Alec Baldwin Asks New Mexico Judge Not to Reconsider Decision to Dismiss ‘Rust’ Trial

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Alec Baldwin on Friday urged a New Mexico judge to uphold his decision to throw out the trial and dismiss a manslaughter charge against an actor who fatally shot a cameraman on the set of a Western movie.

District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Baldwin mid-trial in July, citing that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense in the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film “Rust.”

The charge against Baldwin was dismissed on a writ of mandamus, meaning it cannot be revisited once appeals of that decision have been exhausted.

Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey recently asked the judge to reconsider the case, arguing that insufficient facts were presented and that Baldwin’s right to a fair trial was not violated.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of “Rust,” was pointing a gun at a cameraman during a rehearsal when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the gun discharged.

The clinching evidence in the case was ammunition brought to the sheriff’s office in March by a man who said it might be connected to Hutchins’ killing. Prosecutors said they considered the ammunition unrelated and irrelevant, while Baldwin’s lawyers argued they had “hidden” it and filed a successful motion to dismiss the case.

In her decision to dismiss Baldwin’s case, Marlowe Sommer described “egregious violations of disclosure laws constituting misconduct” by law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as false testimony about evidence given by a witness during the trial.

The defense attorney says prosecutors tried to link the live ammunition on set to Gutierrez-Reed’s sentence to prove Baldwin should have noticed the gunsmith’s youth and inexperience.

“Baldwin had a right to seek the truth at trial, especially after he requested to see ‘all cartridges, casings, and deconstructed cartridges’ in the State’s possession,” a new court motion filed by defense attorneys states. “However, the State intentionally withheld evidence that Baldwin requested.”

“Rust” gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is serving an 18-month sentence for involuntary manslaughter, accused of breaking standard safety protocols and wasting multiple opportunities to detect banned live ammunition on set.

Assistant Principal and Safety Coordinator David Halls pleaded guilty without contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation. A plea of ​​no contest is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing purposes.