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Inside The Courtroom As Case Dismissed Against Alec Baldwin In Fatal Shooting Of Cinematographer
Santa Fe, New Mexico – A nearly three-year legal saga for Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer concluded Friday without a verdict, but with tears of relief for the actor and a small group of family members who had settled into a sad daily routine on wooden benches inside 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 to testimony in Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial in the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, only to be released for the day as the trial took an unexpected detour.
“Have a great weekend,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer stated.
Outside the jury’s gaze, Baldwin’s criminal case was teetering as his defense attorneys accused local detectives and prosecutors of hiding evidence that could throw light on the unconfirmed origin of live ammo on the set of “Rust.”
This was Baldwin’s fifth day in court. He arrived in a black SUV with his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, every morning to a phalanx of outdoor media cameras. Inside the courtroom on Monday, an animated Baldwin talked to a counsel, scribbled on a legal pad, and distributed post-it notes to his legal team.
Alec Baldwin | AP News Image
Inside The Courtroom As Case Dismissed Against Alec Baldwin In Fatal Shooting Of Cinematographer
The defense secured an early victory when the judge concluded Baldwin could not be held criminally accountable for his role as co-producer on “Rust.” The case would center on Baldwin’s gun handling as the major character.
On Tuesday, the defendant’s younger brother, Stephen Baldwin, appeared in the back of the courtroom for jury selection. He’d return every day, all day. Out of 70 potential jurors, all but three were familiar with the “Rust” shooting case. By the end of the day, a jury of five men and eleven women had been seated for trial.
The courtroom was packed for opening statements on Wednesday. Half of the gallery was reserved for news media, including local network TV and the Times of London, as well as a few designated photographers. The other half was filled by attorneys and members of the general public, including Baldwin’s friends and relatives, local curiosity seekers and traveling amateur trial enthusiasts.
As prosecutors presented opening remarks and overhead video monitors showed the aftermath of the fatal shooting at a movie set ranch, Baldwin sat in court, eyes fixed on a notebook and away from the jury.
Prosecutors said Baldwin broke the basic laws of firearm safety by aiming a real gun at Hutchins while pretending. Defense attorneys contended that Baldwin was simply doing his job as an actor, depending on other specialists to assure firearms safety, albeit with deadly consequences.
Elizabeth Keuchler, Baldwin’s older sister, cried in court as the comments were read. She embraced her brother over a courtroom railing and then sat close behind him.
Gloria Allred, a famous critic of Baldwin, took her seat at the front of the court gallery. She represents Hutchins’ sister and parents in a civil trial seeking damages.
Baldwin’s every expression during the trial was captured on a television feed relayed by CourtTV and The Associated Press. During Wednesday’s first full day of witness testimony, the A-list actor, who has had a decades-long career in cinema and television, from “The Hunt for Red October” to “30 Rock” and is a regular on “Saturday Night Live,” maintained a guarded and focused stare.
Baldwin ran out of the courtroom once but moved slowly and deliberately around the courtroom and courthouse, where impromptu interviews and photography were prohibited.
On Friday afternoon, Baldwin’s outward demeanor changed little, but tension was rising in the courtroom as Marlowe Sommer weighed a motion to dismiss the case and probed revelations that investigators failed to disclose the receipt of ammunition in March by a man who claimed it was related to Hutchins’ death.
Prosecutors claimed the ammo was unconnected and inconsequential, but Baldwin’s lawyers claimed they “buried” it.
Alec Baldwin | AP News Image
Inside The Courtroom As Case Dismissed Against Alec Baldwin In Fatal Shooting Of Cinematographer
During an afternoon break, Baldwin took steady, controlled breaths as he walked slowly out of the courtroom. The air whistled faintly as he exhaled, lips pursed. Hilaria Baldwin grabbed his arm and caressed his back as they paced the hallway.
Back inside, the audience laughed as defense attorney Alex Spiro sparred with the ammo supplier for “Rust,” Seth Kenney, who had formed a cooperative relationship with investigators in the aftermath of the massacre.
But the courtroom became hushed amid the clatter of laptop keyboards when the judge questioned a sheriff’s detective about the choice to keep the ammo in a separate evidence file from the “Rust” shooting case and if lead prosecutor Kari Morrissey was aware of it.
“When you say that there were discussions and the decision was made by all of you to put that ammo in a separate file, was Ms. Morrissey part of that discussion?” Marlowe Sommer stated.
The case was collapsing. The courtroom gasped as Morrissey revealed that her co-prosecutor had just quit.
Baldwin’s eyes welled up with tears and sobs as the judge explained her decision: “The sanction of dismissal is warranted in this case.”
SOURCE | AP
