Although Santa Fe District Attorney’s Office dropped a gun enhancement charge – and a potential mandatory five-year prison sentence – against Alec Baldwin, he could still face a maximum of 18 months in prison.
That sentence is “not anything to sneeze at,” former Los Angeles County prosecutor and current criminal defense attorney Josh Ritter told KNX this week. “So, I think it puts him in a far stronger position to negotiate with the DA’s office to try to somehow plea bargain this thing.”
Baldwin is expected to make his first court appearance Friday.
He was working as an actor and producer on the Bonanza Creek Ranch film set of “Rust” in New Mexico in October 2021 when he reportedly fired a prop gun that he did not know had been loaded with live ammunition. Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, was struck by the shot and died. Director Joel Souza was also struck in the shoulder and survived.
Last month, First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies of New Mexico announced that her office “formally filed involuntary manslaughter charges” against Baldwin and set armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed for Hutchins’ fatal shooting. Negligent use of a deadly weapon charges were also filed against assistant director David Halls. He pleaded no contest and his plea agreement was pending approval as of Jan. 31.
Carmack-Altwies first announced plans to charge Baldwin earlier that month.
According to the New York Times, “Baldwin’s lawyers argued this month that the Santa Fe County district attorney had incorrectly charged the actor under a version of a New Mexico firearm law that was passed months after the fatal shooting in October 2021.”
“The actor’s legal team says in its recent motion special prosecutor Andrea Reeb admitted in an email the defense had been correct in contending the enhancement couldn’t be applied because it wasn’t enacted until seven months after the October 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins,” said the Santa Fe New Mexican.
According to that outlet, the motion included copies of emails from Reeb to Baldwin’s legal team. The motion said “prosecutors first downplayed their concerns, then accused them of failing to follow proper procedure before admitting they were right.”
Heather Brewer, a spokeswoman for the district attorney, said the prosecution had dropped the firearm enhancement charges to “avoid further litigious distractions by Mr. Baldwin and his attorneys,” per The New York Times
Variety reported this week that the New Mexico division of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that “Baldwin was not in charge and was not the one culpable for lax oversight,” in a separate investigation into the shooting.
“The divergent conclusions could complicate efforts to hold Baldwin criminally responsible,” said the outlet. “They also raise questions about why, if the prosecutors wanted to pursue management failures, they did not charge others in the production’s hierarchy.”
According to Variety, some have also questioned whether Republican prosecutor Andrea Reeb was targeting Baldwin – a well-known liberal – for political reasons.
“They’re trying to grab headlines and sensationalize this for politics, and it really bothers me,” said Dan Lindsey, a defense lawyer in Clovis, N.M., where Reeb has been a prosecutor for 25 years, according to the outlet. “They’re way off base here.”
In a separate report, Variety said that producers of “Rust” announced Wednesday that they will begin production of the Western again this spring. They plan to film at Yellowstone Film Ranch in Montana.
Baldwin is still expected to play the lead role. Through the settlement of a civil suit Hutchins’ widower, Matthew, will be an executive producer of the film.
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