Alec Baldwin will not be facing years in prison after prosecutors on Monday dropped a firearms enhancement charge originally brought against him in the fatal accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a New Mexico movie set.
Had Baldwin been convicted of firearms enhancement charge, he would have been punished by imprisonment of 5 years. The 64-year-old actor and director still faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter, which would carry a lesser sentence of up to 18 months in prison if convicted.
The charge was also dropped against former Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for the weapon fired by Alec Baldwin when he pointed a prop gun in the direction of Hutchins while rehearsing a gunfight scene on the set of “Rust” on Oct. 21, 2021. She now faces the same involuntary manslaughter charge as Baldwin.
“In order to avoid further litigious distractions by Mr. Baldwin and his attorneys, the District Attorney and the special prosecutor have removed the firearm enhancement to the involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of Halyna Hutchins on the Rust film set,” the office of Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwie said in a statement. “The prosecution’s priority is securing justice, not securing billable hours for big-city attorneys.”
The decision to drop the charge comes after Baldwin’s legal team filled a motion arguing that the current version of the gun law had not taken effect when the shooting occurred.
“The prosecutors committed a basic legal error by charging Mr Baldwin under a version of the firearm-enhancement statute that did not exist on the date of the accident,” Luke Nikas, a lawyer for Baldwin, wrote in the Feb. 10 motion. The current version of the law went into effect in May 2022.
Baldwin’s lawyers are also trying to disqualify the special prosecutor Andrea Reeb, who was elected last year to the New Mexico House of Representatives as a Republican. Reeb assumed office on Jan. 1, months after the Mary Carmack-Altwie put her in charge of Baldwin’s case.
In a motion filed on Feb. 7, the defense attorneys argued that Reeb has to be disqualified because, under New Mexico’s constitution, one cannot serve as a lawmaker and a prosecuting attorney at the same time.
“Under Section 1 of Article III of the New Mexico Constitution … a sitting member of the Legislature may not ‘exercise any powers properly belonging’ to either the executive or judicial branch,” Nikas wrote.
“As a special prosecutor, Representative Reeb is vested by statute with ‘all the powers and duties’ of a District Attorney, who is considered a member of either the judicial or executive branch of the New Mexico government,” the lawyer added.
“Representative Reeb is therefore exercising either the executive power or the judicial power, and her continued service as a special prosecutor is unconstitutional. She must be disqualified.”
The First Judicial District dismissed it as a distraction tactic.
“Mr. Baldwin and his attorneys can use whatever tactics they want to distract from the fact that Halyna Hutchins died because of gross negligence and a reckless disregard for safety on the ‘Rust’ film set,” a spokesperson for the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office said.
“However, the district attorney and the special prosecutor will remain focused on the evidence and on trying this case so that justice is served.”
“Rust” will be resuming production this spring with a mix of new and original crew members, according to Rust Movie Productions.
Among the film’s returning crew members is director Joel Souza, who was wounded in the shooting. All of the core cast, including Baldwin, will be returning.
