Sante Fe: A New Mexico judge dismissed involuntary manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin on Friday after his lawyers alleged police hid evidence of the source of the live round that killed Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021.
Three days after Baldwin’s trial began in New Mexico, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ruled after hearing evidence on the defence request made earlier.
Hilaria Baldwin, right, speaks to her husband, actor Alec Baldwin, during his trial for involuntary manslaughter.Credit: AP
Baldwin cried and embraced his attorneys after the decision was announced.
The actor’s lawyers said the Santa Fe sheriff’s office took possession of live rounds as evidence in the case but failed to list them in the Rust investigation file or disclose their existence to defence lawyers.
They also alleged the rounds were evidence that the bullet that killed Hutchins came from Seth Kenney, the movie’s prop supplier. Kenney has denied supplying live ammunition to the production and has not been charged in the case. He had been expected to testify against Baldwin.
The Colt .45 rounds at the centre of the dismissal were handed into the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office on March 6 by Troy Teske, a friend of Thell Reed, the stepfather of Rust armourer Hannah Gutierrez, on the same day Gutierrez was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for Hutchins’ death.
A Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office technician, Marissa Poppel, testified before the judge that the rounds were not hidden from Baldwin and she was told to file them and details on how they were obtained under a different case number to the Rust case. She disputed Spiro’s assertion the Colt .45 ammunition matched the round that killed Hutchins.
Prosecutor Kari Morrissey had questioned the allegation the evidence was concealed from Baldwin.
“If you buried it how did the defence attorneys know to cross examine you about it yesterday?” asked Morrissey.
