SANTA FE, NM — A nearly three-year legal saga for Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cameraman ended Friday with no verdict but tears of relief for the actor and a small circle of family who had resigned themselves to a somber routine on wooden benches in a windowless New Mexico courtroom during the trial.
In the morning, 16 jurors filed into the courtroom for a third day of taking notes and listening with crossed hands to testimony in Baldwin’s trial for involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 shooting death of camerawoman Halyna Hutchins. However, they were released for the day as the trial took an unexpected turn.
“Have a nice weekend,” said Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer.
Out of sight of the jury, the criminal case against Baldwin faltered as Baldwin’s defense attorney accused local investigators and prosecutors of concealing evidence that could have shed light on the unconfirmed origin of live ammunition on the set of “Rust.”
It was Baldwin’s fifth day in court. He arrived each morning in a black SUV with his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, to a phalanx of outdoor cameras. In the courtroom early Monday, an energetic Baldwin whispered to a lawyer, scribbled on a notepad and passed Post-its to his legal team.
The defense scored an early victory when the judge ruled that Baldwin could not be held criminally liable for his role as a co-producer in “Rust.” The case was to focus on Baldwin’s handling of a gun as a lead actor.
On Tuesday, the defendant’s younger brother, Stephen Baldwin, arrived at the back of the courtroom for jury selection. He would return every day, all day. Of the 70 potential jurors, only three were familiar with the “Rust” shooting case. By the end of the day, a jury of five men and 11 women had been selected for the trial.
For opening statements on Wednesday, the courtroom was packed, with half the gallery reserved for news media, from local network TV to the Times of London, and a few designated photographers. Lawyers and the public filled the other half, with Baldwin’s friends and family members, along with local onlookers and traveling amateur trial enthusiasts.
As Baldwin sat in the courtroom, he looked down at a notepad, away from the jury, as prosecutors delivered their opening statements and video screens above him showed the aftermath of the deadly shooting at a movie-set ranch.
Prosecutors said Baldwin violated basic rules of gun safety by pointing a real gun at Hutchins while he was acting a charade. Defense attorneys argued that Baldwin was simply doing his job as an actor and reasonably trusted other professionals to ensure gun safety, albeit with tragic consequences.
Baldwin’s older sister, Elizabeth Keuchler, wept in the courtroom as the statements were made. She greeted her brother with a hug over a courtroom railing and reportedly sat close behind him afterward.
A prominent critic of Baldwin also took a seat in the front row of the court: victims’ rights attorney Gloria Allred, who represents Hutchins’ sister and parents in a civil lawsuit seeking damages.
Baldwin’s expression during the trial was captured on a video feed of the proceedings aired by CourtTV and The Associated Press. It was a subdued, attentive look during a first full day of testimony Wednesday from the A-list actor with a decades-long career in films and television, from “The Hunt for Red October” to “30 Rock” and as a regular on “Saturday Night Live.”
Baldwin briefly ran from the courtroom, but otherwise walked slowly and deliberately through the courtroom and courthouse, where spontaneous interviews and photographs were prohibited.
Baldwin’s behavior showed little change Friday afternoon, but tensions were mounting in the courtroom, where Marlowe Sommer considered a motion to dismiss the case and investigated revelations that investigators failed to report that a man had received ammunition in March that could be linked to Hutchins’ death.
Prosecutors said they found the ammunition irrelevant and unimportant, while Baldwin’s attorneys claimed they had “buried” the ammunition.
During a lunch break, Baldwin took a deep, measured breath as he labored out of the courtroom. The air whistled softly as he exhaled through pursed lips. Hilaria Baldwin took his arm and rubbed his back as they walked down the hallway.
Once inside, the crowd erupted in laughter as attorney Alex Spiro got into an altercation with “Rust’s” ammunition supplier, Seth Kenney, who had built a good working relationship with investigators after the shooting.
But the courtroom fell silent amid the clatter of laptop keyboards as the judge questioned a sheriff’s detective about the decision to place the ammunition in an evidence file separate from the “Rust” shooting case and whether Chief Prosecutor Kari Morrissey was aware of it.
“When you said there were discussions and the decision was made by all of you to put that ammunition in a separate file, was Ms. Morrissey part of that discussion?” said Marlowe Sommer.
“Yes,” the detective replied.
The case collapsed. The courtroom gasped as Morrissey acknowledged that her co-accuser had just resigned.
Tears welled up in Baldwin’s eyes, followed by sobs, as the judge explained her decision: “The sanction of dismissal is warranted in this case.”