MANSLAUGHTER CASE AGAINST ALEC BALDWIN THROWN OUT BECAUSE POLICE WITHHELD EVIDENCE
'DISMISSAL WITH PREJUDICE IS WARRANTED TO ENSURE THE INTEGRITY OF THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM AND THE EFFICIENT ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE'
July 13, 2024
The manslaughter case against Alec Baldwin collapsed on the third day of his trial in a New Mexico courtroom when the presiding judge found police and prosecutors withheld crucial evidence.
"The state's willful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate," Judge Hart Marlowe Sommer explained in a dramatic ruling from the bench late Friday afternoon. "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."
Because the trial had already started, she dismissed the case with prejudice.
"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," Judge Sommer said. “There is no way for the court to right this wrong.”
The U.S. Constitution's command against double jeopardy in criminal cases precludes a retrial. Baldwin faced up to 18 months in prison.
Baldwin was filming a western named "Rust" on location at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Bonanza City, New Mexico in 2021. While rehearsing a scene with a Colt .45 caliber revolver he shot and killed the film's cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, on Oct. 21.
The production's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the step-daughter of a renowned Hollywood armorer, Thell Reed, 81, was responsible for ensuring firearm safety on the set and that the gun handed to Baldwin for the scene was not loaded with live rounds. Baldwin had been told the gun was "cold," meaning unloaded in film-speak.
Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of manslaughter and is serving 18 months in prison.
The trouble in the Baldwin case started Friday morning. That's when one of the two prosecutors on the case conferred with Judge Sommer then strolled out of the courtroom without speaking.
It was later revealed the prosecutor, Erlinda O. Johnson, told Judge Sommer she resigned from the case. Later she explained she believed the late disclosure required the case be dismissed.
“Prosecutors not only owe a duty to the people, but to the defendants accused of crimes as well,” she said in an email. “The prosecution must always be above reproach.”
When the court went back on the record Fri. morning, it was to hear legal arguments from Luke Nikas, who along with Alex Spiro is representing Baldwin. Nikas told Judge Sommer the law required her to dismiss the case because the prosecution had just revealed to the defense that bullets matching those that killed Hutchins had been "found" in police possession.
“They buried it,” Nikas said. “They put it under a different case with a different number.”
That led to an extraordinary turn of events that saw the remaining prosecutor in the case, Kari T. Morrissey, called to the witness stand to explain herself.
Morrissey acknowledged knowing about the bullets, but based on a photograph provided to her that allegedly depicted them she said she believed they were not the same make of bullets that killed Hutchins.
“It was my impression that they did not match the live rounds from the set of ‘Rust,’” Morrissey claimed.
But they did. Judge Sommer demanded the prosecution produce the bullets and a manilla envelope was brought into the court containing them. Everyone in the courtroom held their breath as Judge Sommer slipped on bright blue latex gloves and cut the package open in front of everyone on a table.
Close scrutiny of the bullets revealed at least three rounds appeared to match.
“I never saw them until today,” Morrissey said.
The failure to disclose the ammunition posed major legal problems for the prosecution because the U.S. Constitution, New Mexico law and a court order required it to allow the defense to examine the bullets before trial.
Doing so would have allowed the defense to have the bullets tested. Baldwin's lawyers could have also formulated different arguments than the one they presented during their opening statement and suggested through their questioning of prosecution witnesses.
The bullets were provided to police by Troy Teske, a friend of Gutierrez-Reed’s stepfather. A police report was prepared when Teske handed them over, but the report and the bullets themselves were given a separate case number not associated with Baldwin's case.
The bullets first came to light on Thursday, when a crime scene technician. testified that Teske had gone to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office shortly before or during Gutierrez-Reed’s trial and handed them in.
Law enforcement bungled Baldwin's prosecution from the start.
Robert Shilling, a former New Mexico State Police chief assigned by the prosecutor to investigate the case blasted police in an email to prosecutors.
“The conduct of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office during and after their initial investigation is reprehensible and unprofessional to a degree I still have no words for,” he wrote in the email. “Not I or 200 more proficient investigators than I can/could clean up the mess delivered to your office in October 2022 (1 year since the initial incident … inexcusable).”
Baldwin was first charged in January 2023, but the charge was reduced because the law prosecutors charged him with breaking did not exist at the time of the killing. A special prosecutor assigned to the case was removed because her appointment violated the State Constitution.
That's when Morrissey took over, temporarily dismissed the charges, then brought the case back to another grand jury—which indicted Baldwin for involuntary manslaughter.
Baldwin has said he had no reason to believe the gun he'd been handed was loaded with a live round.
After finding the prosecution's failure to turn over the bullets violated the Constitution, state law and her own orders, Judge Sommer bomb-proofed her decision from reversal by an appellate court by adding a third reason.
"Dismissal with prejudice is warranted to ensure the integrity of the judicial system and the efficient administration of justice," she said.
As the judge spoke, tears overflowed Baldwin's eyes—and the eyes of his family and supporters sitting on rows of benches in the courtroom behind him—and flowed down their faces. Now weeping without shame, Baldwin hugged his lawyers, Nikas and Spiro, before standing and hugging his wife, Hilaria.
When they finally separated, HIlaria hugged Spiro, Baldwin's lead lawyer—the man who kept her husband and the father of their seven children out of prison and free.