Alec Baldwin's “Rust” manslaughter case dismissed for Brady violation and can't be refiled

The actor's criminal trial over his involvement in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins came to an abrupt and surprising end.

The criminal trial faced by Alec Baldwin in connection with the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western film Rust came to a sudden and surprising end Friday when a New Mexico judge threw out the involuntary manslaughter case against the actor.

Citing misconduct by police and prosecutors, who committed a Brady violation by withholding evidence from the defense, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. "There is no way for the court to right this wrong," the judge said in court.

Baldwin, 66, wept and embraced his attorneys when the dismissal was announced.

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to prosecutors and to Baldwin's lawyers for comment.

Related: Alec Baldwin's request to dismiss manslaughter indictment denied by judge in Rust case

Hutchins was killed and Rust director Joel Souza was wounded on Oct. 21, 2021, when a gun being wielded as a prop by Baldwin discharged a live round. Baldwin was originally charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2023, though those charges were dropped months later to allow time for further investigation. The actor was then charged again in January 2024.

Baldwin, who pleaded not guilty, has maintained that he "didn't pull the trigger," and a police experiment found that the gun could plausibly have discharged the round without the trigger being pulled. However, another experiment by a forensic analyst came to the opposite conclusion, suggesting that the trigger did need to be pulled for the round to discharge, which is why the prosecution reopened the case against Baldwin.

The prosecution had initially planned to argue that Baldwin's role as a co-producer on Rust assigned him an expanded responsibility for crew safety on set, which could have allowed the prosecutors to claim that his guilt extended beyond just holding the gun. However, Judge Marlowe Sommer ruled against the inclusion of Baldwin's producing responsibilities just days before the trial began.

Baldwin's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case after new evidence came to light during the trial that the defense had not had the opportunity to review. Judge Marlowe Summer examined the new evidence — ammunition provided to the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office by Troy Teske, a friend of the stepfather of Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed — in the well of the courtroom, and it was quickly established that the ammunition at least partially resembled that from the set of the film.

Lead prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey asserted that she'd never seen this ammunition until Friday, and that she thought she had seen a photo of Teske's ammo that did not resemble the Rust ammo, so she had deemed the Teske evidence irrelevant to the case. Additionally, Morrissey maintained that she never saw the sheriff's report on Teske's evidence because it was filed under a different case number.

However, because the Brady disclosure requires the prosecution to provide all relevant evidence to the defense, and this Teske evidence was withheld from the defense, Judge Marlowe Summer ultimately granted the motion to dismiss. "The state's willful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate," the judge said. "If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching."

Related: Rust production company fined max penalty of $136,793 by New Mexico over fatal shooting

In a separate trial earlier this year, Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter as a result of the incident. Gutierrez-Reed was responsible for loading a live round into the prop Colt .45 gun that discharged. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison in April.

"My heart aches for the Hutchins family and friends and colleagues as well, and it has since the day this tragedy occurred," Gutierrez-Reed said in a statement prior to her sentencing. "Halyna has been and always will be an inspiration to me. I understand that she was taken too soon, and I pray that you all find peace."

Rust first assistant director David Halls was also charged with negligent use of a deadly weapon, and agreed to a plea deal in March 2023. Halls admitted that he "was negligent in checking the gun properly," and testified that he conducted the safety test on the weapon in question during Gutierrez-Reed's trial. He was sentenced to six months of probation.

Related: Alec Baldwin hits camera away from performance artist confronting him over Rust shooting and Palestine

Hutchins' family filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin and other Rust crew members in February 2022, ultimately reaching a settlement that October. Hutchins' parents and sister went on to sue Baldwin for negligence in February 2023.

Baldwin sued Gutierrez-Reed and other crew members for negligence in November 2022. The state of New Mexico also fined the Rust production $136,793, the maximum penalty for not following proper safety protocols.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.