NM prosecutor wants court to reopen case against Alec Baldwin

A prosecutor asked the Santa Fe, NM, court on Wednesday to reinstate a manslaughter charge against actor Alec Baldwin after a judge dismissed the case in July due to prosecutors' suppression of evidence. File photo by Ramsay De Give/EPA-EFE/Pool

The case stems from the accidental death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when a bullet was fired from a gun while Baldwin was practicing drawing a pistol before shooting a scene for the film on location in New Mexico. rust in 2021.

Baldwin protested his innocence on the third day of the trial, saying he never pulled the trigger.

Sommer granted a motion to dismiss the case by Baldwin's lawyers after prosecutors failed to inform them about a box of newly found ammunition and instead suppressed the evidence.

Baldwin's trial in the Santa Fe, New Mexico, courthouse was halfway through when his lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the bias lawsuit.

Sommer ruled that the state had suppressed the evidence, which was a box of ammunition that someone had brought to the local sheriff's office and said it could be used with the rust Shoot.

In his brief filed Wednesday, Morrissey argued that the facts do not support Sommer's dismissal ruling.

She said the ammunition box was irrelevant and Sommer should not have dismissed the case.

A jury of the same court found rust Gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of manslaughter earlier this year.

Gutierrez-Reed, who is serving an 18-month prison sentence, filed a motion to overturn the conviction against her.

A friend of her stepfather named Troy Teske turned in the ammunition, but Morrissey and others allowed the case to be filed under a different case number and did not notify Baldwin's lawyers.

In his statement filed Wednesday, Morrissey said prosecutors inadvertently mishandled the evidence but did not suppress it.