CARTER COUNTY, Ky. — A Kentucky sheriff charged with first-degree murder in the death of a district court judge pleaded innocent Wednesday in his first court appearance since the killing that shocked the small Letcher County community.

Shawn “Mickey” Stines, 43, remains jailed without bail after his arraignment, which was held remotely in a Carter County courtroom, 100 miles from the courthouse where Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, was shot six days earlier. ).

Prosecutors did not present evidence at the arraignment, leaving a possible motive for the murder a mystery. Stines appeared remotely from the Leslie County Jail.

Stines also did not comment on the allegations during the hearing, but Judge Rupert Wilhoit asked him about his finances after Stines confirmed he needed a court-appointed attorney.

The judge expressed skepticism that Stines, who said he owned two homes and earned $115,000 as sheriff, was actually poor.

“Sir, as I understand it, he is obviously in the process of losing his job as sheriff of Letcher County and will have no future income,” public defender Josh Miller told the judge.

A preliminary hearing to present evidence in the case has been set for Oct. 1 before a different judge in Morgan County, another courtroom away from the crime scene.

Authorities said they are still investigating what happened in the judge’s office moments before the fatal shooting that afternoon. There were other people in the building when the judge was shot, but no one else was in his office, said Matt Gayheart, a Kentucky state trooper.

According to the Kentucky Sheriff’s Association, Stines’ job made him responsible for security in district courts, including the personal safety of judges. He now faces a first-degree murder charge, and it’s unclear who will take his place as sheriff.

There were cameras in the building and all witnesses will be interviewed, said Gayheart, who emphasized that it was the first time a tragedy “of this scale” had hit the county.

Stines and Mullins had lunch together hours before the shooting, District Court Clerk Mike Watts told CNN affiliate WKYT.

“The whole county is just devastated by this,” Watts told WKYT, nodding to the void left in the local justice system. “Not only did we lose the sheriff and the district judge, but I lost two personal friends that I worked with every day.”

Just days before the shooting, on September 16, Stines testified in an ongoing federal lawsuit involving the former deputy president who forced a woman to have sex with him in 2021, CNN previously reported.

The lawsuit alleged sexual allegations against the deputy president “were not adequately investigated by Sheriff Stines,” who fired the deputy in 2022.

Jonathan Shaw, a lawyer representing Stines in the lawsuit, told CNN in an email that he was not authorized to speak on Stines’ personal behalf in the federal lawsuit or murder case.

An act of violence between two men “I loved them like brothers,” says the district attorney
Many residents knew the two prominent figures in the community, and friends of both the sheriff and the judge said they were shocked by the killing and couldn’t understand why it happened.

A quiet, seemingly routine day in court turned chaotic when police received a 911 call just before 3 p.m. Thursday reporting shots fired from inside the courthouse, state police said.

According to Letcher County Commonwealth’s Attorney Matt Butler.

Fear gripped the county as Letcher County Public Schools students were placed on lockdown shortly before 3:30 p.m.

Police said Mullins was found with multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Butler recused himself and his office from prosecuting the sheriff because he and the judge married two sisters and their children act more like siblings than cousins, he said in a statement last week. “Our community has experienced an act of violence that appears to have occurred between two men I have worked with for seventeen years and whom I love like brothers,” Butler wrote in a social media post.

Some residents, including Butler, are calling for more appropriate security protocols at the courthouse, such as the installation of a metal detector and additional security at the entrance.

“The Letcher County Courthouse is one of the last you can enter without a metal detector and security at the front door,” Butler said, calling it “unacceptable.”

Mullins left behind a wife and two daughters, according to his obituary. “He died in his courthouse where he had spent his career helping people,” the obituary said.

CNN’s Dalia Faheid and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.

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