Judge considers dropping charges in Baldwin case

A New Mexico judge considered a surprise request from Alec Baldwin’s attorney to drop a manslaughter charge in his case alleging police concealed the presence of live ammunition in connection with the 2021 killing of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Judge Mary Marlo Sommer sent jurors home on the third day of Baldwin’s trial as the court weighed allegations from Baldwin’s team that the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office obtained live ammunition as evidence but failed to file it in its investigation or disclose its presence to defense attorneys.

“This was hidden from us,” Baldwin’s attorney, Alex Spiro, told a Sheriff’s Office crime scene technician during questioning by jurors.

Sommer outlined a plan to hear evidence on the motion in an afternoon session starting at 1pm local time (19:00 GMT). It was not immediately clear when she would rule on it.

Baldwin appeared relieved in the courtroom as Marlowe remanded the jury until Monday and called an early lunch break. The 30 Rock actor smiled, hugged his wife Hilaria Baldwin and held the hand of his sister Elizabeth Kuchler.

Joshua Castenberg, a law professor at the University of New Mexico who has been following the case but is not involved in it, said the charges against Baldwin could be dismissed if prosecutors failed to disclose the evidence to Baldwin’s lawyers or did not know about the evidence until after the trial began.

“If there was malfeasance on the part of the sheriff’s office, the judge can dismiss the case,” Castenberg said.

Technician Marissa Poppel said police did not hide the bullets from Baldwin and asked her to file the bullets and details of how they were obtained under a separate case number from the Rust case. Police did not ask the FBI to test the live ammunition.

Poppel disputed Spiro’s assertion that the Colt .45 bullets turned over to police on March 6 matched the bullets that killed Hutchins. She said she did not believe Spiro’s assertion that Seth Kenney, the ammunition proof prop supplier, provided the deadly live rounds.

Kenney said he did not provide Rust with live ammunition, so he was not charged. He is scheduled to testify in court on Friday.

The bullets were turned over to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office by Troy Teske, a friend of Thell Reed, the stepfather of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez, who was convicted of manslaughter in Huggins’ death the same day.

Prosecutor Kari Morrissey challenged the allegation that evidence was withheld from Baldwin.

Morrissey asked: “If you buried it, how did the defense know to question you about it yesterday?”

Baldwin’s defense attorneys said in the motion that retired police officer Teske provided police with a batch of live ammunition that Kenny and Reed used to train actors while filming the movie “1883” in Texas. The document said Teske told prosecutors about the existence of the bullets in November 2023 and said he didn’t know if they matched the deadly “Rust” bullets.

The motion states that when the defense requested to see all ballistic evidence during an April 2024 evidentiary review, the sheriff’s office did not show the defense the bullets.

“It’s outrageous that they filed these bullets with different case numbers and never tested them,” said Jason Powers, Gutierrez’s attorney. “The state is trying to hide the truth.”

Prosecutors accused Gutierrez of bringing live ammunition onto the set, a charge Gutierrez denied.

Prosecutors allege Baldwin played a role in Hudgens’ death because he used a gun irresponsibly. His attorneys say Gutierrez and others responsible for on-set security failed Baldwin.