Alec Baldwin and his lawyers haven’t wasted any time after a judge last week dismissed involuntary manslaughter charges against the actor, following the late, mid-trial discovery of evidence that was allegedly buried by law enforcement authorities in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Baldwin’s lawyers have sent notices to Santa Fe prosecutors and the sheriff’s office, warning them of “future litigation” over their actions in the “Rust” shooting trial, Rolling Stone is reporting.
In a pair of “preservation notices” mailed Monday and obtained by Rolling Stone, Baldwin’s lawyers told both Santa Fe prosecutor Kari Morrissey and Sheriff Adan Mendoza to “preserve all relevant information in your possession, custody, and/or control” related to the trial against Baldwin.
“Specifically, we request that you immediately take all necessary steps, including preserving all devices, hard drives, emails, text messages, and other electronic communications, to preserve any and all documents, records, electronically stored information (‘ESI’), and other materials and data existing in any form whatsoever, that are actually or potentially relevant or relate in any way to the investigation(s) and/or prosecution(s) conducted by the State in connection with the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie, Rust,” the preservation notices stated, according to Rolling Stone.
Last Friday, Baldwin was three days into his trial in the October 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the low-budget Western film, “Rust.” During testimony, new evidence emerged that could pertain to how a live round made its way onto the “Rust” set and into the gun Baldwin was handling when Hutchins was killed.
Baldwin’s defense team filed an emergency motion, alleging that prosecutors and investigators deliberately withheld the evidence — a batch .45 caliber live ammunition. The ammunition belonged to veteran Hollywood armorer Thell Reed, the father of rookie “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who loaded Baldwin’s weapon. A friend of Thell Reed’s had surrendered the ammunition to the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office in March, but investigators inexplicably inventoried the ammunition under a case number that was different from the “Rust” case file. The defense said the prosecution never informed them of this ammunition and never turned over a supplementary report about it, failures of that they said prevented them from doing their own analysis of the rounds.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer agreed that prosecutors “unilaterally withheld” the evidence in violation of rules of discovery. She said the evidence was both “material” and “favorable” to Baldwin’s defense, prompting her dismiss the single count of involuntary manslaughter with prejudice, meaning that prosecutors cannot re-file the charge against the actor.
“There is no way for the court to right this wrong,” Marlowe Sommer said.
Even though the judge’s ruling means that Baldwin is off the hook for any further criminal proceedings related to the “Rust” shooting, he’s still been mired in two wrongful death lawsuits, filed by Halyna Hutchins’ husband and her family in Ukraine. If Baldwin files his own lawsuit, he’ll therefore have more civil litigation to deal with. But the famously combative actor is known for not backing down if he feels he’s been wronged.
