Prosecutors have asked a Santa Fe judge to reconsider a decision to drop charges against actor Alec Baldwin. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Baldwin in July with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot refile but can appeal. Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey argued that the ruling was factually incorrect because Baldwin’s rights had not been violated. Marlowe Sommer dropped the charges after the actor’s defense team argued prosecutorial misconduct and evidence concealment.
Mr. Baldwin’s lawyers stated that the prosecution did not share information about a box of ammunition delivered to the set of Rust, where the actor shot and killed a cinematographer during filming. The judge dismissed the jury to hear evidence about the accusation and questioned a crime scene technician who told her that officials did not correctly catalog the newly delivered ammunition and that prosecutor Morrison discussed the delivery with investigators but considered it irrelevant and brushed it aside.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney, whose client was jailed for her part in Halyna Hutchins’s death, said her charges should also be dismissed on the same grounds. Gutierrez-Reed was jailed for manslaughter after negligently loading live bullets into a weapon Baldwin fired. The 27-year-old was responsible for gun storage and safety on the movie set, and after she pleaded guilty and received an 18-month sentence, Judge Marlowe Sommer told her she had “turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon” and did not demonstrate any remorse over Hutchins’s death. “But for you, Ms. Hutchins would be alive,” she said.
The incident happened in New Mexico in October 2021. Ukrainian-born Hutchins was employed as the director of photography while Baldwin played the film’s lead role. During one scene, Baldwin was directed to fire a revolver that was pointed toward the primary camera. Believing the gun was safe, the actor did as instructed, inadvertently firing a live bullet directly at Ms. Hutchins. She died, and another staff member was injured. Mr. Baldwin said he was devastated by the incident, and several legal battles followed, including criminal charges that were filed, dismissed, refiled, and dismissed again.
The actor insists the shooting was not his fault and the cinematographer’s death was an unfortunate accident.
