Baldwin's attorneys ask judge to toss charges

May 9—Actor Alec Baldwin is asking a Santa Fe judge to dismiss criminal charges against him, claiming the FBI "thoroughly demolished" a firearm at the heart of "Rust" movie shooting death case.

The FBI testing prevents Baldwin's defense team from independently testing the firearm, his attorneys argue in new court filings.

Baldwin has maintained that he did not pull the trigger of the prop Colt .45 revolver he was holding on Oct. 21, 2021, during a rehearsal on the movie set. The gunshot killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.

"The government took the most critical evidence in this case — the firearm — and destroyed it by repeatedly and pointlessly striking it with a mallet," Baldwin's attorneys wrote in a motion seeking dismissal of an involuntary manslaughter charge the actor faces.

Baldwin "can no longer enlist an expert to conduct testing on the firearm in its original state to determine whether it could have accidentally discharged" without pulling the trigger, attorneys wrote.

A second motion argues that prosecutors have failed to show that Baldwin committed a crime and blames the movie's armorer for failing to ensure that the gun didn't contain live rounds.

District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer has scheduled a hearing for May 17 to consider the motions. Baldwin's trial is scheduled to begin July 9 before Marlowe Sommer in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe.

On April 14, Marlowe Sommer sentenced "Rust" armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed to the maximum 18 months in prison for her role in Hutchins' death. Jurors deliberated for less than three hours on March 6 before finding the 27-year-old armorer guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

Baldwin also faces a maximum of 18 months in prison if a jury finds him guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

Special prosecutors Kari Morrisey and Jason Lewis dismissed an earlier involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in April 2023 after they were told that the gun may have been modified before the shooting.

"If it is determined that the gun did not malfunction, charges against Mr. Baldwin will proceed," Morrisey and Lewis wrote in a June 2023 motion filed in the case of Gutierrez Reed.

Prosecutors last year hired Arizona firearms expert Lucien C. Haag to perform additional testing on the prop revolver.

In his report, Haag concluded that a trigger pull would have been required to fire the Italian-made Pietta pistol, a replica of the 1873 Colt .45 pistol that killed Hutchins.

Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury in January again charging him with involuntary manslaughter.

Baldwin's attorneys cited testimony in Gutierrez Reed's trial and the closing arguments of prosecutors in their motions seeking dismissal.

An FBI weapons expert testified in Gutierrez Reed's trial that the revolver was fully functional when it arrived at the FBI laboratory.

FBI forensic examiner Bryce Ziegler testified that he struck the fully cocked gun with a mallet to determine if it would fire without a trigger pull. The test broke the weapon's trigger mechanism, causing it to fire.

Baldwin's defense team has argued that the prop gun may have malfunctioned, resulting in an accidental discharge that fatally struck Hutchins in the chest.

The FBI tests "have made it impossible for Baldwin to establish the firearm's condition on the day of the accident" and perform testing that could assist his defense, the motion contends.