The defense alleged that prosecutors withheld evidence from them about ammunition that could be related to the on-set shooting and said they should have been able to determine its significance.
A judge from New Mexico has ended suddenly and surprisingly to the involuntary manslaughter case against actor Alec Baldwin, dismissing it in the middle of the trial and saying that it cannot be presented again.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case with prejudice based on the police and prosecutor misconduct in withholding evidence from the defense in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie “Rust”.
“The late discovery of this evidence during the trial has prevented the effective use of the evidence in such a way that has affected the fundamental impartiality of the procedure“said Marlowe Sommer.
“If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes close enough to bad faith to show signs of singeing.”
Sommer paused the trial early Friday while he considered the defense’s request to dismiss the case based on evidence. The defense argued that Prosecutors hid evidence about the ammunition from them what They could be related to the shooting on the filming set. The defense said they should have been able to determine its significance.
Prosecutors said the ammunition was not related to the case. and that it was not hidden. The issue arose on Thursday on the second day of the actor’s trial during the defense’s interrogation of Marissa Poppell, a sheriff’s office technician in charge of the crime scene.
Baldwin’s attorney, Alex Spiro, asked if a “good Samaritan” had come to the sheriff’s office with the ammunition earlier this year, after the trial against Hannah Gutiérrez-Reed, the film’s gunsmith, for his role in Hutchins’ death. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughterwhich has now appealed.
At the exit of the Santa Fe court, special inspector Kari Morrissedy She said she was disappointed but respected the court’s decision.
“We did everything humanly possible to bring justice to Halyna and her family and we are proud of the work we did. We are disappointed by the decision of the court, but we have to respect it,” he said.
Baldwin He got into an SUV at the exit of the Santa Fe courthouse without speaking to the media.
