Mickey Stines Case Frozen: Judge Recusal Motion Filed After Hidden Connection to Victim Revealed

This week on Hidden Killers, the Mickey Stines murder case hit a wall nobody saw coming — and we examined the systemic failures that made this tragedy inevitable.

Days before a critical hearing on bond and venue, Special Judge Christopher Cohron abruptly adjourned court. Now we know why. The defense has filed a motion to recuse Cohron after discovering video footage showing him seated inches from Judge Kevin Mullins at a Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health meeting just seven days before Mullins was shot to death in his chambers. According to the motion, Cohron never disclosed this connection. Defense attorneys Jeremy and Kerri Bartley argue that in a case where the entire defense hinges on Stines' mental state, having a judge with undisclosed proximity to the victim creates an appearance of bias that cannot be ignored.

But we also examined what the court filings reveal about the days before the shooting. An elected Kentucky sheriff spiraled publicly. He called dead relatives on his phone. Lost weight rapidly. Stopped sleeping. Displayed paranoia. His own staff pushed him to see a doctor. The diagnosis was acute stress reaction. The response? Send him home — with his badge, his gun, and his authority untouched. Twenty-four hours later, Judge Mullins was shot nine times in his own chambers.

Former FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer exposed the structural failures. Kentucky has no red flag law. An elected sheriff cannot be suspended by subordinates. There was no mechanism to disarm him even as multiple people recognized he was in crisis. Stines has been held without bond for over fifteen months. No trial date. No death penalty decision. Everything frozen.

#MickeyStines #JudgeKevinMullins #JudgeRecusal #ChristopherCohron #JenniferCoffindaffer #FBI #KentuckySheriff #MentalHealthCrisis #HiddenKillers #WeekInReview

Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/

​Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel.    / @hiddenkillerspod  

Instagram   / hiddenkillerspod  

Facebook   / hiddenkillerspod  

Tik-Tok   / hiddenkillerspod  

X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.