Alec Baldwin ’s involuntary manslaughter trial was put on hold on Friday, while the judge considers a defence motion to dismiss the case over disputed ammunition.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer sent the jury home for the day, after a hearing on the issue that was supposed to precede resumption of the trial raised more questions, and called for further evidence.
The defence filed its motion over what it says is ammunition evidence the prosecution hid from them that may be related to the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film Rust in 2021.
“We don’t know if it’s a live ammunition match or not,” Baldwin’s lawyer, Luke Nikas, told the judge. “But we do know that the state had it, and it’s disclosable.”
The prosecution has said that the ammunition was not connected to the case and was not hidden.
The issue came up on Thursday during defence questioning of sheriff’s crime scene technician Marissa Poppell.
Baldwin lawyer Alex Spiro suggested with his questions that Poppell and other authorities had been overly cosy with the film’s firearms supplier, Seth Kenney, and had insufficiently investigated whether he was responsible for the fatal ammunition reaching the set.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey established in her questioning that the source of the ammunition was Troy Teske, a friend of the father of the film’s armourer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who has already been convicted of involuntary manslaughter for her role in Hutchins’ death.
She was sentenced to 18 months in prison and is appealing against her conviction.
There has still not been a definitive determination on how the live rounds got on set. But prosecutors said photos on found on Gutierrez-Reed’s phone point to her being responsible.
Morrissey said the bullets were not the same size or chemical composition as the live rounds found on the Rust set, including the one that killed Hutchins.
“This is a wild goose chase that has no evidentiary value whatsoever,” Morrissey told the judge on Friday. “This is just a man trying to protect his daughter.”
But Marlowe Sommer found the issue serious enough to ask to see the evidence herself, and put on latex gloves to examine it in open court.
She then called off trial for the day and asked to hear evidence from Poppell and Seth Kenney.
Kenney had been co-operative with police and prosecutors throughout their investigation.
Kenney has not been charged with any wrongdoing, and police and prosecutors have said there is no evidence that he had any role in the live ammunition on the Rust set.
Police and prosecutors had known about Teske and his supply of ammunition since less than a month after the shooting.
Kenney had called him during an interview with the lead sheriff’s investigator, Alexandria Hancock, and asked him to send a picture of the ammunition he had. The bullets in the photos did not appear to match the live rounds found on the Rust set.
Morrissey said that it eventually became clear to Hancock the issue was an attempt to mislead investigators by Thell Reed, who was trying to shift blame from his daughter to Kenney.
Morrissey herself met Teske last year, but did not pursue the evidence further.
The defence suggested the evidence was obscured because it might be favourable to Baldwin.
But prosecutors have pointed out that the charge against Baldwin stems from his reckless flouting of gun safety, not an allegation that he had any part in the live ammunition reaching set.
