Court dismisses Alec Baldwin’s shooting trial over withheld evidence

Hollywood actor was on trial for involuntary manslaughter after cinematographer killed on set of film Rust.

A United States judge has dismissed the involuntary manslaughter case against Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin after finding that the state had withheld evidence on how live rounds ended up on a film set where a cinematographer was fatally shot.

The trial that started three days ago came to a dramatic end on Friday after Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer threw out the case based on the misconduct of police and prosecutors over the withholding of evidence from the defence in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film Rust.

“The late discovery of this evidence during trial has impeded the effective use of evidence in such a way that it has impacted the fundamental fairness of the proceedings,” Marlowe Sommer said in the court in Santa Fe, New Mexico state.

“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 judge said the case cannot be filed again. This ends the criminal culpability of Baldwin, 66, after a nearly three-year saga that began when a revolver he was pointing at Hutchins during rehearsal went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.