Judge Dismisses Alec Baldwin’s ‘Rust’ Trial
Alec Baldwin wept in court as a Santa Fe judge dismissed his involuntary manslaughter case on Friday after a day-long, dramatic and often bizarre hearing over how police and prosecutors treated a handful of bullets.
“The late discovery of this evidence has impacted the fundamental fairness of the proceedings,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer stated in dismissing the case with prejudice, which means Baldwin cannot be re-tried. “There is no way for the court to right this wrong. The sanction of dismissal is the only warranted remedy.”
Early on in the unusual hearing, Judge Sommer slid on a pair of blue surgical gloves and sliced into an evidence bag containing the ammunition, which Baldwin’s attorneys have said the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office and prosecutors withheld from them. By the end of the day, one of the two special prosecutors in the trial, Erlinda Ocampo Johnson, had resigned and special prosecutor Kari Morrissey had called herself to the witness stand.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
Opening statements started Wednesday in what was expected to be a two-week trial on whether Baldwin should be held criminally liable for involuntary manslaughter in the death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Baldwin and his attorneys left the courthouse after the trial without saying a word to press gathered outside. Morrissey stopped and spoke to cameras. “I respect the court’s decision,” the prosecutor said, “But there is absolutely no evidence that any of that ammunition was related to the incident with Ms. Hutchins.”
In the surprise motion to have the case dismissed that Baldwin filed Friday morning, his attorneys said prosecutors and Santa Fe sheriffs had concealed evidence from Baldwin that emerged in March, after the conclusion of the trial of the indie Western’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. On March 6, the filing says, retired Arizona police officer Troy Teske turned over a collection of live ammunition to the Santa Fe sheriff’s office, where the bullets were accepted by crime scene technician Marissa Poppell, but not inventoried with the Rust case. Teske told Poppell that among the rounds he was handing over that day were Starline brass casings with nickel primers, matching the live bullet that killed Hutchins, according to Baldwin’s filing. The sheriff department’s knowledge and possession of the rounds was not disclosed to the defense, nor were they presented at the defense’s evidence viewing April 16, the filing said.
By 10:15 am, the judge sent home the jury for the weekend. “I’m sorry,” Sommer told them. “Trials are fluid.” The jurors would never end up returning to the courtroom.
Baldwin’s attorney Alex Spiro first brought up the evidence in front of the jury on Thursday, referring to Teske at that time merely as a “good Samaritan.” Prosecutor Kari Morrissey later revealed that “good samaritan” to be Teske, a retired Arizona police officer who is a friend of Gutierrez’s father, veteran Hollywood armorer Thell Reed. Reached by phone on Friday, Teske told THR, “This trial is going down a path that I can’t make any comments on it. I don’t want to interfere.”
The shooting occurred inside a rustic New Mexico church set at roughly 1:40 p.m. on Oct. 21, 2021, when an old-fashioned revolver Baldwin was handling went off as he was rehearsing a cross-draw maneuver. Prior to that, assistant director David Halls handed him the loaded weapon, pronouncing it “cold,” an industry term to signify there was no live ammunition inside (Halls has testified armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed handed the gun directly to Baldwin). The revolver discharged in the direction of Hutchins, who was killed, and director Joel Souza, who was injured. Five live rounds mixed in with dummy rounds were found on set following the shooting. It remains unknown how they were introduced.
The road to the filing of charges against the actor was long and winding. He was initially charged in January 2023, with prosecutors alleging that he should’ve assumed the gun he was handling was loaded with live rounds and known that “the first rule of gun safety is never to point a gun at someone you don’t intend on shooting.” The charges were dropped three months later when New Mexico prosecutors announced a new investigation into whether the gun that discharged could’ve been modified to fire without a pull of the trigger. They were then refiled in 2024 after a forensic expert issued a report clashing with an account of the shooting from Baldwin, who maintained that he didn’t pull the trigger.
Halyna Hutchins’s widower Matthew Hutchins, who sued Baldwin and the other Rust producers for wrongful death in 2022 but agreed to a settlement later that same year, has recently re-opened his case against the producers because settlement payments have not been made. Upon Baldwin’s case being dismissed Friday, Matthew Hutchins’s attorney Brian Panish issued a statement saying that, “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.”
In his own statement, Baldwin wrote on Instagram, “There are too many people who have supported me to thank just now. To all of you, you will never know how much I appreciate your kindness toward my family.”
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
Solve the daily Crossword
