Alec Baldwin's Rust manslaughter case dismissed

Alec Baldwin cried when a judge in New Mexico threw out the charge of involuntary manslaughter against him in connection to a deadly shooting during the filming of the movie Rust.

The trial was canceled on the third day of Baldwin's court case in Santa Fe, which was held in a courthouse only a few miles away from where cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was accidentally shot with a gun that Baldwin was handling during rehearsals.

This is the second time the actor's case has been dropped following the October 2021 incident. He will not face trial again.

His legal team claimed that law enforcement and the legal team withheld evidence - a group of bullets - which could have been linked to the shooting incident.

One important point in the case revolves around how real bullets made their way onto the set, leading Mr. Baldwin's legal team to raise concerns about the investigation and errors made by officials in handling the scene.

Their request to have the case thrown out led to unexpected developments, such as one of the two special prosecutors stepping down, and Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer excusing the jury to listen to testimony from several witnesses.

According to Mr. Baldwin's lawyer, the bullets may be connected to Ms. Hutchins' death, but they were entered as evidence in a separate case with a different reference number.

The prosecutors claimed that the ammunition found was not related to the case and did not match the bullets discovered on the Rust set.

The judge decided that the information should have been given to Mr. Baldwin's lawyers even though.

She stated that the state purposely refused to share this information and did it on purpose. There is no way for the court to fix this mistake.

The prosecutors cannot bring back the charge against Baldwin because the judge did not declare a mistrial, but instead completely dismissed it with prejudice.

"It was the most extreme choice. The case is finished," said Los Angeles trial lawyer Joshua Ritter in an interview with the BBC.

The famous actor, Mr. Baldwin, who is most well-known for his roles on the TV show 30 Rock and for impersonating Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, started to cry as the judge explained why the case was being dismissed. His wife, Hilaria, had her hand over her mouth in shock. The rest of his family had a mix of tears and smiles on their faces.

The actor hugged his legal team and then embraced his wife, who was sitting behind him. They exited together, holding hands, and entered a dark vehicle without responding to any inquiries or giving any statements to the media.

New information was revealed on Thursday, as a forensic expert testified in court that Troy Teske, a former police officer, had provided authorities with live bullets potentially connected to the investigation.

Mr Teske is acquainted with the step-dad of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the person responsible for handling weapons on set of the movie, who was found guilty of causing someone's death without intending to earlier this year.

He was collaborating with Seth Kenney, who assisted with props and ammunition while working on the film.

Following the judge's dismissal of the jury last Friday, the court listened to testimony from various witnesses regarding the bullets. This included statements from officials involved in the case as well as Mr. Kenney.

At the conclusion of the trial, Kari Morrissey, one of the main prosecutors in the case, came forward to give testimony about the bullets and the reasons behind not sharing them with the defense. It's highly unusual for a prosecutor to testify in a case they are prosecuting, especially about their involvement in the investigation.

Ms. Morrissey stated that, in her opinion, the ammunition did not provide any evidence. She also mentioned that her colleague, Erlinda Ocampo Johnson, stepped down on Friday as the judge considered dropping the case.

She said Ms Johnson did not think it was a good idea to have a public hearing about the evidence claims.