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.
Hines witnessed the assassination of judge John Milton Elliott by Colonel Thomas Buford, a judge from Henry County, Kentucky, on March 26, 1879. Buford shot Elliott with a double-barreled twelve gauge shotgun filled with buckshot after Hines had turned away from Elliott.