No Conviction For Alec Baldwin!

Baldwin walks.

Winners and losers of 2024.

Sean "Softball" Hannity thought he was going to have a twofer. Had Alec Baldwin been convicted for involuntary manslaughter he would have went to the iron college for 18 months but no less than 10 years, the annoying far right agitator would have wall to wall coverage of it. 

Andrea Reeb, the Republican special prosecutor who was assisting the case tainted it.

When she went on Fox and gave Baldwin an opportunity to use Reed and special prosecutor Kari Morrissey as partisan hacks.

The tragic shooting of Halyna Hutchins will be a permanent mark on Baldwin's career

While filming Rust in New Mexico, the armorer failed to check the prop that Baldwin used in a scene. The prop had live rounds and it struck cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. She died at the hospital in Santa Fe.

The New Mexico prosecutors decided to criminally charge Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.

The incident was investigated by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, the New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney, the New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In an affidavit, the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office stated that neither Baldwin nor first assistant director David Halls knew that the gun in question was loaded. 

No justice for Halyna.

On January 31, 2023, the Santa Fe district attorney charged the two with one count each of involuntary manslaughter. Halls agreed to plead guilty to the charge of the negligent use of a deadly weapon. On February 23, 2023, Baldwin pleaded not guilty, and on April 20, 2023, it was reported that prosecutors had indicated that the charges against him were being dropped. 

Gutierrez-Reed was later charged with tampering with evidence. 

On March 6, 2024, Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Gutierrez-Reed was then remanded into police custody and sentenced to 18 months in prison on April 15, 2024. 

On January 19, 2024, Baldwin was again indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter; he pleaded not guilty. Baldwin's trial began on July 9, 2024, but the charges were dismissed with prejudice three days later.

The incident prompted a public discussion on occupational safety in the film industry, the treatment of its employees, and the use of real guns as props.

“There is no way for the court to right this wrong,” said 1st Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer. “The sanction of dismissal is the only warranted remedy.” The dismissal was with prejudice, meaning the involuntary manslaughter case against the actor cannot be filed again.

Baldwin, 66, sobbed and put his face in his hands as Sommer announced her decision. He then embraced his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, as lawyers and spectators started filing out of the courtroom.

The judge dismissed the Alec Baldwin trial due to the prosecution's failure to bring credibility.

Baldwin could have been sentenced to up to 18 months in prison if the jurors had unanimously agreed he committed the felony. The actor was rehearsing a scene at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe County on Oct. 21, 2021, when the prop revolver he was holding went off, killing Hutchins, 42, and wounding director Joel Souza.

The actor, best known for his role on “30 Rock” and appearances on “Saturday Night Live,” had pleaded not guilty. He claims that he was not aware the revolver contained a live round and that it discharged accidentally after he followed instructions to point it toward Hutchins.

Baldwin’s lawyers asserted that the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office took possession of live rounds of ammunition as evidence but did not record them in the official case file or reveal their existence to the actor’s defense team.

Kari Morrissey, the special prosecutor in the case, insisted the disputed ammunition was not linked to the case or hidden from Baldwin’s lawyers.

Morrissey said after the ruling that she was disappointed by the court’s dismissal and disagreed, but respects the decision.

Alec Baldwin better get anger management treatment.

“I believe the importance of the evidence was misconstrued by the defense attorneys,” Morrissey told reporters outside court.

Asked if she believed she let the Hutchins family down, Morrissey said: “No, we didn’t. We did everything humanly possible to bring justice to Halyna and to her family, and we’re proud of the work that we did.”

The dispute over evidence arose Thursday when Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office crime scene technician Marissa Poppell testified under cross-examination that a “good Samaritan” had come to authorities with ammunition earlier this year.

The Colt .45 rounds were delivered to the sheriff’s office in March by Troy Teske, a former police officer and friend of Thell Reed, the stepfather of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the same day she was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death (She was later sentenced to 18 months behind bars.)

Prosecutor Kari Morrissey blew it.

Baldwin’s attorneys asked the judge to dismiss the case in large part because of that revelation, arguing that they should have been told about the Colt .45 rounds — and given the ability to determine for themselves whether the ammunition brought in by Teske was crucial to the case.

The actor and his team had already won a major legal victory this week when Sommer ruled at a pretrial hearing Monday that his role as a co-producer on “Rust” was not relevant to the trial. The move prevented prosecutors from arguing that he bore a special responsibility on the set.

Baldwin is a three-time Emmy winner known for NBC’s “30 Rock” and his record 17 hosting stints on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” He has appeared in films such as “Beetlejuice,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “The Cooler,” the last of which earned him an Oscar nomination.

The road to the trial was paved with twists and turns — including on Friday when fellow co-special prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson resigned.

Ocampo Johnson told NBC News in an interview later that she disagreed with the decision to hold the hearing in the first place, after the evidence issue came to light.

"I believed that the right decision would have been a dismissal," Ocampo Johnson said. She said she believed in the case against Baldwin but that evidence had not been turned over left the judge with no other option.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted.

Baldwin was originally charged with involuntary manslaughter and a firearm enhancement charge, but the latter charge was eventually dropped. The charges were dismissed altogether in April 2023 as prosecutors cited “new facts in the case.” Then, in January, a grand jury indicted him on an involuntary manslaughter charge once again.

Baldwin’s lawyers asked the judge last month to toss the case, arguing that the firearm was badly damaged during forensic testing at an FBI lab. But that motion was denied.

Jason Bowles, the attorney for Gutierrez-Reed, said after Baldwin’s case was dismissed that he will seek freedom for his client.

“Absolutely shocking the pattern of government misconduct in this case and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s case,” Bowles said. “We will be moving for her immediate release.”

Ocampo Johnson, the special prosecutor who resigned, said she did not believe that the evidence was withheld on purpose.

"I don’t think it was intentional. I really do not believe that," Ocampo Johnson said. "I think it was just something that — it wasn’t turned over, and it should have been."