In a stunning turn, judge throws out case against Alec Baldwin

Santa Fe Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer has dismissed actor Alec Baldwin’s case for involuntary manslaughter.

Baldwin’s attorneys filed a last-minute movement to dismiss the case, arguing that they weren’t given a likelihood to look at what could possibly be key proof: a assortment of ammunition that was turned in across the time the movie’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was on trial for involuntary manslaughter. Gutierrez-Reed is presently serving an 18-month sentence.

That ammunition received to the center of Baldwin’s case, the place a lot of the testimony circled round how reside ammunition may have gotten onto the set of Rust. The actor was pointing a gun throughout a rehearsal for the film in October of 2021 when the firearm went off, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Judge Sommer agreed that the prosecution ought to have disclosed particulars concerning the extra ammunition to Baldwin’s group. It was sufficient to dismiss the case with prejudice, which means it may well’t be introduced against Baldwin once more.

“There is no way for the court to right this wrong,” Sommer mentioned when making her ruling this afternoon. Baldwin and his household broke down in tears within the courtroom. He’d been supported by his spouse and siblings since testimony started on Wednesday.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer. Sommer additionally presided over the case against Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed that led to a conviction for involuntary manslaughter.

Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal

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Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal

The proof that ended the case

Around the time of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s trial, a man named Troy Teske turned in a assortment of bullets to the Sheriff’s Office in Santa Fe. He mentioned on the time that they had been from the identical batch because the reside ammunition used on the set of Rust. (Prosecutor Kari Morrissey mentioned Teske was a good buddy of Gutierrez-Reed’s father, a well-known armorer named Thell Reed.) The bullets he introduced had been filed underneath a totally different case quantity, and Morrissey mentioned that she believed these bullets had been not the identical because the deadly bullet that killed Hutchins.

Morrissey later went onto the witness stand herself, admitting that she didn’t assume that proof was related to Baldwin’s trial.

Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey on the witness stand. Another member of the prosecution group, Erlinda Johnson, resigned immediately earlier on Friday.

Ramsay de Give/AP

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Ramsay de Give/AP

However, Baldwin’s authorized group noticed a cover-up: potential proof that might have helped Baldwin’s case was by no means shared with them.

Judge Sommer agreed. “The state is highly culpable for its failure to provide this discovery to the defendant,” the judge dominated.

Earlier on Friday, the jury was dismissed whereas the judge thought-about whether or not to proceed with the case.

Baldwin had been dealing with as much as 18 months behind bars for involuntary manslaughter.

Catch up on Baldwin’s case