Actor Alec Baldwin appears headed for trial this summer over a fatal shooting on a New Mexico movie set after a judge dismissed defense claims that prosecutors illegally obtained his indictment.
Judge Mary Marlowe Summer on Friday upheld an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in the accidental 2021 slaying of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, the Associated Press reported.
Marlowe Summer rejected allegations that prosecutors acted in "bad faith" by steering grand jurors away from evidence and witnesses that could have helped exonerate Baldwin, AP said.
"New Mexico law does not require a prosecutor to present exculpatory evidence to a grand jury, or require a grand jury to even consider exculpatory evidence after alerted to its existence," the judge wrote.
The ruling removed one the last obstacles for a July trial. If convicted, Baldwin would face a maximum 18 months in prison, AP noted.
Defense lawyers Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro said in an email: "We look forward to our day in court."
Baldwin, 66, is accused of killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza during a rehearsal for the western movie "Rust" outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, during filming in 2021.
The Emmy-winning former "30 Rock" co-star, who was the movie's lead actor and a co-producer, maintains that he cocked the revolver but didn't pull the trigger before it fired.
In March, a jury convicted the production's weapons supervisor, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, of involuntary manslaughter for unknowingly bringing live ammunition onto the set and failing to check what she thought were "dummy" rounds loaded into the production's prop guns.
Guttierrez-Reed, who received a maximum, 18-month sentence, is appealing her conviction.
