A New Mexico judge denied a motion to dismiss the manslaughter case against Alec Baldwin, clearing the way for the high-profile actor to stand trial for his alleged role in the deadly filming of the movie “Rust.”
New Mexico's First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer's decision Friday night was a setback for Baldwin and his legal team, who had argued that prosecutors were determined to secure a conviction for the 66-year-old actor and producer. years at all costs after sentencing in October 2021. Accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of a low-budget western near Santa Fe.
Baldwin is scheduled to be tried in a Santa Fe court in July on a felony charge that, if convicted, carries a prison sentence of up to 18 months. He has pleaded not guilty.
In January, Santa Fe County grand juries indicted Baldwin for involuntary manslaughter and determined there was sufficient evidence that he acted negligently in pointing a loaded gun at Hutchins without first checking the weapon.
After the indictment, Baldwin's attorneys pored over transcripts of the grand jury proceedings to try to build a case that Special Prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey had sometimes canceled testimony that could have been beneficial to her client.
“The state has sought to convict and imprison Baldwin for an accident caused by the mistakes of others,” Baldwin's attorney, Luke Nikas, wrote in a motion to dismiss the indictment.
Baldwin's lawyers argued at a hearing last week that Morrissey failed in his duty to provide testimony in a “fair and impartial manner.”
Marlowe Sommer wrote in his 19-page ruling Friday that defense attorneys failed to provide evidence of “prosecutorial bad faith.”
At issue was whether grand jurors were fully informed that they could call witnesses from a list provided by Baldwin's attorneys. The judge wrote that the special prosecutor read a letter from Baldwin's side during the trial and that jurors were also allowed to question witnesses.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, center, speaks with prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey, left, and Hannah Gutierrez's defense attorney, Jason Bowles, during Gutierrez's trial in February 2024 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
(Eddie Moore / Albuquerque Diary)
On the afternoon of October 21, 2021, Hutchins, Baldwin, Souza and about a dozen other crew members gathered at a rustic church in Bonanza Creek Ranch, south of Santa Fe, to prepare for an upcoming scene. Assistant director David Halls, who was the security coordinator on the set, handed the gun to Baldwin and declared that it was “cold,” meaning there was no ammunition inside, according to numerous witnesses.
The actor was sitting on a bench, facing the church door. Hutchins and Baldwin had discussed a close-up camera angle of the gun's muzzle, a view that Hutchins, the cinematographer, wanted as a way to heighten the drama before a gunfight scene. Baldwin has said that Hutchins told him to slowly draw his .45 Colt revolver from his holster and point it at the camera.
He did and that's when the gun went off.
Hutchins died from his injuries. The film's director, Joel Souza, was injured by the same bullet but has since recovered.
Baldwin's case has featured numerous twists and turns, including when the actor known for NBC's “30 Rock” and who parodies former President Trump in “Saturday Night Live” sketches, participated in an ABC News interview that aired in December. 2021, less than six weeks. after the tragedy. Baldwin described to news anchor George Stephanopoulos how he pointed the gun at Hutchins and cocked the hammer.
“I didn't pull the trigger,” Baldwin said, blaming others for the tragedy.
Since then, FBI investigators and analysts have conducted tests to prove that Baldwin must have pulled the trigger.
However, during FBI testing in 2022 at the agency's laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, forensic analysts used a rawhide mallet to hit the weapon so hard that its components fractured. Baldwin's lawyers have cited the broken pieces as evidence that the gun was compromised before Baldwin tampered with it.
The first group of prosecutors had to resign after a series of errors, including an attempt to charge Baldwin with a sentence enhancement that called for a mandatory five-year prison sentence. That penalty was not in effect at the time of the tragedy. Initial prosecutors also made statements about holding Baldwin responsible for his actions, prompting criticism from defense attorneys that such comments were damaging to the actor.
Shortly after Morrissey and his law partner Jason J. Lewis joined the case last spring, they dropped charges against Baldwin, saying they needed time to review the evidence and address legal issues raised by Baldwin's team.
Last week, Morrissey bristled at suggestions that it was problematic for her to seek an indictment after dropping charges against Baldwin last year. She said it was Baldwin's lead attorney, Luke Nikas, who asked for the charges to be dropped and she agreed.
At the time, prosecutors said they needed time to investigate whether the gun had been modified before its arrival on the film set, as Baldwin's team suggested.
Prosecutors obtained two convictions for negligence leading to Hutchins' death.
In March, a Santa Fe jury convicted gunsmith Hannah Gutiérrez of involuntary manslaughter. Morrissey had argued that Gutiérrez, whose job it was to handle the weapons, was most responsible for the tragedy. The jury deliberated only about two hours after hearing evidence during a two-week trial. Last month, Marlowe Sommer sentenced Gutierrez, 26, to the maximum sentence of 18 months in a New Mexico women's prison.
Last year, Halls pleaded no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon and received a six-month suspended sentence.
