US actor Alec Baldwin (L) attends his trial for involuntary manslaughter at Santa Fe County District Court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on July 12, 2024.Â
Ramsay De Give | AFP | Getty Images
A New Mexico judge on Friday dismissed the criminal involuntary manslaughter case against Alec Baldwin on the third day of the actor’s trial, after his lawyers claimed prosecutors kept evidence about ammunition secret.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer tossed the case against Baldwin, which related to the October 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of his movie “Rust,” with prejudice, meaning that prosecutors cannot retry Baldwin on the charge.
Baldwin wept as the decision was announced, on what was the third day of trial in the case.
Earlier Friday, Sommer had sent jurors home for the weekend after receiving a motion from Baldwin’s attorneys seeking to dismiss the case.
Defense lawyers cited the ammunition in the possession of prosecutors, which had not been previously disclosed to Baldwin’s team.
“We don’t know if it’s a live ammunition match or not,” Baldwin’s
attorney Luke Nikas told Sommer, according to the Associated Press. “But we do know that the state had it, and it’s disclosable.”
Prosecutors in turn claimed that the ammo was not related to the case.
Baldwin was rehearsing a scene when a gun he was handling fired, killing Hutchins.
Since the shooting, Baldwin has denied that he pulled the trigger of the weapon.
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Source Agencies
