Ella Scott
Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial has extraordinarily been dismissed by a judge, almost three years after the death of Halyna Hutchins.
On Friday (12 July), 66-year-old Baldwin embraced his wife Hilaria Baldwin, 40, after Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer declared his case would be thrown out on the grounds of misconduct by police and prosecutors.
The actor has always denied the charge of involuntary manslaughter over the 2021 incident, which saw cinematographer Hutchins being hit and killed by a pistol bullet on the set of Rust.
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During a rehearsal on 21 October, it’s said that the father-of-eight had been pointing a gun at the 42-year-old woman when it went off, proving fatal to her and injuring director Joel Souza.
However, Baldwin denied that he hit the weapon’s trigger on the New Mexico film set, but had instead pulled back the revolver’s hammer.
If the 30 Rock actor had been found guilty of the felony, he could have been sentenced to up to 18 months in prison.
According to the prosecution, the star was playing ‘make believe with a real gun’ at the time of the incident and was later accused of violating ‘the cardinal rules of firearm safety’.
However, Baldwin’s defense team argued he had ‘committed no crime’ by being ‘an actor, acting’.
Furthermore, they explained that the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office had taken possession of live rounds of ammunition as evidence but failed to record and ‘buried’ its existence from the actor’s defense team.
It’s said that the rounds were delivered to the sheriff’s office in March by former police officer, Troy Teske.
The man was also the friend of Thell Reed - the stepfather of Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.
The 27-year-old was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March - the same day Teske is thought to have delivered the rounds to the sheriff’s office.
Countering this argument, prosecutor Kari Morrissey said the submitted Colt 45 ammunition was not connected to the case and was not hidden from the defence team.
After hearing evidence from witnesses such as Seth Kenney, a prop store owner who provided blanks and dummy rounds to the set of Rust and Corporal Alexandria Hancock and Lieutenant Ryan Randall, from the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, Judge Marlowe Sommer ruled that withholding this evidence was deemed as misconduct on police and prosecutors’ behalf.
“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,” Marlowe Sommer declared.
The 1st Judicial District Judge at Santa Fe court continued to say that there was ‘no way for the court to right this wrong,’ and that the sanction of dismissal would be ‘the only warranted remedy.’
The official’s decision was cast with prejudice, meaning that the involuntary manslaughter claim against the actor cannot be filed in court again.
“If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith it certainly comes so near to bad faith to show signs of scorching,” she added.
After discovering his case had officially been dismissed Baldwin began to cry before hugging his two lawyers and his wife.
The Associated Press reports that the pair left the courtroom without speaking to the media and climbed into an SUV parked outside.
Despite the case being thrown out of court, Baldwin and other producers still face civil lawsuits from Hutchins’ parents and sister as well as crew members.
Following the recent ruling, District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said: “Our goal from the beginning was to seek justice for Halyna Hutchins.
“We are disappointed that the case did not get to the jury.”