Actor Alec Baldwin reacts after the judge threw out the involuntary manslaughter case for the 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during filming of the Western movie "Rust," Friday, July 12, 2024, at Santa Fe County District Court in Santa Fe, N.M. (Pool Video via AP)

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The criminal case against Alec Baldwin was about the handling of bullets from the beginning. And the handling of bullets brought it to an end.

When cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed nearly three years ago on the New Mexico set of the film “Rust,” one question obsessed authorities yet was never definitively answered: How was it possible that live, lethal rounds had gotten into the mix with the blanks that traditionally make movie gunfire and the inert dummy rounds that play the role of bullets on screen, then into the revolver that Baldwin, in character, was pointing at Hutchins?

Evidence that Baldwin's attorneys unearthed as part of a possible explanation — ammunition turned over by a man who walked into the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office in March — brought the actor's involuntary manslaughter trial to a swift and sudden end Friday when a judge ruled prosecutors had improperly failed to share that evidence.

One of two special prosecutors on the case, who resigned just a few hours before the dismissal, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the judge's decision was correct.

“When you step back and you think about, ‘OK, could the defense have made use of this in preparing a defense?’ And the answer is possibly, yeah. ... Then the proper remedy should be dismissal," Erlinda Ocampo Johnson said, adding that it's unfortunate that the jury “never got to hear the facts and make a decision.”

With the trial ended in its infancy, it is difficult to say whether the case made by Baldwin's elite and expensive team of lawyers would have shed light on the live rounds question or would have muddied it further.

But the dismissal shut off one of the final avenues where the bullet question could be addressed.

“I feel like this this entire case has run its course, and we will never know,” said John Day, a New Mexico attorney who followed the case but is not involved in it. “You can’t redo a bad investigation. Once it’s done, it’s done like this. There’s really nothing else that can be done.”

The other special prosecutor, Kari Morrissey, and other authorities said they are nearly certain of the answer to at least who brought the live rounds on to the set, if not how they got into Baldwin's revolver: Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the film's armorer, who was convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter and got the 18 months in prison Baldwin might have gotten if he had been convicted.

Photos found on Gutierrez-Reed's cellphone showed her with the box where the bullets came from, according to testimony this week from a crime scene technician.

And at the hearing that led to the case's dismissal on Friday, Seth Kenney, who provided the firearms and some of the blanks and dummy rounds to the set of “Rust,” testified that shortly before “Rust,” Gutierrez-Reed had called and texted him about shooting live ammo with the guns to be used as props in the Nicolas Cage film “The Old Way,” which she was working on in Montana.

“I said ‘absolutely not’ and ‘it’s a big mistake’ ” Kenney said from the stand. “I even said ‘it always ends in tears.’ ”

Baldwin's lawyers tried to suggest that authorities had under-investigated Kenney and had an overly cozy relationship with him, and they had looked away from his possible responsibility for the live ammunition because Gutierrez-Reed could be tied directly to Baldwin. The defense didn't get to provide the thorough version of this theory because the trial ended so quickly.

Police and prosecutors say there is zero evidence that Kenney is responsible, and he testified Friday that he was absolutely certain he had not been the source.

Gutierrez-Reed is appealing her verdict as she serves her time. Her lawyer says he is planning a new motion to dismiss after the Baldwin ruling.

When that ruling came, Baldwin wept in the courtroom and hugged his lawyers and his wife.

He made his first public comments Saturday when he thanked supporters.

"There are too many people who have supported me to thank just now," Baldwin said in a brief Instagram post that accompanied a photo of him sitting in the courtroom. “To all of you, you will never know how much I appreciate your kindness toward my family.”

Several civil lawsuits against Baldwin and “Rust” producers could still end up shedding light on the bullet question.

A lawsuit from Hutchins' husband and son that had been settled could be revived. And lawsuits from the cinematographer's parents and sister and crew members are still being pursued in court.

The attorneys in those cases won't have the investigative power of police, but they could have one advantage the prosecution didn't. The resolution of the criminal case could open the way for a deposition of Baldwin in civil litigation if he can no longer claim it would expose him to criminal liability.

“I’m still here. We have a very large legal team," Gloria Allred, a lawyer representing Hutchins' parents and “Rust" script supervisor Mamie Mitchell. “I have been doing this for 48 years, as long as I’ve been practicing law, and I have never allowed the dismissal of a criminal case or a conviction in the criminal case that was later vacated on appeal to deter me.”

Allred said she doesn't know how long it will take for a civil trial to come. But "however long it takes to persevere, we want to win accountability and justice for the untimely tragedy of losing this beautiful, talented cinematographer,” she said.

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Dalton reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press Writer Susan Montoya Brian contributed from Albuquerque, N.M.

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