A judge in New Mexico dismissed the case against Alec Baldwin on Friday after finding that the state had withheld evidence that could have shed light on how live rounds got onto a film set where the cinematographer was fatally shot.
The dismissal was with prejudice, meaning that the manslaughter prosecution of Mr. Baldwin is over. Mr. Baldwin had faced up to 18 months in prison if he had been convicted.
The ammunition examined in court on Friday came from a man named Troy Teske, a friend of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s (the film's armorer) stepfather, Thell Reed, who is a well-known Hollywood armorer.
He first surfaced in the trial on Thursday, as Mr. Baldwin’s defense team questioned a crime scene technician. It emerged that Mr. Teske, a retired police officer, had gone to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office around the time of Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s trial and handed over some ammunition that he believed was related to the case.
The crime scene technician, Marissa Poppell, testified that she had spoken to Mr. Teske and saved the ammunition, but that she put it under a different case number than the “Rust” case.
Ms. Morrissey said in court that, after viewing a photo provided by Mr. Teske, she had determined that the ammunition was not relevant to the “Rust” investigation because it did not look similar to the live rounds that were collected on the movie set. “This has no evidentiary value whatsoever,” she said in court. And under questioning from Ms. Morrissey on Thursday, Ms. Poppell said the rounds that Mr. Teske had brought to the sheriff’s office looked dissimilar to the live rounds found on the “Rust” set.
But when the judge asked to see the ammunition, and it was brought into court, it became clear that at least one round did resemble the ammunition collected on the set.
Before anyone asks, this does not at all affect the armorers conviction and her conviction will not be overturned. Her attorney said they are going to make a motion for dismissal, however that is just PR and he knows that motion will be denied.
In Hannah Gutierrez-Reid's trial, her attorney Bowles knew about this evidence and decided not to include it in his defense. The issue was Baldwins defense team did not in this trial.
Also the prosecutor is not a DA or even part of the DA's office, she's a defense attorney that the DA's office hired as a special prosecutor. Regardless of the outcome of this trial, she was going to be done regardless.
I watched a prop master’s take on this and he said accidents like this should never happen and for it to be pinned solely on Alec Baldwin is completely absurd.
Gato1980 on July 12nd, 2024 at 23:55 UTC »
From a NYT article:
bulboustadpole on July 13rd, 2024 at 00:25 UTC »
Before anyone asks, this does not at all affect the armorers conviction and her conviction will not be overturned. Her attorney said they are going to make a motion for dismissal, however that is just PR and he knows that motion will be denied.
In Hannah Gutierrez-Reid's trial, her attorney Bowles knew about this evidence and decided not to include it in his defense. The issue was Baldwins defense team did not in this trial.
Also the prosecutor is not a DA or even part of the DA's office, she's a defense attorney that the DA's office hired as a special prosecutor. Regardless of the outcome of this trial, she was going to be done regardless.
ScarletCaptain on July 13rd, 2024 at 01:32 UTC »
I watched a prop master’s take on this and he said accidents like this should never happen and for it to be pinned solely on Alec Baldwin is completely absurd.