Alec Baldwin Breaks Silence After Rust Shooting Lawsuit Dismissed

Jury unexpectedly excused for day after defense files expedited motion to dismiss

The jury had only been seated for a short time on the morning of July 12 when Judge Sommer sent them home for the day following the defense’s motion accusing the state of burying evidence.

Poppell testified that he received a box of ammunition from a former Arizona police officer Troy Teske—a friend of Gutierrez’s father previously identified as a “good Samaritan” but since identified in court—after Gutierrez was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March for her role in Hutchins’ death.

Spiro once asked Poppell why she didn’t put the box with the rest of the Rust proof of case.

This morning, before the jury was convened, Poppell again denied intentionally concealing anything, telling Spiro she had been ordered to file the box under a different case number, which she did.

The defense motion alleges that the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office and the state “concealed from Baldwin that there was evidence that the live round came from Seth Kenney.”

After a lunch break, the prosecution called PDQ Props owner Kenney, who was hired to provide the Rust production with imitation firearms and imitation bullets, to testify without the jury present at a hearing on the defense motion.

Kenney testified that having supplied dummy bullets to more than a thousand productions, “he never doubted” that he could have brought live ammunition to the set.

Morrissey called the defense’s attempt to blame Kenney a “wild goose chase.”