Alec Baldwin gets a huge sigh of relief in a legal case related to the accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust. The acquittal came in his favor after prosecutor Kari Morrissey, on Monday announced she was dropping her appeal to reinstate charges against the actor. The 66-year-old faced a manslaughter charge after Hutchins was killed in October 2021 during rehearsals for the movie Rust. He was reportedly holding a Colt .45 revolver that unexpectedly fired a live round that caused the unfortunate death.
View this post on Instagram
However, the case took a major blow during the trial. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the charges on the third day of the hearing. This happened because the prosecution failed to share key evidence, including a batch of bullets with Baldwin’s defense team. The lawyers for Baldwin brought this to the court’s notice. This made the prosecution rule the hearing in the actor’s favor stating that the evidence was withheld. According to them, it was not the actor’s job to handle guns on location. They further asserted that Baldwin wouldn’t have known the real bullet was in the weapon.
New Mexico prosecutors have dropped their appeal to reinstate charges against Alec Baldwin in connection with the fatal 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of his movie “Rust.” https://t.co/2eQF3poFB8 pic.twitter.com/bA8YjTZvyk
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 24, 2024
Morrissey blamed the defense team for misleading the judge about how the bullets were crucial evidence to the case. However, the Hutchins family continues its civil case against Alec Baldwin and Rust‘s producers. Earlier, the actor shared how traumatizing the Rust shooting case has been for his wife.
In an interview with Variety, Baldwin said that the situation has been hard for his wife. “My wife has been very, very traumatized from this,” he further said, “There has been a lot of pain. When you are married to somebody and everything was going fairly well and we had seven kids and the floor falls out. It’s very frightening and alarming. And we are trying to get the wind in our sails, to get away from this stuff. Because the film doesn’t stand by itself, it’s always going to be overshadowed by this.” A video of the veteran actor is going viral where he breaks down after the hearing was made. check out the footage below.
Alex Jones fined $1.5 billion for his words, while Alec Baldwin, who shot and killed someone, gets charges dismissed. 🤡🌎 pic.twitter.com/9oqQqeJIXo
— Adan Salazar (@AdanSalazarWins) July 12, 2024
Baldwin will not have to face criminal charges over the incident and is now finally acquitted of the charges. Hannah Gutierrez Reed who loaded the gun on the Rust sets, was convicted of negligence. She is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence. Despite the tragedy and legal tussles having been hurdles preventing its release, Rust was completed and premiered last month at the EnergaCamerimage film festival in Poland.
