Alec Baldwin in 2021.
Evan Agostini/Vision/AP
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Evan Agostini/Vision/AP
A New Mexico judge has ruled that the indictment of actor Alec Baldwin will be behind the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of his movie rust. In one order on Friday, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer denied a motion to dismiss the indictment by Baldwin’s attorneys.
As a result, Baldwin is still scheduled for trial in July for involuntary manslaughter. Nearly three years ago, during rehearsals for a scene in a Western movie on a ranch outside Santa Fe, Baldwin was holding a bulletproof gun loaded with live bullets. The Colt .45 revolver exploded, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
Baldwin, who was also a producer on the film, pleaded not guilty and insisted he was not responsible for Hutchins’ death. Immediately after the shooting, he told ABC News he “didn’t know” how a live bullet got into his movie set, but he “didn’t pull the trigger.”
March, The jury found the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, guilty of involuntary manslaughter and negligent handling of a firearm. She is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence.
The New Mexico Department of Environment’s Occupational Safety and Health Bureau issued a summons against Rust Movie Productions and fined them for the lapses that led to Hutchins’ “Death can be avoided.”
Criminal case against Alec Baldwin
The high-profile criminal case against Alec Baldwin has had many twists and turns. Baldwin was first charged in 2023, but New Mexico’s case against him encountered some setbacks: Baldwin’s lawyers fought to remove special prosecutor Andrea Reeb, a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives. She stepped down from the case. So did the district attorney who prosecuted the case, after downgrading the charges against the actor. (Baldwin initially faced a minimum charge of five years in prison under the “firearm enhancement” statute, but his legal team noted that such a law did not take effect in New Mexico until after the murder Deadly. rust take a shot.)
In April 2023, the charges against Baldwin were dropped when two new special prosecutors were appointed. In October, they presented their case to a grand jury to determine whether he should be criminally charged. By January, a grand jury agreed to indict him.
But last week, Baldwin’s attorneys Alex Spiro and Luke Nikas asked Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to dismiss his charges. They argued that during the grand jury hearing, the state’s special prosecutor unfairly stacked Baldwin, omitted key testimony and repeatedly interrupted witnesses.
“She doesn’t cut anyone off who says ‘I don’t like Alec Baldwin,’ that’s for sure,” Spiro said. Things always go in one direction.
Spiro argued that the “overzealous” special prosecutor acted “maliciously” by failing to make defense witnesses available to testify and giving contradictory testimony.
Meanwhile, special prosecutor Kari Morrissey took the stand for the defense along with Judge Sommer. She denied that she did anything nefarious to the grand jury.
“Everything he is telling you right now is a complete misrepresentation,” Morrissey said of Spiro. “I did not withhold any information from the jury.”
She said she planned to present several defense witnesses if grand jurors asked for their testimony, and she denied that the testimony contained conflicts.
“I wanted the court to understand that all I was trying to do was get the most accurate information before the grand jury,” Morrissey explained. She defended the testimony of witnesses, including that of veteran weapons manufacturer Bryan Carpenter, who spoke about industrial weapons practices during the grand jury trial: “ Everything Mr. Carpenter said was absolutely correct about how safety procedures on set should be followed.” job.” She said Carpenter testified during Gutierrez-Reed’s trial that the armorer was responsible for gun safety and that he testified before the grand jury “that the actor was responsible for gun while it was in his hand.”
Morrissey said according to on-set safety procedures, “The person holding the gun cannot point at anyone. The person holding the gun must keep his or her finger off the trigger. The person pointing, the person holding the gun.” guns, should have known what their intended target was. All of those are things that Mr. Baldwin failed to do. And that information was properly presented to the grand jury in this case.”
On Friday, Judge Sommer allowed the grand jury decision to stand.
A network of lawsuits
Since the deadly shooting in October 2021, a complex web of lawsuits has proliferated.
The rust The crew filed several lawsuits against each other. Serge Svetnoy, the lighting man, the man in charge of the film, sued Baldwin, Guttierez-Reed and several others participated 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, alleging negligence.
Halyna Hutchins’ family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him and his co-producers, alleging their cost-cutting and reckless behavior on set led to her death. As part of the settlement agreement, Hutchins’ widower, Matthew, was named executive producer of the film, which resumed and completed filming last year. There is no release date yet.
From their home in Ukraine, Hutchins’ sister and parents also filed a civil lawsuit against Baldwin, his co-producers, and several crew members.
