 Hines was a witness to the assassination of fellow judge John Milton Elliott on March 26, 1879, while the two were leaving the Kentucky State House, by Colonel Thomas Buford, a judge from Henry County, Kentucky.Buford, enraged by Elliott's failure to rule in favor of his late sister in a property dispute, shot Elliott with a double-barreled twelve gauge shotgun filled with buckshot after Hines had turned and walked away from Elliott.Hines inspected the body as Buford surrendered to a deputy sheriff who had come to investigate the turmoil.