NEW DOCUMENTS: Alec Baldwin charged with involuntary manslaughter for not following gun safety rules
NEW DOCUMENTS: Alec Baldwin charged with involuntary manslaughter for not following gun safety rules
Santa Fe DA: Actor was distracted on on his phone during firearm training and responsible for killing Halyna Hutchins
NEW DOCUMENTS: Alec Baldwin charged with involuntary manslaughter for not following gun safety rules
PDFs of each of the court documents are at the bottom.
Movie star Alec Baldwin was formally charged on Tuesday with two counts of involuntary manslaughter for reckless use of a firearm which resulted in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
“Today we have taken another important step in securing justice for Halyna Hutchins,” First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said in a statement. “In New Mexico, no one is above the law and justice will be served." The D.A. also charged the movie’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, with the same felonies as Baldwin.
You can get caught up on the case with my video below about the criminal charges against Baldwin, here:
JAIL TIME?
Unless Baldwin pleads guilty, a New Mexico jury will decide whether to convict him of the top felony charge and send him to jail for five years. The lesser felony could get him up to 18 months in jail.
“Any impartial unbiased jury will vote to convict him on the legal merits,” Attorney Andrew F. Branca of the Law of Self Defense told me in a phone interview. “Baldwin is 64, so he’s looking at spending ages 65 to 70 in jail in New Mexico.”
The court documents show Baldwin is charged in both his roles as actor and producer, responsible for the safety of the low-budget movie.
NEW REVELATIONS:
The court documents give us some new information in the case, such as Baldwin only staying for 30 minutes of the hour-long training class for the difficult cross-draw maneuver. I’ve written multiple times that this was a crucial mistake. This is from the statement of probable cause against Guiterrez-Reed:
During what was supposed to be an over one-hour training, BALDWIN was distracted and consistently talking on his cell phone to his family.
(He was on the phone with his wife Hilaria during the interview with the detectives. Read more about 12 examples of Alec lying that his wife is from Spain here.)
Baldwin told the sheriff’s detectives that he did firearm training on the set before rehearsals started. But this court statement says that’s not true:
Evidence shows BALDWIN failed to appear for mandatory firearms training and firearms safety training prior to filming. Evidence also shows BALDWIN requested and was afforded a tralning session ‘on-set’, and that the training was 30 minutes in length. The limited time of training does not compost to industry standards, safety standards and safety protocols.
The six “live rounds” on the “Rust” set did NOT come from the prop company owned by Seth Kennedy, per the FBI report. How did the live rounds get on a movie set? Note that Hollywood and the Santa Fe authorities call “live rounds” what the rest of us call “ammo.”
BROKE GUN SAFETY RULES
The court documents say Baldwin had “reckless deviations from known protocols for gun safety. The prosecutor reinforces the basic rules that keep everyone safe from getting hurt.
Point the gun in a safe direction:
Baldwin claimed his victim, Hutchins, is to blame for telling him to point the gun at her. The D.A. said that was in no excuse.
Whether guided by her directions or not, BALDWIN knew the first rule of gun safety is never point a gun at someone you don't intend on shooting.
Assume the gun is loaded
Baldwin has admitted to not checking if the gun on the “Rust” movie set was loaded. The prosecutor said the actor knows well that he has to personally see the armorer load and unload his gun in front of him, but he disregarded this rule. She also charged that he should “always assume a gun is loaded.”
Finger off the trigger until ready to shoot
Baldwin admitted he had his finger on the trigger to the Santa Fe Sheriff’s deputy on a phone call two weeks after the shooting. I asked the District Attorney’s spokeswoman why this wasn’t included in the evidence. She replied:
Now that the charges have been filed, the DA will not be making any further public statements about the case.
The actor told the sheriff and the public a gazillion times that he never pulled the trigger, and the gun just “went off” in his hand. The D.A. says in court documents Baldwin has been seen on video and in photos on set with his finger on the trigger, referring to this evidence released last April. It also cites the FBI forensics report that the gun did not fire without pulling the trigger
The D.A. added that:
The photos and videos clearly show BALDWIN, multiple times, with his finger inside of the trigger guard and on the trigger, while manipulating the hammer and while drawing, pointing, and holstering the revolver.
ARMORER CHARGED:
After Carmack-Altwies filed the charges, she released all the documents to support her case (attached at the bottom.)
Reed’s attorney Jason Bowles said in a statement (attached below) after the charges were filed said, in part:
Hannah pleaded to provide more firearms training. She was denied and brushed aside. Hannah asked to be able to perform her armorer duties more for safety reasons. She was told by production to focus on props. Hannah asked Halls if they could us a plastic gun for the rehearsal scene and he said no, wanting a “real gun.” Hannah asked to be called back into the church if Baldwin was going to use the gun at all and Halls failed to do that.
BALDWIN’S OPTIONS:
Baldwin’s attorney Luke Nikas did not respond to my request for a comment about the criminal charges.
“Involuntary manslaughter means you don't intend to hurt anyone, but you acted in a reckless fashion which you know created an unjustified risk of death,” said Branca. The popular YouTube legal show said the day after the October 2021 shooting that Baldwin should be charged this way.
“It’s almost always recklessness if you unintentionally kill someone while handling a gun,” said Branca. The lawyer cautions about the next steps. “Just because Baldwin’s charged, doesn’t mean he’s going to trial. He might get a plea deal,” said the legal analyst “And just because he goes to trial doesn't mean he will get convicted.”
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS:
I had three follow-up questions for the D.A. spokeswoman, but she replied to me:
Now that the charges have been filed, the DA will not be making any further public statements about the case.
My questions about the case that are not publicly known:
Where did the live rounds come from and get on set?
When will Alec Baldwin's cell phone records from the day of the shooting be released to the public? Will it come from the sheriff's office or the DA's office?
Why did the District Attorney NOT include in evidence that Baldwin told Det. Hancock by phone on 11/03/2021 that his finger was on the trigger?
I didn’t ask but would like to know if Baldwin’s criminal information is correct. He told the sheriff that he is 6 feet tall and weighs 190 lbs.
NEXT LEGAL STEPS:
A spokeswoman for the D.A. and Special Prosecutor Andrea Reeb said Baldwin will be arraigned virtually. Also, the D.A. released the plea agreement with the movie’s assistant director David Hall, who handed the gun to Baldwin (attached below). As part of his deal, Hall is required to testify against Baldwin and Reed.
DOCUMENTS:
ARMORER REED’S RESPONSE:
BALDWIN CHARGES:
ARMORER REED CHARGES:
PLEA WITH ASSISTANT DIRECTOR HALLS
I went ahead and downloaded what I considered to be the relevant documents. Unfortunately I am at a complete loss to explain my curiosity in this matter. I hate gossip and equate it with character assassination. While Baldwin has been criminally charged, the conviction is what will matter Baldwin's attorneys will psych the jury out but good. One reason I dislike petit juries is that people are too easily swayed by emotion and some people cannot divorce their own emotions from the necessity of making logical and objective determinations. Even though I can divorce my emotions from when I need to use objective logical decisions based on the evidence, I refuse to serve on petit juries and use my neuropsychiatric disability to get myself excluded from jury duty. If I was on the Baldwin jury I would vote for conviction based on the evidence
Thanks for the documents, Emily.