Newly released body camera footage captures the disoriented and paranoid statements of a Kentucky sheriff in the immediate aftermath of him allegedly shooting a judge, a longtime friend, inside a courthouse. The video reveals a frantic scene and the suspect’s apparent fear for his family’s safety as state police transported him to jail.
Leroy “Mickey” Stein, the former Leslie County Sheriff, is charged with murdering Circuit Judge Kevin Mullins in the judge’s own chambers on September 19, 2023. The two had shared lunch just hours before the fatal meeting, which was captured on a courthouse surveillance camera.
In the bodycam footage, Stein is heard pleading with troopers from the back of a cruiser, his voice strained with panic. “Be fair to me, man… I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,” he says during the hour-long drive to the Leslie County Jail. He repeatedly expresses fear that officers are not taking him to the correct facility.
“This is not the jail now, this is not the jail,” Stein insists at one point. He also asks troopers to ensure there are no weapons in the vehicle and voices a fear of being passed off to someone who will hurt him. “Y’all are going to let somebody hurt me,” he states.
The footage provides the first public glimpse into Stein’s state of mind following the shooting. During the transport, a trooper attempts to question him about a potential motive. “Was it over your family?” the officer asks. “Something did happen, you know,” Stein replies cryptically, but does not elaborate.
This exchange aligns with a statement from Stein’s defense team, who said the footage “affirms our belief that our client felt there was an imminent threat to his family and himself.” His attorneys have indicated they may pursue a defense of extreme emotional disturbance. The crime sent shockwaves through the rural Kentucky community, not only for its violence but for the positions of the individuals involved. Stein considered Mullins both a friend and a former boss from his time as a court security officer.
A preliminary hearing last year revealed Stein had tried to call his daughter from the judge’s phone just before the shooting. An officer testified that upon arrest, Stein claimed, “They’re trying to kidnap my wife and kid.”
The motive remains officially unclear, but the case is entangled with a separate, salacious civil lawsuit. In the days before the shooting, Stein was deposed in a lawsuit filed by Sabrina Atkins against the sheriff’s office. Atkins alleged a deputy had sexual contact with her in Judge Mullins’s chambers while she was on home incarceration. In a 2022 interview with state investigators, Atkins further claimed to have seen a video from the chambers depicting Judge Mullins himself engaged in a sexual act.
News Nation first reported the audio of this interview, where Atkins stated, “I’ve seen one… just him having sex with girls to get out of jail.” The Kentucky Attorney General’s office confirmed the recording’s authenticity. Stein’s lawyers have cited “an extreme amount of pressure” from this pending civil case and its potential “to reveal matters within the courthouse” as a significant factor impacting their client’s mental state.
The released footage begins with the chaotic response to the 911 call. “We got a judge has been shot,” a dispatcher relays. Troopers are seen securing the courthouse, separating witnesses, and comforting distraught individuals believed to be family members of the slain judge.
Stein, who has pleaded not guilty, is currently jailed awaiting trial. His attorneys have suggested the shooting may constitute manslaughter rather than murder. The prosecution will proceed as investigators continue to piece together the exact sequence of events that led a county sheriff to open fire on a sitting judge.
