Judge in Alec Baldwin'sRustTrial Denies Prosecutor's Request to Revive Manslaughter Case

Mar. 15, 2025

Alec Baldwin on July 11, 2024.Photo:Ramsay de Give-Pool/Getty

Ramsay de Give-Pool/Getty

The judge inAlec Baldwin’sRustcriminal trial denied a motion from the prosecution to revive the case.

On Sept. 6, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer responded after New Mexico special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey’s Aug. 30request to reconsiderthecomplete dismissal of the caseagainst Baldwin, 66, that was made July 12.

In the ruling, Sommer noted that she was refusing to consider Morrissey’s request because her recent motion exceeded a 10-page limit on briefs filed without obtaining permission to do so.

The ruling said Morrissey’s Aug. 30 filing contained a 52-page motion and an additional 387 pages of exhibits as part of the prosecution’s argument and cautioned the prosecutor “to comply in the future with our rules of appellate procedure,” adding that “briefs that exceed the page limits, even when this Court has approved the additional pages, are almost invariably unpersuasive.”

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer (L) and Kari Morrissey on July 10, 2024.Ross D. Franklin - Pool/Getty

Ross D. Franklin - Pool/Getty

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On July 12, before the jury was brought back into the courtroom, Baldwin’s attorney Luke Nikas claimed a man named Troy Teske — a friend of Thell Reed, the father of convictedRustarmorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who wasfound guilty of involuntary manslaughter— had turned over ammunition to authorities he thought was connected to the case.

Morrissey called herself to the stand just before Sommer dismissed the case entirely and explained that she did not believe the ammunition handed over was consideredRustevidence.

Alec Baldwin on July 8, 2024.Ross D. Franklin - Pool/Getty

In Morrissey’s Aug. 30 filing, she argued “there were insufficient facts to support the Court’s ruling and there was no violation of the Defendant’s due process rights,” claiming that Baldwin and his defense team were aware of the existence of the evidence.

“The Court finds that the State’s Motion for Extension of Page Limits to State’s Motion to Reconsider Dismissal with Prejudice is not well-taken, and should be denied,” Sommer wrote in the Sept. 6 order.

source: people.com