SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico judge on Friday put a sudden and shocking end to the case of involuntary manslaughter against Alec Baldwin, dismissing the case midway through the actor’s trial and saying the case could not be retried.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case, citing police and prosecutorial misconduct over the withholding of evidence from the defense in the 2021 shooting of camerawoman Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie “Rust.”
Baldwin cried, hugged his two attorneys, gestured toward the front of the courthouse and turned to embrace his weeping wife, Hilaria, the mother of seven of his eight children, holding the embrace for 12 seconds. He climbed into an SUV outside the Santa Fe County courthouse without speaking to the media.
“The late discovery of this evidence at trial has so impeded the effective use of evidence that it has affected the fundamental fairness of the proceedings,” Marlowe Sommer said. “If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes close enough to bad faith that it shows signs of scorching.”
The evidence that ended the case, revealed during testimony Thursday, was ammunition brought to the sheriff’s office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins’ killing. Prosecutors said they considered the ammunition unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin’s attorneys argued they had “buried” it and filed a motion to dismiss the case.
The judge’s ruling ends the 66-year-old Baldwin’s criminal liability after a nearly three-year saga that began when the gun he pointed at Hutchins during a rehearsal went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.
“Our goal from the beginning was to seek justice for Halyna Hutchins,” District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said in a statement. “We are disappointed that the case did not go to a jury.”
The career of the “Hunt for Red October” and “30 Rock” star and frequent “Saturday Night Live” host — who has been a household name for more than three decades — had been called into question, and he could have faced up to 18 months in prison if convicted. It’s unclear what chances he now faces, but he and his wife signed an agreement for a reality show in June about their large family.
Baldwin and other producers still face civil lawsuits from Hutchins’ parents and sister, as well as crew members. Hutchins’ widower and young son had agreed to settle their own lawsuit about a year into filming, with the widower becoming an executive producer on the then-unfinished film.
But that settlement was reportedly in jeopardy before the trial, and the attorney who filed the settlement, Brian Panish, now said in a statement that “we look forward to presenting all of the evidence to a jury and holding Mr. Baldwin accountable for his actions in the senseless death of Halyna Hutchins.”
“Rust,” an independent western, was completed in Montana. It failed to find a distributor and was not seen by the public.
Prosecutors have convicted one person in Hutchins’ death: Hannah Gutierrez-Reedthe film’s gunmaker, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter.
She is attractiveand her attorney Jason Bowles said he would file a motion to dismiss his client’s case on the same basis as Baldwin’s.
Marlowe Sommer had adjourned the trial earlier on Friday and sent the jury home so they could hear testimony and arguments on the motion to dismiss.
Troy Teske, a retired police officer and a close friend of Gutierrez-Reed’s father. Thell Reed, a gun coach and gunsmith in films, was the one who showed up with the ammunition the day the guilty verdict was read in her case.
Teske and the ammunition were known to authorities for several weeks after the shooting, but they concluded it was not relevant.
The evidence was collected, but crucially, it was not filed with the rest of the “Rust” case, nor was it presented to Baldwin’s team when they examined the ballistics evidence in April.
The issue came up during the defense’s questioning of crime scene technician Marissa Poppellwho acknowledged receiving the ammunition, a moment the judge saw on Friday via a police chief’s bodycam.
Morrissey argued that the evidence’s emergence was part of an attempt by Reed to shift blame away from his daughter.
“This is a wild goose chase that has no evidentiary value whatsoever,” Morrissey said. “This is just a man trying to protect his daughter.”
The evidence might not have mattered in Baldwin’s case had it been included. The charges against him did not allege that he was responsible for the fatal bullets on set. But the defense’s lack of access to the evidence was considered scandalous enough to warrant a dismissal.
The trial’s other special prosecutor, Erlinda Ocampo Johnson, who delivered the state’s opening statement two days ago, resigned from the case on Friday, a move that would have been baffling had it not been followed moments later by the dismissal. Baldwin attorney Alex Spiro asked Morrissey whether Johnson’s resignation was based on the evidentiary problems, and Morrissey said she believed it had to do with the holding of the public hearing itself.
Morrissey said she respects the judge’s decision, but that there is no reason to believe the unreleased evidence is related to the film set.
The trial was over after it had barely begun. The prosecutors had barely begun to present their case, and none of the witnesses on the set had yet testified.
Baldwin’s younger brother Stephen Baldwin and older sister Elizabeth Keuchler, both actors themselves, sat behind him in the gallery next to his wife every day of the trial, which was streamed live by AP and Court TV. Reporters from both coasts filled the small courtroom and outdoor patio.
The judge dealt a serious blow to the prosecution’s case when she ruled on the eve of the trial on Monday that Baldwin’s role as producer of the film was not relevant and had to be omitted.
Yet prosecutors went ahead, portraying Baldwin in their opening sentences as a reckless artist who “fake it” and flouted basic gun safety rules.
Spiro, the defense attorney, argued that his client was only doing what actors always do on the set of “Rust” and that necessary safety precautions should be taken before a gun reaches a performer’s hand.
Baldwin was first charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2023, along with Gutierrez-Reed. The charges were dropped a few months later, but a new team of special prosecutors obtained a grand jury indictment against the actor this year.
The 16 jurors, including alternates, went home Friday thinking they would return Monday for one of the most high-profile trials in state history. Instead, they were told by the court that their employment had been terminated.
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Dalton reported from Los Angeles.
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For more coverage of the involuntary manslaughter trial of Alec Baldwin, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/alec-baldwin