Alec Baldwin’s manslaughter case dropped over hidden evidence

The involuntary manslaughter case against Alec Baldwin, the US actor, has been dismissed.

Baldwin has been in and out of the courts since the fatal on-set shooting of the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021.

The actor was producing the film ‘Rust’ at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico when he discharged a prop gun.

The shooting killed the set’s cinematographer Hutchins and injured the director Joel Souza.

Baldwin was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in January 2023 but the actor pleaded not guilty the following month.

In January 2024, a grand jury indicted Baldwin on an involuntary manslaughter charge, with two options to pursue the case.

One was based on “negligent” use of a firearm and the other was for felony misconduct “with the total disregard for the safety of others”.

Baldwin’s trial began in New Mexico on July 9, 2024.

In the latest development, however, the presiding judge Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case with prejudice.

Sommer cited police and prosecutorial misconduct, stating that evidence was withheld from the defence.

During the trial, the defence argued that prosecutors concealed evidence about ammunition potentially linked to the incident on the set.

They stated that this hindered their ability to assess the evidence’s significance.

The prosecution countered that the ammunition was unrelated and not deliberately hidden.

Sommer explained that the late discovery of this evidence during the trial compromised the fairness of the proceedings.

“The late discovery of this evidence during trial has impeded the effective use of evidence in such a way that it has impacted the fundamental fairness of the proceedings,” she said.

“If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith it certainly comes so near to bad faith to show signs of scorching.”

The issue of the concealed evidence emerged during the defence questioning of the sheriff’s crime scene technician Marissa Poppell.

It was revealed that a “good Samaritan” had brought the ammunition to the sheriff’s office earlier in 2024 following the trial of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the film’s armourer who is currently appealing her conviction and 18-month prison sentence.

Baldwin, who faced a potential 18-month prison sentence if convicted, was visibly emotional upon hearing Sommer’s verdict.

He hugged his attorneys and Hilaria, his wife, outside the Santa Fe courthouse but did not speak to the media.