A New Mexico criminal case against actor Alec Baldwin stemming from a fatal shooting on the set of his movie “Rust” in 2021 concluded on Monday, as Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey opted to drop her appeal of the case’s dismissal. The decision to withdraw the appeal was confirmed by a statement from the Frist Judicial District Attorney’s office.
In response to this development, Baldwin’s legal representatives, Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, issued a statement asserting that the dismissal of the appeal represents the definitive vindication of Baldwin’s consistent stance that he bore no criminal responsibility in what he and his attorneys have characterized as an “unspeakable tragedy.”
Notably, a New Mexico judge had dismissed involuntary manslaughter charges against Baldwin back in July, concurring with the arguments put forth by the actor’s legal team that Morrissey, along with the sheriff’s office, had failed to disclose crucial evidence regarding the origin of the live round that tragically claimed the life of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021.
While the district attorney’s office expressed strong disagreement with the judge’s ruling to dismiss the case against Baldwin, the decision to abandon the appeal of this judgment was motivated by the Office of the Attorney General’s communication to Morrissey, indicating that it did not intend to pursue the appeal extensively on behalf of the prosecution, as per the released statement.
Hutchins met her untimely demise when Baldwin, in the process of setting up a camera shot on a movie set near Santa Fe, pointed a firearm in her direction. Regrettably, the weapon discharged a live round that had been mistakenly loaded by the movie’s head weapons handler, Hannah Gutierrez. Gutierrez was subsequently convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March and received sentencing a month later.
The renowned “30 Rock” actor vehemently denied any intentional trigger-pulling, maintaining that he had been expressly instructed to direct the gun towards the camera. However, investigations by both the FBI and an independent firearms expert revealed that the firearm in question could not have discharged without the trigger being activated.
The tragic passing of Halyna Hutchins marked the first on-set fatality involving a live round misidentified as a dummy or blank round since Hollywood’s silent film era, according to insights from historian Alan Rode. Historically, fatal shootings on Hollywood sets have typically been addressed through civil litigation, with the most recent fatality occurring in 1993 when Brandon Lee lost his life due to a blank round displacing a lodged bullet in a revolver’s barrel during the filming of “The Crow.”
Brad Brooks reported from Colorado. The article was edited by Stephen Coates.
