A New Mexico judge has upheld his decision to dismiss a manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in the shooting death of a cameraman on the set of a Western movie.
In Thursday’s ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer stood by her July decision to dismiss Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charge. He said the prosecution did not present any factual or legal arguments that would cause him to change his decision.
“Because the government’s amended proposal raises arguments that have come up before, and arguments that the government chose not to present in advance, the court does not see that this amended proposal was properly taken,” wrote the judge, adding that the request was also inappropriate.
A spokesman for Baldwin’s lawyers said Friday there was no immediate response to the decision.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey told The Associated Press that she disagreed with the court’s analysis and would appeal the decision. Morrissey was appointed by the Santa Fe County District Attorney to handle the case in March 2023 after the previous special prosecutor resigned following mishandling of the initial charges.
Allegations of withheld evidence
The case was dropped mid-trial over allegations that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense about the 2021 death of photographer Halyna Hutchins on a film set. Rust.
Baldwin’s trial was prompted by the revelation that bullets were brought to the Santa Fe County sheriff’s office in March by a man who said he may be connected to Hutchins’ murder. Prosecutors said they saw the bullets as unrelated and irrelevant, while Baldwin’s lawyers said investigators had “buried” the evidence in a separate case file and successfully filed a motion to have it dismissed.
A New Mexico judge dismissed involuntary manslaughter charges against actor Alec Baldwin on Friday after his lawyers alleged that police withheld evidence from the source in the 2021 shooting death of Rust photographer Halyna Hutchins.
Baldwin, lead actor and co-producer Rustwas pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal for the film set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went off, killing him and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
A jury in April sentenced movie gunner Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to 1.5 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death.
Marlowe Sommer last month denied Gutierrez-Reed’s request to overturn his conviction or call for a new trial over allegations that prosecutors failed to share potentially incriminating evidence. He found that the gunman’s attorneys did not show that there was a reasonable possibility that the outcome of the case would have been different if the evidence had been available to Gutierrez-Reed, who has appealed the case to a higher court.
Source link