Legal experts had told Yahoo the prosecution would face an “uphill battle” if the trial were to continue. This prediction came to fruition as the judge dismissed involuntary manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin on Friday. This stunning turn of events happened just hours after Baldwin’s lawyers alleged that police and prosecutors hid evidence related to the live round that killed “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021. The dismissal came just two days after testimony in the criminal case began.
“The late discovery of this evidence during the trial has impeded the effective use of evidence in such a way that it has impacted the fundamental fairness of the proceedings,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer told the court. “If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith it certainly comes so near to bad faith to show signs of scorching.”
The dismissal was with prejudice, meaning the prosecution cannot retry the involuntary manslaughter case against Baldwin. The 66-year-old actor sobbed in the courtroom when the decision was announced and hugged his wife, Hilaria Baldwin. He faced up to 18 months in prison if convicted.
Criminal defense lawyer Lauren Johnson-Norris told Yahoo Entertainment that she was “not surprised this case ultimately ended up as a complete embarrassment to the prosecution.”
“Not only was their theory against Baldwin untenable, they withheld exculpatory evidence in an effort to convict him,” she explained. “The dismissal with prejudice puts an end to this spectacle of a trial, and I would expect Gutierrez-Reed to be filing a motion for a new trial Monday morning.”
The jury was sent home early Friday when Baldwin’s defense attorneys filed a motion to dismiss, accusing the prosecution of withholding evidence. The judge heard witness testimony from multiple people before making a decision. The crux of the issue was ammunition brought into the sheriff’s office in March 2024. Hutchins was killed when a live round of ammunition was discharged from a gun Baldwin was rehearsing with. The actor’s team successfully argued the state should have shared the evidence.
Before the ruling was official, Johnson-Norris told Yahoo the prosecution faced an “uphill battle.”
The trial began on July 10 with the state presenting its case. After Baldwin’s big win on July 8, when Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ruled that his role as a producer on “Rust” could not be entered into evidence, the state had to prove that Baldwin the actor was culpable in the 2021 death of Halyna Hutchins.
“They need to show that Baldwin acted negligently in firing the gun while acting on the set. This is problematic for the prosecution because the armorer who loaded the gun has already been convicted of the same crime,” Johnson-Norris explained to Yahoo Entertainment. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, responsible for weapons on set, has already been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
“[The prosecution] brought in evidence to try to show [Baldwin] was indifferent to what happened. But the question is whether he was negligent at the time of firing, and the evidence does not point in that direction,” Johnson-Norris continued.
“The prosecution has an ethical duty to provide the defense all exculpatory evidence. This ensures that trials are fair. The prosecutors’ failure to notify Baldwin’s attorneys of this evidence could be misconduct,” she continues. “The judge’s dismissal of the case with prejudice — meaning it can’t be brought again — is the result of those actions.”
Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter, the same charge as Gutierrez-Reed, and faced the same maximum sentence. He was holding a .45-caliber revolver that discharged a round of live ammunition, which should never have been on set, killing Hutchins and wounding the film’s director, Joel Souza.