Judge to consider request to dismiss Alec Baldwin shooting case for damage to evidence during testing

SANTA FE, N.M. — A New Mexico judge plans to rule Friday on a request to dismiss the sole charge against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer over concerns that the FBI damaged the gun during forensic testing before defense attorneys could examine it.

Alec Baldwin's defense attorneys have asked Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to dismiss the case against Baldwin ahead of what would be a high-profile trial that would begin in July.

Baldwin's legal team has asked that, if the trial goes ahead, the judge at least bar the presentation of an analysis of the gun using spare parts by a firearms expert for the prosecution. They say investigators may have destroyed potentially exculpatory evidence by testing whether the gun could discharge accidentally without the trigger being pulled.

During a rehearsal on the set on October 21, 2021, Baldwin was pointing the gun at Halyna Hutchins when the gun went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza, who survived.

Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison.

Sheriff's investigators initially sent the revolver to the FBI for routine testing, but when an FBI analyst heard Baldwin say in an ABC TV interview that he never pulled the trigger, the agency told local authorities they could conduct an accidental discharge test, even though it could damage the weapon.

A team of investigators asked the FBI to conduct tests and hit the revolver from several angles with a rawhide mallet. One of these shots broke the gun's firing and safety mechanisms.

“They understood that this was potentially exculpatory evidence and they destroyed it anyway,” Baldwin’s attorney, John Bash, said during a virtual court hearing Monday. “This is scandalous and must be rejected. »

Prosecutors said it was “regrettable” that the gun broke, but it was not destroyed and the parts are still available. They say Baldwin's lawyers still have the ability to defend their client and challenge the evidence against him.

Baldwin's lawyers say authorities conducted destructive tests of the weapon without bothering to take it apart and photograph the parts first, eliminating their most critical evidence in the case. Noting damage to the revolver's upper hammer notch, they urged the judge to prohibit the jury from viewing a scan of the reconstructed gun.

Several hours of gun testimony and forensic analysis during online hearings provided a dress rehearsal for the eventual trial against Baldwin. Baldwin's lawyers conducted lengthy and thorough cross-examinations of the lead detective, an FBI forensic firearms investigator and the prosecution's independent firearms expert, Lucien Haag.

Special prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson told the court Monday that the defense has plenty of gun-related evidence to work with at trial.

She said all available evidence, from witness testimonies to video footage of Baldwin firing the gun, showed the gun was in good working order on the day of the shooting and that police had no reason to believing that its inner workings could provide exculpatory evidence.

Prosecutors plan to present evidence that they say shows the gun “could not have fired without a trigger pull” and was functioning properly before the shooting.

Gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted in March of manslaughter for her role in the shooting and sentenced to a year and a half in prison.

Since filming resumed in 2021, production on “Rust” has moved to Montana under a deal with Hutchins’ husband, Matthew Hutchins, who made him an executive producer. The finished film has not yet been released to the public.