New Mexico prosecutor wants court to reinstate case against Alec Baldwin

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

The case stems from the accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who died when a bullet was fired from a pistol while Baldwin was practicing his shooting before filming a scene on location in New Mexico for the movie. Oxide in 2021.

Baldwin maintained his innocence as the trial entered its third day, saying he never pulled the trigger.

Sommer granted a motion to dismiss with prejudice filed by Baldwin’s attorneys after prosecutors failed to notify them about a newly found box of ammunition and instead suppressed the evidence.

Baldwin’s trial in the Santa Fe, New Mexico, court was halfway through when his attorneys filed the motion to dismiss the case with prejudice.

Sommer ruled that the state suppressed the evidence, which was a box of ammunition that someone brought to the local sheriff’s office and said could be related to the Oxide shooting.

In Wednesday’s filing, Morrissey argued that the facts do not support the decision to fire Sommer.

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

A jury of the same court determined that Oxide Gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year.

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

A friend of his stepfather named Troy Teske delivered the ammunition, but Morrissey and others allowed it to be filed under a different case number and did not notify Baldwin’s attorneys.

In Wednesday’s filing, Morrissey said the prosecution accidentally mishandled evidence but did not suppress it.