The involuntary manslaughter case against Hollywood star Alec Baldwin over a fatal shooting on the set of the film Rust was "improperly dismissed" by the judge, the prosecutor says. The trial collapsed after just three days , based on testimony that police and prosecutors had withheld potential evidence from the defence. The actor was holding a gun which went off on the set in New Mexico in 2021, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Kari Morrissey - who is the lead prosecutor in both the Baldwin and Gutierrez cases - says Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer "misunderstood" the evidence. The New Mexico judge threw the case out based on the misconduct of police and prosecutors over the withholding of ammunition evidence from the defence, while also confirming charges cannot be filed again. The case-ending evidence at Baldwin's trial concerned ammunition that was taken into the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office in March, more than two years after the shooting, by a man who said it could be related to Ms Hutchins' death.
Investigators deemed the ammunition unrelated and unimportant, the court heard - but Baldwin's lawyers alleged they "buried" it and filed a motion to dismiss the case, which proved successful. More on Alec Baldwin Alec Baldwin Rust shooting: Actor says he may sue prosecutor and sheriff over trial Alec Baldwin should have 'the human decency to say sorry', says lawyer for family of Halyna Hutchins Rust to be shared 'with the world': What's.