Baldwin Walks Away Free From Manslaughter Charges 

a katz / shutterstock.com
a katz / shutterstock.com

Alec Baldwin got an unexpected break from his involuntary manslaughter case last Friday when a judge dismissed it because the prosecution introduced concealed evidence into the proceedings. 

In October 2021, Baldwin was involved in a tragic incident on the “Rust” movie set when a prop gun he was holding went off. Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was hit and killed by a live bullet from the gun. Baldwin was then charged with involuntary manslaughter and potentially faced 18 months in prison if convicted. 

In April, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer who was in charge of the weapons on the movie set, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for Hutchins’s death. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Prosecutors said that her careless behavior and not following basic gun safety rules led to the accident. 

After only three days, a judge dismissed Baldwin’s case after the defense said the prosecution concealed live ammo discovered by law enforcement at the scene. 

“There is no way for the court to right this wrong,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said. Sommer added that the late disclosure of the evidence was done in “bad faith” and delayed the proceedings. She also noted that the evidence was “highly prejudicial to the defendant.” 

The issue first came up in court on Thursday. Defense attorney Alex Spiro questioned Marissa Poppell, a Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office crime scene technician who collected evidence. Spiro asked about a “good Samaritan” who gave ammunition to the sheriff’s office in March during the trial of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez. This ammunition reportedly ended up with Seth Kenney, who supplied the film with firearms, blanks, and dummy rounds. 

Poppell said that her lieutenant told her to draft a report about the person who brought in the ammunition. She put the report under a different case number, not the one associated with the “Rust” case. 

Poppel testified that a supplemental report regarding the live ammo was placed into evidence and that the live rounds were not. Nor, argued the defense, were the live rounds given to the FBI for testing. 

Baldwin’s defense also highlighted that Troy Teske, the retired Arizona law enforcement officer who supplied the ammo in question, was a personal friend of Thell Reed, Gutierrez’s father. The team noted that Teske was motivated to provide the live rounds, hoping to deflect blame from Gutierrez and placing it on Kenney instead. 

Kenney gave the sheriff’s office some of his own live bullets, which were tested and didn’t match the live bullets found on the movie set. Live bullets found at Kenney’s prop house also didn’t match. Poppell said that Gutierrez was identified as the source of the live bullets based on photos from the set. 

By Thursday night, the defense had already filed a motion to dismiss because of how the ammunition evidence was handled. On Friday, the state argued that the evidence didn’t prove Baldwin’s innocence and wasn’t important to the case. 

Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey called herself to the witness stand to defend her team’s case against Baldwin. Morrissey said Teske’s ammunition was unimportant for Gutierrez’s or Baldwin’s cases. She testified that Teske gave the state a picture of the ammunition. They decided from the photo that it didn’t match the live bullets found on the set, so they didn’t investigate further. 

Kenney said he was sure he didn’t give any live bullets to the film. On Friday, he explained that just days after the shooting, he told investigators about the live ammunition from Teske. At first, he thought it might be the source of the live bullets on set. He said he later realized it couldn’t because the powder and projectiles differed. 

When Morrissey asked if he thought Reed and Thell were trying to blame him for the live bullets on the “Rust” set, he answered, “Yes.” 

Sommer said that dismissing the case with prejudice, as the defense wanted, is a serious action, and she needed solid reasons for it. 

She explained that the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office and the prosecutor didn’t share a critical report with the defense or let them check the rounds Teske provided. This evidence could have possibly proven the defense’s innocence, but now it’s too late to analyze it properly because it was hidden. 

She said that the state intentionally kept this information secret, and it was revealed so late that it hurt the defendant’s ability to prepare for trial. She added that even if this wasn’t done in bad faith, it showed “scorching prejudice.” 

Gutierrez’s defense team plans to appeal her sentence based on Baldwin’s case’s dismissal.