Several days before Stines allegedly killed the judge, he was interviewed for hours in a deposition in a suit that names Stines in his capacity as sheriff. The lawsuit claimed that Stines knew or should’ve known that a former deputy had coerced a female drug defendant into having sex in exchange for freeing her from house arrest. The defendant said Deputy Ben Fields had forced her to have sex with him in Judge Mullins’ chambers after hours in exchange for Fields taking off her ankle monitor.

Fields, who also served as the judge’s bailiff, pleaded guilty to r-word charges last year. Both Mullins and Stines denied knowing anything about Fields' crimes.

In the wake of the shooting, some in Letcher County have focused on the sheriff’s state of mind.

The plaintiff and her two attorneys said Stines seemed agitated during the deposition, often turning to his attorney for guidance and asking for frequent breaks. The day after the deposition, Stines — who usually returned press calls promptly — took many hours to get back to a reporter about a fatal accident, according to The Mountain Eagle, Letcher’s weekly newspaper. Stines told the newspaper that he’d “told everyone at the sheriff’s office not to say anything to anyone until he returned.”