Alec Baldwin: Trial against actor dropped

Surprising turn in the trial against US actor Alec Baldwin (66): The judge discontinued the proceedings on Friday (local time) in Santa Fe in the US state of New Mexico.

Mary Marlowe Sommer based her decision on the fact that the prosecution had intentionally withheld evidence from the defense. She made it clear that she was appalled by the prosecution’s failures. She also ruled that Baldwin cannot be retried due to the double jeopardy principle.

Alec Baldwin burst into tears

the Hollywood star, who could have faced up to 18 months in prison if convicted, and his wife, Hilaria Baldwin (40), who was present in the courtroom, burst into tears after the judge’s verdict. They then left the building hand in hand and without comment.

Baldwin was charged with manslaughter after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins (1979-2021) was fatally shot by a bullet from a revolver he was holding on the set of the western “Rust” in October 2021. The same bullet also injured director Joel Souza (51) at the time.

Bullets not passed on to the defense

The judge argued that police and prosecutors had withheld from Baldwin’s lawyers a set of bullets that were handed over to investigators two and a half years after the incident in March of this year and that may be connected to the camerawoman’s death. The fatal bullet is said to have been among them.

Sommer called the withholding of evidence “deliberate.” She explained that this had caused great harm to the defendant. “The public prosecutor’s office is highly guilty because it failed to provide the defendant with information,” Sommer reprimanded those involved.

The gunsmith in charge on the “Rust” film set, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed (born 1997), was sentenced to 18 months in prison in April for negligent homicide.