District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, the judge in the Rust shooting case, ripped into the New Mexico prosecutors this week after it was revealed that they tried to hide important evidence.
Sommer accused them of “egregious discovery violations constituting misconduct and false testimony elicited during trial,” and said that the only option she had been left with was a dismissal because anything else “would not cure the fundamental unfairness that the State’s misconduct, and its reverberations in trial, had infused into the proceeding.”
During a special hearing in the Alec Baldwin trial, prosecutor Kari Morrissey was heard accusing the actor of lying about pulling the trigger during the filming of “Rust” which killed Halyna Hutchins. Baldwin is seen abruptly leaving the courtroom during this accusation. pic.twitter.com/9GcdgDD2W9
— Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) July 11, 2024
Baldwin accidentally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza while he was practicing a cross-draw on the set of western movie, Rust. He says he was told the weapon was not “hot,” but the weapon did have bullets in the chamber.
Sommer dismissed the voluntary manslaughter case against Baldwin on July 12 but the film’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed incarcerated after her March convicton. She now plans to appeal the voluntary manslaughter conviction and 18-month prison sentence.
