

over from Judge Mullins and may have not even realized it was Judge Mullins at the time until you just brought this to my attention. I mean, that could very well be the scenario. Do you see this Judge Coran saying that? I mean, judges, judges, I mean, they're human beings and they're loath to say, you know, oh, you know, I can't be impartial. I mean, you don't see that very often. That usually comes before the case starts or at the very beginning of the case. That's why he's on the case in the first place. Everybody on this case is specially appointed. The judge, I mean, the Commonwealth's Attorney, that's why the AG's office is on this and not the Commonwealth Attorney for Lecture County. Yeah, you mentioned in your intro that I've been

a special prosecutor in more than a dozen counties in Ohio. And I've received more calls than just those cases. And so at the very outset, when I get a call, hey, Mark, could you please be a special prosecutor in such and such county involving this person and that person? If I know those people and I know that I can't be objective, I will deny the appointment even before it's made. So I have to think this judge would have done the same thing. Oh, what are you kidding? I'm so close with him. We always go out to dinner together and he tells me his life story and all of his secret personal knowledge. I can't be on that. case. Well, that didn't happen. The judge accepted the appointment. Didn't have to. The judge accepted the

appointment. So I can't imagine that this video, here you are sitting next to each other at a very boring judicial conference. Now you have to get off. I just don't see it going anywhere. I want to talk just briefly now about the motion for a change of venue filed by the Commonwealth, which is not something you often see. The Commonwealth has now filed a bunch of affidavits. from people in Letcher County, including the Commonwealth's attorney, Matt Butler, who is not a part of the case. But basically all of these people are saying, I don't believe Mickey Steins or the Commonwealth can get a fair trial in Letcher County.

The Commonwealth is basically trying to beef up its case saying, look, we have these sworn statements from residents of Letcher County, one being the Commonwealth's attorney, who I think that's very odd since he took himself out. of the case. But what do you think about that, the Commonwealth filing these affidavits in support of their motion? Let me address that last question first. If a prosecutor steps away from a case, that prosecutor should have nothing to do with the case after that. So that was very curious to me that the prosecutor who stepped away from the case, appropriately so, would get involved by way of filing an affidavit. So that's concerning to me at least a little bit. The larger point

as I read these affidavits, I actually set aside some time to read them. I thought I might need 15 minutes, but each of them is, I think, three sentences long. These are what we call in the law conclusory affidavits, where they don't offer any proof. They just say, trust me, I know something, and therefore you can't get a fair trial here. There was no survey done, nothing like that. It's just like, I live here, trust me. I can tell you for a fact. Yeah.

I'm not saying it's unethical. What I'm saying is it's really weak tea, if you will. If you had said, I have spoken to 200 people in the last month at Christmas parties, and 150 of them have all said, I have an opinion about this case and I won't be able to shake it. That's at least some evidence. It's kind of curious that you'd be keeping track of the numbers like that. Or if you, as you mentioned, a survey, that's been done before. You do a public opinion survey and you present the results to the judge

and say, we need to move this case out of the county. This scientific survey says that two-thirds of the people say they could never change their mind. That's the sort of thing. It doesn't have to be a survey, by the way. The law doesn't require a survey. But there needs to be something more than what I call, or what the law calls, conclusory affidavits that say, yep, trust me, I know, can't get a fair trial here. Yeah, it seemed a little hinky to me. Mark Weaver, thank you as always for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you. And a date has not yet been set to argue the motion to disqualify Judge Koran, and he hasn't responded to the motion. When he does, we'll let you know. Mickey Stein's remains being held without bail at the Leslie County Detention Center. And that's it for this episode

of Crime Fix. I'm Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time. Thank you. Thank you.