Prosecutors are asking a New Mexico judge to reconsider a decision to dismiss manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin in the shooting death of a cinematographer on the set of a Western film, according to court documents made public Wednesday.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrish said in July there were not enough facts to support the ruling and that Baldwin’s due process rights were not violated.
State District Judge Mary Marlow Sommer has dismissed a lawsuit mid-trial in the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halina Hutchins on the set of the film “Lust,” arguing that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense.
The charges against Baldwin were dismissed with prejudice, meaning he cannot be tried again after all appeals against that decision have been exhausted.
Baldwin, who stars and co-produced “Rust,” allegedly aimed a gun at cinematographer Halina Hutchins during a rehearsal, causing the gun to explode, killing her and wounding director Joel Sousa. Baldwin said he pulled the hammer but did not pull the trigger, causing the revolver to fire.
The piece of evidence that closed the case was a round of ammunition brought to the sheriff’s office in March by a man who said he might be connected to Hutchins’ murder. Prosecutors said the round was irrelevant and unimportant, while Baldwin’s attorney argued it was “buried” and filed a successful motion to dismiss the case.
In her decision to dismiss Baldwin’s case, Marlowe Sommer described “serious discovery violations that constituted misconduct” by law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as witnesses’ misrepresentation of physical evidence during trial.
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In the motion to reconsider, Morrissey again argued that the undisclosed ammunition was not relevant to the case against Baldwin, which hinged on the responsibility to safely handle firearms according to familiar industry guidelines.
“No one on the prosecution team intentionally withheld evidence from the defendant. It simply did not occur to the prosecution that a bullet identical or similar to the one found in the ‘Rust’ set was relevant to the case,” Morrissey wrote.
She argued that her attorneys knew about the circuit hearing but denied her the opportunity to view it before trial.
“This was a smokescreen created by the defense to destabilize and confuse the court… and it succeeded,” Morrissey wrote.
Baldwin’s attorney, Luke Nikas, said he would file a response to the court without further comment.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, a film weapon maker, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison after she was accused of violating standard safety protocols and missing multiple opportunities to detect prohibited live ammunition on set.
Deputy Chief and Safety Coordinator David Halls pleaded no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but is treated as such for sentencing purposes.
It has not been officially revealed who brought the live ammunition that killed Hutchins to the set, but prosecutors allege that Gutierrez-Reed was the shooter.
The ammunition that broke up the case was turned over to a crime scene technician with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, who filed the evidence under an unrelated case number. Three of the rounds were similar to the live rounds collected from the “Rust” set after the fatal shooting.
The mysterious ammunition was left at the Bullhead City, Arizona, sheriff’s office by Troy Teskey, who used to store weapons and ammunition for his friend and longtime movie gun coach, Tel Reed, who was Gutierrez Reed’s stepfather and mentor as a film set weapon builder.
Morrissey asked the judge to order the defense to show how and when it learned about the ammunition provided by Teske, and argued that the defense’s motion to dismiss the case was “all a ruse.”
Baldwin’s attorneys said he did not know that live ammunition was brought onto the movie set and that prosecutors withheld evidence as they tried to establish a connection between the live ammunition on the set and Gutierrez-Reed. They said prosecutors wanted to emphasize the argument that Baldwin should have acknowledged the weapon’s foolish youth and inexperience.
Gutierrez-Reed asked that his conviction for manslaughter be thrown out, citing allegations of suppressed evidence that emerged at Baldwin’s trial.
Separately, Gutierrez-Reed has requested a hearing on a motion to amend his guilty plea in exchange for a deferred sentence on a felony firearm charge related to an allegation that he walked into a Santa Fe bar with a gun weeks before filming on “Rust” began.
Under the agreement with prosecutors, Gutierrez-Reed will be sentenced to 18 months of probation with a possible prison sentence for probation violations. If approved, the terms of the probation agreement prohibit him from possessing firearms, consuming drugs or alcohol, and must register in the criminal justice DNA database.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
