A New Mexico judge has dismissed Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial with prejudice, ruling that the state deliberately withheld evidence that could have favoured the actor. The 66-year-old wept and embraced his legal team and his wife as the ruling was delivered on Friday, bringing a sudden end to the criminal proceedings over the 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer found that the state had concealed evidence about how live rounds of ammunition ended up on the Rust film set. “The state’s willful withholding of information was intentional and deliberate,” she said. “There is no way for the court to right this wrong.” Baldwin’s lawyers had argued that the state buried a report suggesting the live ammunition came from the prop supplier, not the film’s armourer.
The evidence in question was a box of munitions turned over to police in March after the conviction of armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. A witness, Troy Teske, came forward with the ammunition, which was filed in a separate case file. Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey was involved in that decision, a police corporal confirmed. Morrissey resigned midway through the hearing but later testified, denying she had referred to Baldwin with derogatory terms.
The fatal shooting occurred during a rehearsal on the Rust set in Santa Fe, when a gun held by Baldwin discharged a live round, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March but has not yet been sentenced. The dismissal of Baldwin’s case with prejudice means he cannot be retried on the same charges.
