SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico judge delivered a sudden and surprising closure Friday in a case that has been brought to justice. Negligence causing death It dismissed the lawsuit against Alec Baldwin midway through the actor’s trial, saying it cannot be refiled.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case, saying police and prosecutors in the 2021 shooting withheld evidence from the defense. Director of photography: Halina Hutchins On the set of the film “Rust.”
Baldwin wept as he hugged his two lawyers and pointed to the front of the courtroom, then turned and embraced his crying wife, Hilaria, mother of seven of his eight children, for 12 seconds as he got into an SUV outside the Santa Fe courthouse without speaking to reporters.
“The belated discovery of this evidence during the trial prevented its effective use and undermined the fundamental fairness of the trial,” Marlow Sommer said. “Even if this conduct does not rise to the level of malice, the signs of malice are arguably close to it.”
The evidence that sunk the case, revealed during testimony on the second day of trial Thursday, was the presence of ammunition that had been brought to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office in March by a man who said he might have been connected to Hutchins’ murder. Prosecutors said they determined the ammunition was irrelevant and immaterial, while Baldwin’s defense team argued the ammunition had been “buried.” The defense filed one of many motions to dismiss the case on evidentiary issues. All other motions have been denied, but the motion was granted.
The judge’s decision ends the criminal charges against Baldwin, 66, after a nearly three-year turmoil that began when a gun pointed at Hutchins went off during a rehearsal, killing him and wounding director Joel Souza.
“From the beginning, our goal has been to seek justice for Halina Hutchins and we fought to ensure this case received a fair trial,” District Attorney Mary Carmack Altwis said in a statement. “It is unfortunate that this case did not reach a jury.”
The star of “The Hunt for Red October” and “30 Rock” and frequent “Saturday Night Live” host has his career in jeopardy and could have faced 18 months in prison if convicted.
Baldwin and the other producers are still facing civil lawsuits from Hutchins’ parents and sister.
Prosecutors won one conviction in Hutchins’ death. Hannah Gutierrez ReidThe film’s arms manufacturer was sentenced to 18 months in prison for manslaughter and is currently serving a 10-month sentence. attractive.
Her attorney, Jason Bowles, said Friday he plans to file a motion to dismiss his client’s case as well.
“In dismissing the case, the judge upheld the integrity of the system,” he told The Associated Press in an email.
Judge Marlowe Sommer adjourned the trial early Friday morning, allowing jurors to go home for the weekend and have a day to hear testimony and arguments on the motion to dismiss.
Troy Teske, a retired police officer and close friend of Gutierrez-Reed’s father, Tel Reed, a firearms coach and gun mechanic for the film, was the person who brought the ammunition to the sheriff’s office on the same day in March that she was sentenced in the case.
Teske and the ammunition he said may be linked were known to authorities for weeks after the shootings, and special prosecutor Kari Morrissey met with him last year, but authorities determined they were not linked.
The evidence was collected but, crucially, it was not kept in the same file as other evidence in the “Rust” case, nor was it presented to Baldwin’s defense team when they examined the ballistic evidence in April. The defense team will argue that they should have had an opportunity to comment on the significance of the evidence, but that the prosecution “buried” it.
The issue came up Thursday during defense questioning of Marissa Poppel, a crime scene technician with the sheriff’s office, who acknowledged receiving the ammunition, a moment the judge watched Friday on a police supervisor’s body camera.
Morrissey argued the discovery of ammunition was part of Reid’s attempt to shift responsibility from his daughter.
“This is a wasted effort that has no probative value,” Morrissey told the judge during the hearing. “This is the act of a man just trying to protect his daughter.”
The other special prosecutor in the case, Erlinda Ocampo Johnson, resigned early Friday. Baldwin’s attorney, Alex Spiro, asked if Johnson’s resignation was due to the evidentiary issues being disputed. Morrissey said he believed the resignation was due to the fact that the hearings were even taking place.
Speaking outside court, Morrissey said he respected the judge’s decision but had no reason to believe the unreleased evidence in question had anything to do with the set of “Last.”
The trial had just begun and was soon over: the prosecution had only just begun its case, and no witnesses to the crime had yet testified.
Baldwin’s brother, Stephen Baldwin, and sister, Elizabeth Keuchler, both actors, sat behind him in the gallery next to his wife every day of the trial, which was covered live by The Associated Press and Court TV. Reporters from both coasts filled the small courtroom and took positions outside for the arrival and departure of court officials.
The judge dealt a major blow to the prosecution’s arguments on the eve of the trial Monday, ruling that Baldwin’s role as a producer on the film was irrelevant and must be excluded.
But the prosecution pressed ahead with the testimony, portraying Baldwin in their opening statement as a reckless performer who was “playing house” and ignoring basic gun safety rules.
Baldwin’s lawyer, Spiro, argued that he was just doing what actors do on the set of “Lust” and that necessary safety precautions must be taken before a gun is put into an actor’s hands.
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Dalton reported from Los Angeles.
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