Many were stunned last Friday when Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial regarding the fatal shooting on the set of his movie Rust was dismissed by a judge in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Now, legal experts are weighing in on why exactly this happened.

Baldwin’s Rust Trial Dismissed

Baldwin, 66, had been on trial for the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42. She was killed on the set of Rust in October of 2021 when a gun Baldwin was holding went off. Hutchins was fatally shot, and director Joel Souza was injured.

On Friday, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer sent the jury home for the weekend before a special hearing began following lunch. During this hearing, the special prosecutor Kari Morrissey voluntarily took the stand as a witness. This came as a shock, as it’s an incredibly rare move in court.

Judge Sommer then ruled that the prosecution did in fact conceal evidence from Baldwin’s defense team. This ultimately led her to dismiss the case.

Full Story: Alec Baldwin Breaks His Silence After His ‘Rust’ Charges Are Dismissed

“It’s very rare for council to be taking the stand as a witness in cases, and so ultimately, that was her undoing,” celebrity attorney Christopher C. Melcher, partner at Walzer Melcher & Yoda, told Fox News.

Melcher went on to say that the prosecution simply made too many mistakes for this case to move forward.

“Every prosecution and every police investigation is going to have errors to it, and that’s the job of the defense is to point those things out, but there were a comedy of errors here,” he stated.

“I mean, from testing the gun to the point of damaging it … emails that were being produced at the last minute, and then we have the ammunition being received under a different case number, which is just really unbelievable that they would do that,” he added.

Find out more about this in the video below.

‘Complete Embarrassment And Waste Of Time’

“So, even though this was not a decision on the merits, it doesn’t reflect on whether you’re innocent on these charges, it reflects so poorly on the state’s ability to conduct an investigation and put on a prosecution,” Melcher continued. “Complete embarrassment and waste of time of New Mexico taxpayer money.” 

Baldwin broke down in tears as Judge Sommer dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning he can never be hit with this charge again.

“The state’s willful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate,” Judge Sommer said. “If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching prejudice.”

“There is no way for the court to right this wrong,” she added.

Related: Surprising Twist In Alec Baldwin Trial As Judge Sends Jurors Home

Heidi Reavis, litigator and managing partner at Reavis Page Jump LLP, said that so many mistakes were made in the Rust case that it will be studied for quite some time to come.

“The myriad errors during the Rust investigation and trial will be material for years to come – and I mean for law books, law school classes, law enforcement training, and defense/prosecution orientation, on how cases are botched through unforced errors,” Reavis said. 

“This case never should have been brought to trial and clearly the prosecution felt it had to cheat to get the result it wanted,” added former federal prosecutor Duncan Levin. “What a disgrace. Prosecutors can never cheat. Their job is to do justice, not get convictions at all costs. This is the worst of our system on display.”

Baldwin had long claimed his innocence and plead not guilty to the charges against him. Had he been convicted, he was facing up to 18 months in prison.

Mentioned in this article:

More About: