Alec Baldwin Loses Bid to Dismiss ‘Rust’ Involuntary Manslaughter Charge
Alec Baldwin lost his bid Friday to get his involuntary manslaughter case dismissed. A judge in New Mexico denied his request and upheld his indictment after a testy hearing last week. The new ruling means the actor remains on track to begin a jury trial in July over claims he aimed a prop gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and fired the live bullet that killed her during production of the western movie Rust in 2021.
Baldwin, 66, has pleaded not guilty, claiming he’s not responsible for the deadly shooting because he wasn’t in charge of safety on the movie set, had no reason to suspect his prop gun might contain a live round, and didn’t pull the trigger on his .45 caliber single action army revolver.
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At a May 17 hearing, Baldwin’s lawyers detailed the grounds for dismissal, including the claim that prosecutors withheld “exculpatory” evidence from the grand jury, that “jury instruction was inaccurate,” that “the state failed to advise the grand jury” that it could request the presentation of evidence and witnesses not offered by prosecutors, and that some prosecution witnesses gave testimony to the grand jury that was contrary to the testimony those same witnesses provided at the trial of Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.
In her ruling Friday, New Mexico District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer denied Baldwin’s motion on the grounds that she saw no evidence of “bad faith” on the part of prosecutors. “The prosecutor has broad discretion as to what evidence to present to, or exclude from, the grand jury, and courts will not review any good-faith decisions the prosecutor makes in that regard once an indictment is returned,” she wrote. “There is no post-indictment relief for an indictment once the grand jury returns an indictment absent a showing of prosecutorial bad faith.”
In their written dismissal motion filed in March, Baldwin and his lawyers said the person who handed him the Colt revolver before the fatal shooting shouted “cold gun” to signify “it was loaded with inert dummy rounds and therefore safe to handle.” They said it was Hutchins herself who directed Baldwin to draw the gun from its holster and aim it toward the camera. “Hutchins, like Baldwin, clearly believed that the gun was cold. Had there been any doubts between them, she would not have instructed him to point the gun in her direction, and he would not have done so,” they wrote.
Baldwin and his lawyers went on to argue that prosecutors “trampled” his rights to a fair grand jury process when they allegedly “concealed” evidence and testimony he considers favorable to his defense, such as the testimony of Dave Halls, the assistant director on Rust who made the “cold gun” declaration. Halls, who entered a no-contest plea to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon in a no-jail deal with prosecutors, would have “unequivocally” told the grand jury “that it is not the actor’s duty to check whether a prop gun has been loaded with live rounds or to refrain from pointing it at the camera after being told it was safe to do so,” according to Baldwin’s filing.
Baldwin then argued it was misleading when prosecutors had a “purported” firearms expert named Michael Haag testify that FBI analysis showed the prop gun would not have fired during the rehearsal unless Baldwin pulled the trigger. “Haag omitted several essential facts regarding that testing, including that the FBI testing established that the gun did fire without a trigger pull when the firearm was fully loaded with six rounds, as it was on the day of the incident,” the motion argued.
In their written response, prosecutors didn’t hold back. They said Baldwin was the most experienced person on the Rust set, and as the boss and leading man, he set the tone.
“Mr. Baldwin’s relentless rushing of the crew on the movie set routinely compromised safety because Rust is not a romantic comedy, it is an action-filled western with dangerous stunts and real guns being used as props,” they wrote. “In addition to rushing the cast and crew, Mr. Baldwin was frequently screaming and cursing at himself, at crew members or at no one and not for any particular reason. 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 effects those around him.”
They defended Haag as a nationally recognized expert in his field and called his testimony accurate. “On the day of the incident, the gun was fired from the full-cock position. During FBI testing, the gun only fired without a trigger pull when the hammer was in the resting position as it is designed to do if a cartridge is loaded into the chamber of the cylinder that aligns with the firing pin,” they wrote.
They stressed that they consider their case very clear cut. “The reason Baldwin’s behavior was a violation of the law is because he pointed a gun at a person, cocked it and pulled the trigger having no personal knowledge what type of ammunition was in the gun. This is a violation of basic gun safety and New Mexico law,” they wrote in their opposition to his dismissal motion.
Beyond Halls and Baldwin, the western film’s rookie armorer also faced criminal prosecution for Hutchins’ death. Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter at a 10-day trial that ended in March. In their closing arguments, prosecutors told jurors that Gutierrez-Reed negligently brought live ammunition onto the set and failed to identify that it was mixed in with the inert, dummy rounds that she was loading into prop weapons. Six live bullets were eventually found on the production at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, including the live round that killed Hutchins. Two others were found loose on top of a prop cart while one was found in Baldwin’s holster belt and another was found in actor Jensen Ackles’ gun belt.
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