Alec Baldwin 2021.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
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Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
A New Mexico judge rules that actor Alec Baldwin’s indictment will apply in the case of a cinematographer shot to death on the set of his movie rust. In an order Friday, Judge Mary Marlow Sommer denied a motion by Baldwin’s attorneys to dismiss the indictment.
As a result, Baldwin is still scheduled to stand trial for manslaughter in July. About three years ago, while rehearsing a scene from a Western on a ranch outside Santa Fe, Baldwin held up the prop gun, which was loaded with live ammunition. The Colt .45 revolver exploded, killing cameraman Halina Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
Baldwin, who also produced the film, has pleaded not guilty and insisted he was not responsible for Hutchins’ death. Shortly after the shooting, he told ABC News that he had “no idea” how a live round ended up on his film set, but that he “did not pull the trigger.”
In March, a jury found the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, guilty of manslaughter and negligent use of a firearm. She is currently serving an 18-month sentence.
The New Mexico Department of Environment’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration issued a citation and fined Rust Movie Productions for the failure that resulted in Hutchins’ “avoidable death.”
Criminal case against Alec Baldwin
The high-profile criminal case against Alec Baldwin has taken many twists and turns. Baldwin was first charged in 2023, but the case against him in New Mexico has encountered a series of setbacks: Baldwin’s lawyers have sought to oust special prosecutor Andrea Reeb, a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives. She dropped out of the case. The district attorney who filed the case made the same decision after downgrading the charges against the actor. (Baldwin initially faced charges under a “gun enhancement” statute that could lead to at least five years in prison, but his legal team noted that the law didn’t go into effect in New Mexico until after the fatal incident. rust shooting.
In April 2023, two new special prosecutors were appointed and the charges against Baldwin were dropped. In October, they presented the case to a grand jury to determine whether he should face criminal charges. By January, a jury agreed to indict him.
But last week, Baldwin’s attorneys, Alex Spiro and Luke Nikas, asked Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to dismiss the charges against him. They argue the state’s special prosecutor unfairly attacked Baldwin during grand jury hearings, omitting key testimony and repeatedly interrupting witnesses.
“She wouldn’t interrupt anybody and say, ‘I don’t like Alec Baldwin,’ that’s for sure. It always went in one direction,” Spiro said.
Spiro argued that the “overzealous” special prosecutor was “disingenuous” by not calling defense witnesses to testify and providing conflicting testimony.
Meanwhile, special prosecutor Cary Morrissey defended Judge Sommer. She denied doing anything nefarious before a grand jury.
“Everything he’s saying to you right now is a complete misrepresentation,” Morrissey said of Spiro. “I did not withhold any information from the grand jury.”
She said she planned to testify if the grand jury asked for the testimony of several defense witnesses, but she denied that the testimony was conflicting.
“I hope the court understands that all I’m doing is getting the most accurate information in front of the grand jury,” Morrissey explained. She defended the testimony of witnesses, including veteran film armorer Bryan Carpenter, who spoke of industrial weapons practices during the grand jury trial: “Mr. Carpenter said Everything about how safety protocols on movie sets should be implemented is absolutely accurate, she said. Carpenter testified at Gutierrez-Reed’s trial that the armorer was responsible for gun safety, and he was also on the grand jury. “Once the gun is in the hands of the actor, the actor is responsible for the gun,” he testified.
Morrissey said that according to safety regulations on film sets, “The person holding the gun should not point it at anyone. The person holding the gun should keep their finger away from the trigger. The person pointing the gun is the person holding the gun.” Guns, should Knowing what their intended target was, all of which Mr. Baldwin failed to do, was information that was properly presented to the grand jury in this case.
Judge Sommer upheld the grand jury’s decision Friday.
litigation network
A complex web of lawsuits has grown since the fatal shooting in October 2021.
this rust The crew members have filed multiple lawsuits against each other. Film lighting engineer Serge Svetnoy sued Baldwin, Gutierrez-Reed and others involved in the production. Later, script supervisor Mamie Mitchell also sued Baldwin and other producers and crew members. In 2022, Baldwin filed a lawsuit against the film’s first assistant director, armorer, prop master and ammunition supplier, accusing them of negligence.
The family of Helena Hutchins has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him and his co-producers, accusing them of cost-cutting and reckless behavior on set that led to her death. As part of the settlement, Hutchins’ widower Matthew was named executive producer on the film, which resumed filming last year. There is no release date yet.
Hutchins’ sister and parents also filed a civil lawsuit against Baldwin, his co-producers and some crew members at their home in Ukraine.
