Alec Baldwin has won another victory in court after a New Mexico judge denied the state’s motion in the “Rust” case to reconsider the dismissal of the involuntary manslaughter charge against him.
On Thursday, New Mexico Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer filed her judgment that the prosecutors’ arguments have already been presented and said they provided nothing new that would warrant reconsidering her prior decision to dismiss the charges against Baldwin, the Associated Press reported.
“Because the state’s amended motion raises arguments previously made, and arguments that the state elected not to raise earlier, the court does not find the amended motion well taken,” the judge wrote, adding that the request was also untimely (outside the time frame for appeal).
Earlier this year, Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter. He faced up to 18 months in prison, as previously reported. However, the charges were dismissed on the third day of his trial in July, with the judge ruling prosecution hid evidence from the defense.
A judge on Friday refused to reopen the manslaughter case against Alec Baldwin, standing by her earlier decision to throw out the charge due to withheld evidence.https://t.co/q0WIdAZK3A
— Variety (@Variety) October 25, 2024
The charges stem from an incident on the New Mexico film set of Baldwin’s movie “Rust,” on October 21, 2021, when Baldwin began filming a scene and the gun he was holding fired a live round that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured the film’s director, Joel Souza. Baldwin repeatedly maintained that there was “no trigger pull.”
Following the decision Thursday, the special prosecutor in the case, Kari Morrissey, told the AP she would be appealing the latest ruling, disagreeing with the judge.
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In January, a grand jury indicted the “Saturday Night Live” star for involuntary manslaughter. Two special prosecutors, Morrissey and Jason Lewis, presented their case to the grand jury after receiving further analysis about the gun used, Variety noted.
Baldwin’s attorneys, Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, released a statement at the time that said, “We look forward to our day in court.”
In January 2023, the Santa Fe County District Attorney’s Office charged Baldwin with two counts of involuntary manslaughter following Hutchins’ death. The charges were dismissed without prejudice in April after the actor’s legal team claimed the gun had been modified in some way which caused it to malfunction, the Associated Press noted.
Prosecutors made clear at the time, “This decision does not absolve Mr. Baldwin of criminal culpability and charges may be refiled.”
In April, the film’s weapons supervisor, 26-year-old Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after she was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Hutchins. In September, Sommer rejected Gutierrez-Reed’s request to dismiss her conviction or have a new trial following the dismissal of charges against Baldwin, the AP noted.
Related: Judge Dismisses Criminal Case Against Alec Baldwin After Prosecutors Hid Evidence
