Judge files written order on dismissing Alec Baldwin’s charge
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SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – The judge in the Alec Baldwin case has submitted her final written order on her decision to dismiss his charge offering a deeper explanation of her ruling. Baldwin was on trial for involuntary manslaughter last month for his role in the 2021 shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a New Mexico film set.
The Fallout From Alec Baldwin’s Botched Criminal Trial
But as Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer detailed in an order filed this week, Baldwin’s defense team claimed prosecutors withheld evidence. They said they were denied access to bullets that were turned into investigators after the trial of armorer Hannah Gutierrez.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey argued the bullets were not the same as the one that killed Hutchins, were logged separately, and had no “evidentiary value” to either the Gutierrez or Baldwin case.
Judge Marlowe Sommer disagreed and said the defense should have had access to those bullets and called discovery violations “egregious.”The judge also said Morrissey elicited “false testimony” from a crime scene technician.
The judge also pointed out instances of late disclosures from prosecutors leading up to the trial. In her order, Judge Marlowe Sommer said dismissal with prejudice was an extraordinary but appropriate sanction. She added, “The state’s discovery violations injected a needless, incurable delay into the jury trial.”
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