Here’s what to know about the ruling and what’s next for Baldwin.
What was Alec Baldwin charged with?
Baldwin was filming the as-yet-unreleased Western on Oct. 21, 2021, when the prop revolver he was holding discharged a live round, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. Baldwin maintains that he did not pull the trigger before the gun went off in his hands.
“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced to 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter in April after prosecutors argued that she was responsible for loading the gun with live ammunition when only blanks were supposed to have been used. Assistant director and safety coordinator David Halls pleaded no contest the same month to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon and received six months of probation.
Baldwin was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2023, more than a year after the shooting, but the charges were first downgraded and then dropped in April that year after prosecutors said “new facts were revealed that demand further investigation and forensic analysis.”
In January, a grand jury indicted Baldwin on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, on one count of handling the prop gun negligently and another of causing death “with the total disregard or indifference for the safety of others.” That indictment led to the trial that was thrown out Friday.
Why was the case against Baldwin dismissed?
The case was dismissed by Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, who ruled that the prosecution withheld potential evidence from Baldwin’s defense team — a collection of rounds that had been turned in to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office earlier this year and may have been connected to the shooting.
The possible evidence related to the question of how live ammunition ended up on set and inside the revolver that killed Hutchins, a key element in the chain of events that led to her death. Marlowe Sommer said it was “intentional and deliberate” that the prosecution had not shared the live rounds with Baldwin’s attorneys for evaluation.
The actor’s team argued that the evidence may have cast doubt on whether Gutierrez-Reed had brought the live ammunition to the set, and that it was concealed because it was favorable to Baldwin and undercut the prosecution’s argument that Baldwin should have known the armorer was young and inexperienced and therefore taken extra precautions.
In her ruling, Marlowe Sommer said that Baldwin’s defense team should have been informed of the ammunition earlier and that it was now too late to be incorporated into their defense. That meant not even the declaration of a mistrial could remedy the situation, meaning the case had to be dismissed with prejudice.
What does ‘dismissed with prejudice’ mean?
Marlowe Sommer dismissed Baldwin’s case with prejudice, which means it has been dismissed permanently. There cannot be refiled charges or a retrial on the same charges. However, the prosecution does have the legal option of appealing the dismissal to a higher court.
What’s next for Baldwin?
Baldwin may still face civil lawsuits over the incident. He previously reached a settlement in a case brought by Hutchins’s widower, Matthew Hutchins, The Washington Post reported in 2022. Hutchins’s attorney, Brian J. Panish, implied in a Friday statement that work had resumed on a civil lawsuit. “We look forward to presenting all the evidence to a jury and holding Mr. Baldwin accountable for his actions in the senseless death of Halyna Hutchins,” he said.
Filming on “Rust” was completed after Hutchins’s death, though a release date has not been announced. Baldwin’s upcoming project is a reality TV show about his home life with his family.
What do legal experts think about the decision?
Erlinda Ocampo Johnson, a special prosecutor who resigned from the case, said Friday in an interview with Chris Cuomo that she left after learning of the potential evidence at the heart of the dismissal. “We have an obligation as prosecutors,” she said. “We have an obligation not only to the people, but to the defendant, and our obligation is to make sure that all the evidence is turned over.”
Tre Lovell, an entertainment attorney, said in an email that Baldwin should not have been charged. “Actors do not have the ultimate responsibility for safety on a movie set,” he said. “There are professionals on the set who have that responsibility and it should stay with them, because they’re the experts.”
He added: “On movie sets, everyone has a specific duty and obligation, everybody’s got a job to do. And the moment you start having people do other people’s jobs, it compromises safety and it invites chaos.”
Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, said in an email that Baldwin’s prosecution was “botched” and that the conviction of armorer Gutierrez-Reed was also “likely be reversed.”
Samantha Chery contributed to this report.
