Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ Manslaughter Trial Dismissed Over Withheld Bullet Evidence
In a stunning turnaround for a case that has preoccupied Hollywood since the tragic death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October 2021, Alec Baldwin’s “Rust” manslaughter trial was dismissed Friday after it emerged police and prosecutors deliberately withheld evidence — live bullets relevant to the case — from the defense team.
“The state’s discovery violation has injected a needless incurable delay into the jury trial. Dismissal with prejudice is warranted to ensure the integrity of the judicial system and the efficient administration of justice,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said Friday in granting the defense’s motion to dismiss. Being dismissed with prejudice, it cannot be re-tried.
As it became clear what was happening, Baldwin began to shake with emotion and wiped tears from his eyes. Baldwin and his wife Hilaria left the courthouse without making any public remarks.
Following the dismissal Brian J. Panish, attorney for Hutchins’ husband Matthew Hutchins said, “We respect the court’s decision. We look forward to presenting all the evidence to a jury and holding Mr. Baldwin accountable for his actions in the senseless death of Halyna Hutchins.”
The outcome caps a real life courtroom drama which began Thursday, when the defense revealed that in March — near the end of the manslaughter trial of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed — investigators had been provided with several live bullets by Troy Teske, a retired Arizona police officer, and that Teske told them they matched the bullet that killed Hutchins.
Baldwin’s attorney’s referred to him at that time as a “good Samaritan,” though prosecutors subsequently revealed that Teske was a longtime friend of Gutierrez-Reed’s father. Prosecutors also argued the bullets were irrelevant anyway because in their determination, they didn’t match the blank rounds used on the “Rust” set.
On Friday Baldwin’s defense raised the matter again in a motion to have the case dismissed, based in part on the fact that the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s department failed to disclose possession and knowledge of the bullets to the defense despite multiple opportunities.
In a strange turn of events, Prosecutor Kari Morrissey called herself to the stand, where she testified under oath that she and the prosecutors had made a determination years before that the bullets didn’t match the live round that killed Hutchins and therefore had “no evidentiary value.”
Baldwin’s attorney, Luke Nikas responded that prosecutors do not get to decide whether evidence should be excluded or not. In her statement dismissing the case Judge Sommer clearly agreed, saying that “the late discovery of this evidence during trial has impeded the effective use of evidence in such a way that it has impacted the fundamental fairness of the proceedings. The defense is not in a position to test the state’s theory as to the source of the live rounds that killed Ms. Hutchins.”
In her remarks, Sommer blasted law enforcement and the entire prosecutorial team for how the case was conducted, declaring “the state is highly culpable for its failure to provide this discovery to the defendant. The state unilaterally withheld the supplemental report. Santa Fe County Sheriff’s officer made the decision — and apparently also with the prosecutor… that the evidence was of no evidentiary value and failed to connect the evidence to the case.”
Sommer also called out Morrissey directly, saying that she “was aware of the new evidence and yet did not make an effort to disclose it to defense. The state’s willful 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.”
In a possible sign of things to come, just minutes before the case was dismissed, Erlindo Ocampo Johnson, one of two special prosecutors in the case, resigned.
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