Alec Baldwin’s manslaughter trial was briefly suspended on Friday after his lawyers sought to have the case dismissed, arguing that police “concealed” evidence in the fatal shooting on the set of the Western movie “Lust.”
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, presiding in Santa Fe, New Mexico, sent jurors home until Monday to consider defense requests that prosecutors called irrelevant.
Baldwin, a top Hollywood star, was holding a gun at cinematographer Halina Hutchins during a rehearsal in October 2021 when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and injuring the director.
Hannah Gutierrez, the gunner in the film who carried the loaded deadly weapon, is already serving an 18-month sentence for manslaughter.
Baldwin now faces the same charges, with prosecutors alleging he ignored basic gun safety laws and behaved recklessly on set.
Baldwin’s celebrity lawyer, Alex Spiro, argues that the actor had no responsibility to check the contents of the murder weapon.
But the defence argument also relies heavily on discrediting the police investigation.
Judge Spiro also presented evidence Thursday that live ammunition possibly connected to the shooting had been turned over to police but not disclosed to Baldwin’s lawyers.
The bullet was handed over to police by a “good Samaritan” earlier this year, more than two years after the “Last” incident.
The “good Samaritan,” a former police officer and family friend of gun manufacturer Gutierrez, told police the bullet matched the one that killed Hutchins.
Spiro accused police of “suppressing evidence” by not presenting it as a “last” case and denying the defense the opportunity to see it.
“It was a perfect plan,” he told the court.
Crime scene technician Marissa Poppel, under questioning by Spiro, said she catalogued the bullets but was told not to classify them as a “rust” case.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey responded in haste, telling the court she had never seen or heard any shots until this week.
But she argued they were not relevant to Baldwin’s case because what was at issue was the actor’s behavior while handling a weapon on set.
And Poppel said in court that in any case, the bullets did not match the live ammunition that killed Hutchins.
Judge Sommer will hear further evidence on Friday, without the jury present, and then decide whether to proceed with the case.
Hutchins is originally from Ukraine and grew up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic.
She emigrated to the United States and had a successful career as a Hollywood cinematographer, but died at the age of 42.
Baldwin, 66, faces up to 18 months in prison if convicted.
