July 12 (UPI) — In a surprise development, the judge in Alec Baldwin‘s manslaughter trial dismissed the case Friday, siding with his lawyers who argued the prosecution failed to turn over vital evidence to the case.
Baldwin’s attorneys earlier on Friday filed a surprise motion to have the case thrown out because the state failed to turn over a box of ammunition to the defense that they argued could have been linked to the killing of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer then dismissed the jury for the day to allow further review of the defense motion. By 4 p.m., Sommer threw out the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought forward again.
“There is no way for the court to right this wrong,” Sommer said. “The sanction of dismissal is the only warranted remedy.”
Defense Attorney Luke Nikas said the prosecution’s failure was part of a broader pattern of disclosure violations.
“This is over and over and over again,” Nikas said. “This is not the first time. This is not the second time. It’s not the third time. It’s time for this case to be dismissed.”
Baldwin was on trial in Santa Fe, N.M., for the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed by a live round from a prop gun Baldwin was using on the set of the film Rust. He would have faced up to 18 months in prison if convicted.
Baldwin throughout the trial maintained he was unaware the gun contained a live round and that he did not pull the trigger when the gun went off.
A prevailing mystery in the case was how live rounds got mixed up with blanks on the movie set.
Former police officer Troy Teske turned in the batch of rounds the defense accused prosecutors of hiding to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office in March.
Teske claimed the rounds came from movie prop supplier Seth Kenney, owner of PDQ Props, and that they could match the bullet that killed Hutchins.
Prosecutor Kari Morrissey argued the rounds Teske turned over did not match the rounds found on set because the primers were different colors.
“This is a wild goose chase,” Morrissey said. “This has no evidentiary value whatsoever.”
Some of the rounds did match the characteristics of the fatal round, but crime scene technician Marissa Poppell said further analysis would be required to confirm they were a perfect match.
Morrissey told the court she had never seen the ammunition before, but if they do match the one that killed Hutchins, that would bolster the prosecution’s belief that armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed was the one who brought them on set.
Sommer ordered additional witnesses to testify before she rendered a ruling in Baldwin’s motion to dismiss.
Reed was scheduled to testify Friday, but her attorney Jason Bowles had said earlier in the day that he learned prosecutors might delay calling her to the stand.
Reed is serving an 18-month sentence for her role in Hutchins’ death, but the dismissal of Baldwin’s case could lead to her conviction being overturned.
The prosecution on Thursday argued Baldwin violated “cardinal rules” of firearm safety when he was handling the gun that killed Hutchins, but defense attorney Alex Spiro said it was other people’s, not Baldwin’s, responsibility for allowing live rounds on set.
“Those people failed in their duties, but Alec Baldwin committed no crime,” Spiro said.
Poppell on Thursday also testified live rounds were found in several other places on the movie set, including in another actor’s bandolier, the prop cart for the film, an ammo box and two gun holsters, one of which was Baldwin’s.
Baldwin had been charged before with involuntary manslaughter and firearm enhancement in the case, but the charges were dismissed in April 2023 as prosecutors cited “new facts in the case.”
