Alec Baldwin scores win in 'Rust' fatal shooting case as DA drops firearm enhancement
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died on set of 'Rust' after gun Alec Baldwin was holding fired
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Alec Baldwin is no longer facing years behind bars in connection to the fatal shooting of "Rust" cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Prosecutors dropped the firearms enhancement originally brought against Baldwin. First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies filed the paperwork Monday morning, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
"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," Heather Brewer, spokesperson for the district attorney, told Fox News Digital. "The prosecution's priority is securing justice, not securing billable hours for big-city attorneys."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}If Baldwin had been convicted of the involuntary manslaughter charge and firearms enhancement, the "30 Rock" actor would have faced a mandatory five years in jail.
The max jail time he faces now is 18 months.
Alec Baldwin scored a win Monday after the prosecution dropped the firearms enhancement charge that could have placed the actor behind bars for a mandatory five years. (Getty Images)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The district attorney has to be embarrassed," former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Fox News Digital. "Charging a law retroactively is a constitutional violation, and something that every first-year law student knows not to do.
"Now, she has egg on her face after overcharging the case and grandstanding for the press. She has made one legal blunder after another and may be in over her head," he added. "There is no reason why she should have waited more than a year to file charges or give assistant director David Halls a no-time slap on the wrist when she is trying to put Baldwin in state prison."
Baldwin's lawyers had argued the enhancement was "unconstitutional" in a Feb. 10 filing.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"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," the filing read.
Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter in commission of a lawful act.
Attorneys for Baldwin argued the firearms enhancement charge was not part of New Mexico law when the fatal shooting of Hutchins occurred, and that he could not be punished retroactively.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Legal experts previously explained to Fox News Digital why Baldwin's defense chose to file this motion, and predicted that the firearms enhancement would be dropped.
"The original law that was on the books was very specific in the way it defined ‘brandishing,’ and Baldwin was clearly not in violation of that law or he would have been charged as such," Ted Spaulding, a personal injury lawyer, told Fox News Digital. "Prosecutors were likely searching for something similar that they could charge him with when they found this newer version of the law that, interestingly, has a harsher sentence of five years and looked like something they could win at trial."
"The only issue is the bill was passed months after the shooting took place, and laws cannot be retroactively applied."
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Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer also granted the prosecution's motion for an extended time to respond to Baldwin's request for the special prosecutor to be removed from the case, according to a document also filed Monday.
The actor's attorneys previously argued Andrea Reeb could not simultaneously serve as the special prosecutor and as a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Doing so vests two core powers of different branches – legislating and prosecuting – in the same person and is thus barred by the plain language of Article III of the New Mexico Constitution," the legal documents read.
Representatives for Baldwin did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Aerial photo from Bonanza Creek Ranch shows the church where actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun. (Associated Press)
Alec Baldwin is pictured after the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins. (Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office)
Hutchins died on Oct. 21, 2021, after a gun Baldwin was holding fired on the set of "Rust" in New Mexico. The shot also injured director Joel Souza.
He is set to make his first court appearance on Feb. 24. Baldwin could appear virtually during the hearing, which will be livestreamed on YouTube.
Prosecutors laid out their case against Baldwin in specific detail in the probable cause statement released Jan. 31 and obtained by Fox News Digital.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Baldwin's deviation from known standards, practice and protocol directly caused the fatal death of Hutchins," the documents state.
"By not receiving the required training on firearms, not checking the firearm with the armorer, letting the armorer leave the firearms in the church without being present, deviating from the practice of only accepting the firearm from the armorer, not dealing with the safety complaints on set and/or making sure safety meetings were held, putting his finger on the trigger of a real firearm when a replica or rubber gun should have been used, pointing the firearms at Hutchins and Souza, and the overall handling of the firearms in a negligent manner, Baldwin acted with willful disregard for the safety of others and in a manner which endangered other people, specifically Hutchins and Souza."