Alec Baldwin lost his bid Friday to get his involuntary manslaughter case dismissed. A judge in New Mexico denied his request and upheld his indictment after a testy hearing last week. The new ruling means the actor remains on track to begin a jury trial in July over claims he aimed a prop gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and fired the live bullet that killed her during production of the western movie Rust in 2021.
Baldwin, 66, has pleaded not guilty , claiming he’s not responsible for the deadly shooting because he wasn’t in charge of safety on the movie set, had no reason to suspect his prop gun might contain a live round, and didn’t pull the trigger on his .45 caliber single action army revolver. At a May 17 hearing, Baldwin’s lawyers detailed the grounds for dismissal, including the claim that prosecutors withheld “exculpatory” evidence from the grand jury, that “jury instruction was inaccurate,” that “the state failed to advise the grand jury” that it could request the presentation of evidence and witnesses not offered by prosecutors, and that some prosecution witnesses gave testimony to the grand jury that was contrary to the testimony those same witnesses provided at the trial of Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed .
In her ruling Friday, New Mexico District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer denied Baldwin’s motion on the grounds that she saw no evidence of “bad faith” on the part of prosecutors. “The prosecutor has broad discretion as to.