by Andrew Hay
17 Jul – Alex Baldwin has informed New Mexico state prosecutors and sheriffs that he may sue them after it emerged they concealed evidence from his defense team during a failed attempt to prosecute him over a fatal shooting on the set of the film “Rust”.
A New Mexico judge on Friday dismissed involuntary manslaughter charges against Baldwin on the third day of a trial, agreeing with his lawyers that prosecutor Kari Morrissey and the sheriff’s office concealed evidence about the source of the live rounds that killed “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021.
Baldwin’s lawyers sent letters to Morrissey and Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza on Monday asking them to preserve documents for a future trial, according to copies of the letters seen by Reuters.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it received the letter from Baldwin’s legal team, but declined further comment Wednesday. Morrissey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hutchins died when Baldwin pointed a gun at her while she was setting up a camera shot on a film set near Santa Fe. The gun fired a live round that was inadvertently loaded by the film’s main weapons handler, Hannah Gutierrez. Gutierrez was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March.
Gutierrez, who is serving an 18-month prison sentence, filed a motion on Tuesday to dismiss the charges because of the prosecution’s failure to disclose evidence of live cartridges, an examination of Baldwin’s gun by firearms expert Lucien Haag and an interview with the film’s props supplier Seth Kenney.
Erlinda Johnson resigned as Morrissey’s assistant prosecutor in the case on Friday, shortly before Judge Mary Marlow Sommers dismissed the charges against Baldwin.
Johnson told Reuters that since his appointment in April he had provided unredacted documents to the defence as they had contacted him asking for information, while Morrissey had not provided the documents they requested.
“We have an obligation as prosecutors to disclose all evidence,” he said, adding that he believed the case was right to be dismissed. “We have a duty not only to the public but to the defendants accused of crimes.”
Johnson said he did not describe the live cartridges to Baldwin’s legal team, and that he learned about the evidence only when the defense revealed it during testimony in court.
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