SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO – JULY 12: Alec Baldwin gets emotional at the conclusion of his trial for involuntary manslaughter in First Judicial District Court on July 12, 2024 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The trial for involuntary manslaughter was dismissed by a judge Friday after she ruled that key evidence over a fatal shooting on the set of “Rust” had been withheld from the defense. (Photo by Ramsay de Give-Pool/Getty Images)
OAN’s Abril Elfi
2:22 PM – Saturday, July 13, 2024
Alec Baldwin broke his silence on an Instagram post regarding a New Mexico judge’s decision to drop the involuntary manslaughter case against him related to the shooting death of Rust.
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“There are too many people who have supported me to thank just now,” the actor wrote. “To all of you, you will never know how much I appreciate your kindness toward my family.”
On October 21st, 2021, while rehearsing a scene at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe County, the actor’s “prop” revolver went off, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, and injuring director Joel Souza.
The actor had entered a not guilty plea. He claims that he followed instructions to aim the firearm toward Hutchins but allegedly did not realize that it was holding live ammunition.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office seized live rounds of ammunition as evidence, according to Baldwin’s attorneys, but neither disclosed their presence to the actor’s defense team nor entered them into the official case file.
In her testimony this week, Marissa Poppell, a crime scene technician for the sheriff’s office, asserted that the rounds had not been concealed from Baldwin’s attorneys. She also refuted Baldwin attorney Alex Spiro’s claim that the round that killed Hutchins at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe County on October 21st, 2021, was Colt. 45 ammunition.
“The Colt.45 rounds were delivered to the sheriff’s office in March by former police officer Troy Teske, a friend of Thell Reed, the stepfather of Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the same day she was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death. The prosecution described Teske as a ‘good Samaritan,’” according to NBC News.
Although Baldwin’s case was dismissed by District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer on Friday, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was given an 18-month prison sentence. However, some legal experts who reached out to the press mentioned the possibility that this dismissal could mean that her conviction is ultimately overturned.
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