Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ Case D.A. Suffers Another Loss As Judge Axes Special Prosecutor Co-Counsel Request

deadline.com:

That’s four for four setbacks for the New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney in her prosecution of Alec Baldwin for the fatal shooting of Rust cinematorgrapher Halyna Hutchings in October 2021.

In a virtual hearing today, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer shut down D.A. Mary Carmack-Altwies’ attempt to bring on a new special prosecutor for the high-profile case and serve as co-counsel in the matter. “We need extra manpower on this case,” the elected official told the judge and lawyers for Baldwin and co-defendant  and ex-Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed Monday. “All the money in the world doesn’t help prosecute a case if we can’t find the bodies in our office,” Carmack-Altwies went on to say, noting the loss of nearly a third of her prosecution team over the last few years. “We are in dire straits,” she bluntly noted. “So, we have to be able to look outside of our offices in order to find people.

That is our good cause that we do not have the sufficient manpower to fully prosecute this by ourselves. Bringing on a special prosecutor helps with that by taking on some of the burden of prosecution.”  Already the D.A.

lost a February 24 attempt to block Reed’s request to possess a gun in her home for self-defense. Then coming off having to drop a firearm enhancement charge from the on-going case in last month and the stinging loss of the besieged Andrea Reeb as special prosecutor earlier this month, the D.A.