Your motion to dismiss with prejudice is granted, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer told Baldwin and his legal team in court on Friday afternoon, prompting an already shaking Baldwin to remove his glasses and sob into his hand before embracing his wife, Hilaria. The ruling concluded nearly three years of backandforth legal arguments and turnover in prosecutors leading up to the trial against Baldwin, who faced up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine related to the October 2021 fatal shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western film, Rust. At the time of the shooting on October 21, 2021, Baldwin was practicing a cross draw pulling a gun from a holster on the side of his body opposite from his draw hand with a prop gun at a church on the films New Mexico set when it fired a live round, killing Hutchins and injuring Rust director Joel Souza. On Thursday, Baldwins defense team filed a motion to dismiss the case stating that the prosecutors concealed evidence potentially pointing to an external source of the live ammunition (prop supplier Seth Kenney) because the evidence would be favorable to Baldwin, court documents show. On Friday, following a chaotic hearing that involved one special prosecutor taking the stand as a witness and another special prosecutor Erlinda Johnson resigning from the prosecution team that day, Marlowe Sommer sided with the defense as a result of the evidence issue first brought to light Thursday, and granted the motion to dismiss with prejudice, meaning that the case cannot be brought again. Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey, who on Friday answered questions under oath from defense attorney Alex Spiro, said she was disappointed by the dismissal. I believe that the importance of the evidence was misconstrued by the defense attorneys, but I have to respect the courts decision, Morrissey said following court Friday. Heres what led to the dismissal in the Baldwin case. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer presides over actor Alec Baldwin's trial on involuntary manslaughter in First Judicial District Court on July 12, 2024 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ramsay de Give/Pool/Getty Images Defense accuses prosecution of suppressing evidence Marlowe Sommer, who had been adamant about keeping the trial on schedule, was noticeably perturbed early Friday when she halted testimony in the case and dismissed the jury so she could take up Baldwins motion to throw out his criminal charge. Ahead of her ruling Friday, the judge referred to a dismissal with prejudice as a very extreme sanction that would require her to go through each element of the motion and make a very good record as to why Im seeing what Im seeing, she said. Baldwins team argued that state investigators did not properly share with the defense that a man had delivered a box of ammunition purportedly connected to the case to investigators. In its motion, the defense claimed the state unilaterally withheld evidence that could be favorable to Baldwins trial, which is a violation of the Brady rule, named after the 1963 Brady v. Maryland case. The rule requires prosecutors to disclose material, exculpatory information in the governments possession to the defense, according to Cornell Law School. In order to establish a Brady violation, Marlowe Sommer explained Friday, the defendant has to show that the prosecution suppressed evidence, the evidence was favorable to the accused and the evidence was material to the defense. In court Thursday, crime scene technician Marissa Poppell testified that retired police officer Troy Teske had delivered a box of ammunition to the Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office in March after GutierrezReeds conviction, previously reported. Teske, who was a friend of the armorers father, told investigators he thought the ammunition could be associated with the Rust incident, according to Poppell. The items, however, were cataloged separately from Baldwins case, excluded from the Rust case inventory and not tested to see if they matched the lethal round, according to Poppells testimony. Marlowe Sommer said on Friday that the suppressionofevidence element of proving a Brady element was satisfied. The Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office and the prosecution failed to disclose the supplemental report to defense and provide defense an opportunity to inspect the rounds collected into evidence that Mr. Teske gave, the judge said. Judge No way for the court to right this wrong The second Brady element Marlowe Sommer broke down is whether the evidence suppressed by prosecutors was favorable to Baldwin, either as impeachment or exculpatory evidence, she said. This prong is satisfied. The suppressed evidence is favorable to the accused, the judge said. It is impeachment evidence, has even been offered in this trial as impeachment evidence and is potentially exculpatory to the defense. Marlowe Sommer added that the evidences exculpatory value couldnt be analyzed at such a late point in time due to the nondisclosure. She next examined whether the suppressed evidence was material to the case, which she concluded it was. Attorney Luke Nikas embraces actor Alec Baldwin during his trial on involuntary manslaughter at Santa Fe County District Court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on July 12, 2024. Ramsay de Give/Pool/AFP/Getty Images The late discovery of this evidence during trial has impeded the effective use of evidence in such a way that it has impacted the fundamental fairness of the proceedings, Marlowe Sommer said, adding that Baldwins defense wasnt in a position to test the prosecutions theory regarding the source of the live rounds that killed Hutchins. The judge said the state failed to provide the discovery to Baldwins defense team, referring to the prosecutors withholding of the information as intentional and deliberate. Marlowe Sommer said If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching. The judge also agreed that the late evidence was highly prejudicial to Baldwins case. The jury has been sworn, jeopardy has attached, and this disclosure during the course of trial is so late that it undermines the defendants preparation for trial, Marlowe Sommer said. There is no way for the court to right this wrong. The judge added just before granting the motion to dismiss the case The states discovery violation has injected a needless, incurable delay into the jury trial. Dismissal with prejudice is warranted to ensure the integrity of the judicial system and the efficient administration of justice. GutierrezReeds attorney, Jason Bowles, said he will move to dismiss her case following Baldwins case dismissal.
