US judge dismisses Alec Baldwin manslaughter case over withheld evidence

LOS ANGELES – Actor Alec Baldwin’s trial for involuntary manslaughter was abruptly dismissed by a judge on July 12 after she ruled that key evidence over a fatal shooting on the set of the movie Rust had been withheld from the defence.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, presiding over the trial in Santa Fe, New Mexico, said bullets potentially linked to the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins that could have been favourable to Baldwin’s case had not been shared with his lawyers by police and prosecutors.

The Hollywood A-lister immediately burst into tears, as the case – which could have seen him sentenced to 18 months in prison if found guilty – was abruptly tossed out in sensational scenes.

“The state’s wilful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate. If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching prejudice,” said Judge Sommer.

“The court concludes that this conduct is highly prejudicial to the defendant.”

Baldwin was holding a gun in the direction of Ms Hutchins during a rehearsal in October 2021 when the weapon fired, killing Ms Hutchins and wounding the film’s director.

The movie’s armourer Hannah Gutierrez, who loaded the fatal weapon, is serving 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter.

Baldwin was facing the same charge. Prosecutors claimed he ignored basic gun safety laws and acted recklessly on set.

Baldwin’s celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro argued that the actor had no responsibility for checking the weapon’s deadly contents and did not know it contained live rounds.

But the defence’s case also rested heavily on discrediting the police investigation.

And Mr Spiro on July 11 introduced evidence that live bullets potentially linked to the shooting had been handed to police, but not disclosed to Baldwin’s lawyers.

The bullets were handed to police by a “good Samaritan” earlier in 2024, more than two years after the Rust tragedy.

The good Samaritan was a former police officer and a family friend of Gutierrez, the armourer. He told police the bullets matched the rounds that killed Ms Hutchins.

Mr Spiro accused police of having “buried” evidence by not filing it under the Rust case, depriving the defence of a chance to see it.

“Which was a perfect plan,” he told the court.

Crime scene technician Marissa Poppell, under questioning from Mr Spiro, said she had catalogued the bullets, but had been told not to file them under the Rust case.

Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey scrambled to respond, telling the court she had never seen or heard of the bullets before this week.

But when it emerged that Ms Morrissey had been present for discussions in which it was decided not to submit the bullets into the Rust case file, she voluntarily called herself as a witness in a last-ditch attempt to salvage the state’s case.

She claimed the allegedly “buried” bullets did not match the live rounds on the set of Rust, and had been stored in a different state, Arizona, up to the day of the tragic shooting.

Judge Sommer was not convinced and dismissed the case, prompting the emotional scenes among Baldwin and his family.

The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning Baldwin is unlikely to see the inside of a courtroom again over the shooting, said University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias.

“On the criminal side, I think it’s done. The prosecutors could try to somehow mount an extraordinary appeal. But I don’t think any appellate court is going to agree with the prosecutor,” he said. “They should have turned it over, they didn’t turn it over.” AFP