According to US media, this is how the case against Baldwin ends. The actor was charged with murder following a fatal shooting on the set of the film Peace in 2021. During filming, he fired a gun that contained a live bullet instead of blanks. Camerawoman Halyna Hutchins was fatally wounded. Director Joel Souza is injured.
On Friday, it was announced that new bullets had surfaced that Baldwin’s attorneys had never obtained. The bullets are said to match the bullet that killed Hutchins. The actor’s attorneys said the Santa Fe sheriff’s office had real bullets as evidence in the case but had not included them in Rust’s investigative file. They also had not shared their existence with attorneys.
“The prosecutor’s concealment of this information was intentional and premeditated. The court concludes that this behaviour is highly prejudicial to the suspect,” the judge ruled. “There is no way the court can correct this error.” The trial was subsequently declared null and void.
Court footage shows Baldwin breaking down in tears upon hearing the decision. The actor faced up to 18 years in prison.
Baldwin said he didn’t know the gun was loaded. Earlier this year, gun expert Hannah Gutierrez was sentenced to a year and a half in prison. She was the one in charge of loading the gun.
