Video shows moment Kentucky Judge Kevin Mullins was shot: NPR

A Kentucky sheriff shot and killed a local judge last month after seeing his teenage daughter's number on the judge's phone, according to court testimony Tuesday.

According to police, Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines dialed his daughter's number on the phone of District Judge Kevin Mullins, then drew his gun and shot Mullins repeatedly in his own chambers in the town of Whitesburg on Sept. 19.

Stines and Mullins were longtime colleagues and friends. Police did not explain during the preliminary hearing what significance the daughter's phone number on the judge's phone had.

Graphic video played at the hearing appears to show Stines, a hulking man standing 6 feet tall and weighing more than 300 pounds, shooting at Mullins, who was sitting at his desk with his left hand raised. After Mullins falls to the floor, Stines is seen leaning over the desk to shoot again. As Stines prepares to leave, the video shows him approaching from a different angle and firing his final shots from about a foot away.

In the courtroom, viewers wailed and cried as they watched the short clip. There was no sound. Stines, wearing handcuffs and a blue tunic, stared at the defense table while his daughter, sitting behind him, looked at one of the walls.

Stines resigned as sheriff and pleaded not guilty to murder.

Tuesday's statement and video are the latest twist in an extraordinary case in which a judicial officer allegedly killed a judge. Killings of this kind are extremely rare.

In 1988, a judge in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was killed by her estranged husband, a veteran police officer. That same year, a retired New York police officer shot and killed a Westchester County judge after the judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the officer's daughter.

The killings in Kentucky have shocked and stunned the population of Letcher, a county of about 20,000 people in the state's southeastern coalfields, about 150 miles from Lexington.

Stines, 43, and Mullins, 54, were well known throughout the community. Police said they had lunch with others at a restaurant near the courthouse hours before the shooting.

Kentucky State Police are investigating the case but have not released a possible motive.

Det. Clayton Stamper, the lead investigator, said the full video shows Stines trying to call his daughter from his phone and then from the judge's phone. The sheriff then opened fire.

Stamper also testified that Stines told officers when he was arrested, “You're trying to kidnap my wife and child.”

Stamper did not elaborate on what the sheriff might have meant by that. However, he said he heard from the judge and the sheriff in dispute over a recent lawsuit.

Several days before Stines allegedly killed the judge, he was questioned for hours as part of a deposition in a lawsuit that names Stines in his capacity as sheriff. The lawsuit alleged that Stines knew or should have known that a former deputy had forced a drug defendant to have sex in exchange for releasing her from house arrest. The defendant said Deputy Ben Fields forced her to have sex with him after hours in Judge Mullins' chambers in exchange for Fields taking her ankle monitor.

Fields, who also served as a bailiff, pleaded guilty to rape last year. Both Mullins and Stines denied knowing anything about Fields' crimes.

After the shooting, some in Letcher County focused on the sheriff's state of mind.

The plaintiff and her two attorneys said Stines became agitated during the deposition, frequently turning to his attorney for advice and asking for frequent breaks. The day after the statement, Stines – who usually returned press calls promptly – took many hours to get back to a reporter about a fatal accident The mountain eagleLetcher's Weekly Newspaper. Stines told the newspaper he “told everyone in the sheriff's office not to tell anyone until he got back.”

Stines also told the newspaper that he had lost 40 pounds in the last two weeks and didn't know why.

The first-degree murder case against Stines now goes to a grand jury.

NPR member station WEKU contributed to this report.