Alec Baldwin’s criminal trial will go ahead next month, a judge has ruled.
The 66-year-old actor’s involuntary manslaughter charge was upheld for the third time in five weeks by Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer.
Baldwin’s lawyers earlier sought to have the case thrown out after arguing “due process” had been violated because the gun which fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust in October 2021 had been destroyed when government agents tested it — meaning the defense couldn’t carry out their own testing process.
The judge heard testimony and arguments on the motion on June 21 and 24 before making her ruling.
She wrote: “The court finds and concludes that defendant fails to establish that the state acted in bad faith when destroying certain internal components of the firearm in the course of the accidental discharge testing.
“In other words, the evidence before the court does not demonstrate that the state or its agents knew that the unaltered firearm possessed exculpatory value at the time of accidental discharge testing, and nonetheless destroyed it, thereby indicating that the evidence may have exonerated the defendant.”
But the judge noted prosecutors must “fully disclose the destructive nature of the firearm testing, the resulting loss, and its relevance and import to the jury”.
She added: “The state must examine appropriate witnesses to achieve this disclosure. In addition, [the] defendant remains entitled to cross-examination of the state’s witnesses, to further accomplish this remedy.”
Baldwin was holding the gun when it discharged but has insisted he didn’t pull the trigger and didn’t know why it contained live ammunition, prompting prosecutors to order forensic testing on the weapon.
