The special prosecutor in Alec Baldwin’s now- dismissed involuntary manslaughter case for the fatal 2021 shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins insists there was “no cover-up” on her part, but that the actor’s sprawling legal team and others might have been up to some legal subterfuge.
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“There is no basis for the defense arguments that they were cheated out of adequately preparing for trial and would have done things differently had they known about the Teske rounds — they knew about them,” Kari Morrissey says of bullets dropped off to Santa Fe police in recent months by ex-Arizona cop Troy Teske.
In a quick series of courtroom events and midnight motions in mid-July, Baldwin’s defense team led by Alex Spiro and Luke Nikas claimed they had just found out about the Teske bullets and cried foul.
“This is a smoke screen created by the defense and was intended to sway and confuse the court … and it was successful,’ Morrissey conceded in an August 30 motion to reconsider dismissal filing , an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink document designed to resurrect the embarrassingly handled case.
In short, even though New Mexico Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer threw out the case on the fourth day of Baldwin’s trial “with prejudice” (which means it can’t be filed again), Morrissey clearly wants another shot at a successful conviction of the multiple Emmy winner, by appeal or otherwise.
Going on offense, Morrissey also now officially wants to know what Baldwin’s Quinn Emanuel-dominated defense lawyers knew about so-called suppressed evidence, and when they knew it. She also wants to know whether the attorney for convicted Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed tipped off Baldwin’s team to evidence of further live rounds that suddenly appeared via close friend of Gutierrez-Reed’s renowned Hollywood gun coach father Thell Reed.
Baldwin’s team had no response to requests from Deadline on this latest filing.
However, in the process of trying to get his client out of jail from her 18-month involuntary manslaughter guilty verdict, Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer Jason Bowles was quick to dismiss Morrissey’s latest indignation today.
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“The Court has already found the State committed egregious discovery violations warranting dismissal of charges,” Bowles told Deadline. “Apparently the State’s only recourse is to try and blame someone else.”
Hutchins was killed, and Rust director Joel Souza was injured, on October 21, 2021 after the Colt .45 Baldwin was pointing at the cinematographer fired off a live round during a rehearsal at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe where the indie Western was filming. Facing up to 18 months in state prison if found guilty, Baldwin has always insisted that while he cocked the hammer, he did not pull the trigger and the gun somehow went off on its own. The FBI, an independent analysis and the man who actually made the gun all disagreed with Baldwin’s assertion.
Currently appealing and trying to get her own case dismissed, Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced to 18 months in a state prison on April 15 after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. While a range of theories from sabotage to stray ammunition from Thell Reed have been floated, no full explanation has been established for how several live rounds got on the already troubled Rust set and how one of those rounds got in the gun Baldwin was holding.
Morrissey’s motion to reconsider the dismissal with prejudice of Baldwin’s case is full of the blunt assertions of certainty that clearly caused her difficulty in the four day of the trial this summer. But equally clear is that Morrissey has no intention of changing her tactics, even for a Hail Mary such as getting the case back in the courts.
“There was no cover-up because there was nothing to cover up. Teske turned in live ammunition two and half years after the death of Ms. Hutchins that in no way related to the charges against Mr. Baldwin,” Morrissey says.
She goes on to advocate:
The State asserts that there were insufficient facts to support the Court’s ruling and there was no violation of the Defendant’s due process rights. Specifically, the State asserts that, while the State may have suppressed the ammunition from Defendant Baldwin, the Defendant was aware of the existence of the ammunition and the specific characteristics of the ammunition prior to trial, the ammunition is not favorable to the defendant and is not material to his defense. Moreover, the State requests the Court order defense counsel to provide a description and all documents related to when and how they learned of the Teske ammunition so that the Court may properly consider prejudice to the Defendant and a record for possible review by a higher court can be created.
On the other hand, set to star in his own TLC reality show with wife Hilaria and their children, Beetlejuice actor Baldwin has been out and about since his judicial victory – though with the case obviously not far from mind. Last week, the 17-time SNL host was seen with his spouse at the U.S. Open with attorney Nikas by their side.
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