Alec Baldwin Had 'Absolutely No Control of His Own Emotions' on “Rust” Set, Prosecutors Argue
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New Mexico prosecutors responded to Alec Baldwin’s legal team's motion to throw out his involuntary manslaughter charges for the killing of Halyna Hutchins
Prosecutors in Alec Baldwin’s Rust shooting case are arguing the producer-star had “no control of his emotions” on set.
In a public filing released Monday, April 8, and obtained by PEOPLE, New Mexico state prosecutors wrote that Baldwin, 66, was “inattentive” during firearms training and “frequently screaming and cursing” on the set of the western movie prior to the 2021 incident in which a gun he was holding fired, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
“To watch Mr Baldwin’s conduct on the set of Rust is to witness a man who has absolutely no control of his own emotions and absolutely no concern for how his conduct affects those around him,” wrote Kari T. Morrissey and Jason J. Lewis. “Witnesses have testified that it was this exact conduct that contributed to safety compromises on set.”
PEOPLE reached out to Baldwin's legal team.
Related: How Can Alec Baldwin Be Charged Again for the Shooting of Halyna Hutchins? A Legal Expert Explains
The prosecutors filed the document in response to the motion from Baldwin’s legal team in March to throw out the charges against him — involuntary manslaughter (for negligent use of a firearm) or alternatively, involuntary manslaughter (without due caution or circumspection) — which were re-filed in January in an indictment from a New Mexico grand jury.
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Alec Baldwin in 2023; Halyna Hutchins in 2018Ahead of his trial scheduled to begin in July, Baldwin pleaded not guilty to those charges on Jan. 31. If convicted, the 30 Rock Emmy winner faces up to 18 months behind bars.
Baldwin has maintained he did not pull the trigger of the gun. Addressing his “version of events,” the prosecutors’ filing stated, “later statements contradicted his previous statements.”
The prosecutors also wrote that they “have experienced near countless lies and manipulation from the defense,” and have been “the subject of the defendant's contrived and unwarranted personal attacks.”
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Last month in a separate trial, Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, and was acquitted of a charge of tampering with evidence. She faces 18 months in prison ahead of a sentencing date that has not yet been set.
What caused the incident that killed Hutchins, wrote the prosecutors in the April 8 filing, was “the combination of Hannah Gutierrez's negligence and inexperience and Alec Baldwin's complete lack of concern for the safety of those around him.”
The motion to dismiss from Baldwin’s lawyers “is a predictably false, misleading, and histrionic misrepresentation of the facts and circumstances of the history of the case,” they added.
Members of Hutchins’ family were "satisfied" with the outcome of Gutierrez-Reed's trial, their attorney said in a statement shortly after that verdict.
Rust resumed and completed filming last year in Montana.
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