Judge upholds dismissal of involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin on set shooting

Morgan Lee
| Associated Press

Santa Fe, NM – A New Mexico judge has upheld his decision to dismiss the involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.

In a ruling Thursday, state District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer upheld her decision in July to dismiss the involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin. She said prosecutors have not raised any factual or legal arguments to overturn her decision.

The case was dismissed mid-trial based on allegations that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense in the 2021 death of film director Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust.

Baldwin’s trial was overturned by revelations that ammunition was brought to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office in March by a man who said it could be connected to Hutchins’ slaying. Prosecutors said they considered the ammunition unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin’s attorneys say investigators “buried” the evidence in a separate file and successfully filed a motion to dismiss.

Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey can now decide whether to appeal to a higher court.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer on “Rust,” was pointing the gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal for a film outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. Baldwin said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.

In April, a judge sentenced film gun supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to the maximum 1.5 years in a state penitentiary on a manslaughter conviction in Hutchins’ death.

Gutierrez-Reed also asked Judge Marlowe Sommer to throw out her involuntary manslaughter conviction or order a new trial based on allegations that prosecutors failed to share potentially exculpatory evidence.