Tag: rust shooting

Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charge has been thrown out by a judge over the mishandling of evidence by the Santa Fe prosecutors, which the actor’s attorneys said had harmed their efforts at mounting a fair defense. The 30 Rock and Hunt for Red October star will now not face trial for the on-set shooting during the making of the western drama Rust that ended the life of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded writer-director Joel Souza.

The movie’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, had already been found guilty in March for loading a live round of ammunition into the gun Baldwin used during the rehearsal for a scene in October 2021. The film’s assistant director, Dave Halls, accepted a plea bargain for negligent use of a deadly weapon in January 2023. He was the person who handed Baldwin the gun Gutierrez had loaded, and investigators said he had declared it a “cold” weapon, indicating it had no live ammunition in it.

There was ongoing debate about Baldwin’s responsibility—or lack thereof—for Hutchins’ death, since the armorer was responsible for prepping the prop gun, and the assistant director was responsible for safety checks. (Significant false information about the case, including that crew members had been using the prop guns for target practice, spread online during the investigation, but the live round’s arrival on the set turned out to be the result of simple carelessness on the part of Gutierrez Reed, as her jury trial eventually determined.) The actor’s role as a producer on Rust complicated the issue of responsibility; he said it was a title that only involved creative input, while others handled the hiring and management of crew. In a combative interview with ABC News, Baldwin denied even pulling the trigger, which seemed dubious to some viewers.

Charges against him were filed, then dropped again, then refiled as experts changed their assessment of whether the gun could have gone off on its own. Ultimately, prosecutors felt the weapon could only have been fired through some action by Baldwin, and they moved forward with charges against him—although the question of whether he should be blamed for the actions of others that put the deadly object in his hands remained up for debate. Vanity Fair‘s own investigation into the case, “Event Cascade,” determined that there were multiple points of failure during the production that led to the fatal incident.

The proceedings against Baldwin began this week in Santa Fe, but before it could actually get underway the trial came to an abrupt end on Friday over an envelope full of ammunition that had been supplied to prosecutors by an associate of Gutierrez Reed’s father, Thell Reed, a longtime movie armorer himself. The exact nature of the bullets and their connection to the case were unclear, but the fact that prosecutors had mislabeled the objects and filed them under case number for another trial were enough for Baldwin’s lawyers to call for the case to be dismissed, since they were unable to assess the supposed evidence. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer agreed and tossed out the case with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled against him. Baldwin openly wept in court after the decision.

The 42-year-old Hutchins left behind a husband and young son. Her career as a cinematographer was just beginning to take off, and she posted frequently on social media during the making of Rust about her passion for the western saga, in which Baldwin plays an aging gunslinger who is determined to stop the hanging execution of a young boy who, in a morbidly ironic twist, accidentally kills someone with a firearm. Her husband, Matthew, reached a settlement with the production that involved him becoming an executive producer, and the movie was ultimately finished, with Souza returning to the emotionally charged project to complete their work.

A new cinematographer stepped in to help finish the project, while preserving as much of Hutchins’ final work as possible. The status of the film—when it will be screened or released publicly—remains unclear.

Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the armorer who managed the prop firearms on the set of the western drama Rust, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for loading a live round of ammunition into the weapon held by actor Alec Baldwin, which went off during the production in October 2021 and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

The jury in the Santa Fe criminal case found her not guilty of a second charge of evidence tampering. Sentencing will take place at a later date, and she could face 18 months in prison. 

When she was first charged in January 2023, prosecutors also announced that Dave Halls—the assistant director,  a job that typically involves safety checks during filming—had accepted a plea bargain for negligent use of a deadly weapon. Hall, who received  a suspended sentence and six months of probation, had declared the firearm to be a “cold gun” before handing it to Baldwin, according to sheriff’s department reports.

Baldwin was re-charged with involuntary manslaughter in the case this past January, after prosecutors initially dropped the accusation. A grand jury determined there was cause to refile the charge against the actor, who has contended he did nothing wrong in trusting the crew to maintain a safe environment. 

Live ammunition is strictly forbidden on movie sets, given the risk of a mix-up of the sort that led to the Rust tragedy. On Oct. 21, 2021, while rehearsing a scene in a weather-beaten chapel set on a ranch outside of Santa Fe, the gun in Baldwin’s hand went off and struck Hutchins in the chest before the bullet passed through and hit writer-director Joel Souza. Souza survived the injuries; Hutchins died later at a hospital.

From there, sheriff’s investigators tried to determine how a real bullet could have gotten onto the set and into the gun. Ultimately, they identified several live rounds on the set, and the blame fell on multiple shoulders as prosecutors sought to file charges. Numerous civil lawsuits have also arisen over the fatal shooting, and a Vanity Fair investigation (“This Cannot Be Right”: How the Gun in Alec Baldwin’s Hand’s Turned the Rust Set Deadly) identified a litany of breakdowns that led up to the shooting.

Hutchins, who was 42, was the mother of a young son, and after her death, her husband Matt posted an image of their family to social media with the caption: “Halyna inspired us all with her passion and vision, and her legacy is too meaningful to encapsulate in words,” he wrote. “Our loss is enormous.” 

She was born in Ukraine and studied journalism at Kyiv National University, beginning her film career in documentaries. She graduated from the American Film Institute in 2015, and two years later attended the Cannes Film Festival with the thriller Snowbound. In 2019, American Cinematographer magazine singled her out on its annual list of “rising stars.”

Rust was a level-up for the cinematographer, a scrappy, independently made drama starring Baldwin as an aging gunslinger, trying to protect a young boy who was being hunted by the authorities for—in a tragically ironic twist—an accidental shooting.

The special prosecutor in the Alec Baldwin involuntary manslaughter trial has quit the case.

Andrea Reeb announced Tuesday that she would be voluntarily stepping down, following a motion filed by the actor’s attorney that asked the judge to remove her over her separate political job as a member of New Mexico’s state legislature.

The case will still move forward, but it’s unclear who will replace Reeb, a Republican who was elected to the 64th district in the state’s house of representatives. Her resignation was the second major setback for  prosecutors. In February, they had to withdraw a “firearm enhancement” charge that would have carried a mandatory five-year prison sentence because the law was passed after the October 2021 shooting on the set of the western drama Rust that claimed the life of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Baldwin and prop armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed were both facing this additional charge as they faced trial for involuntary manslaughter. The film’s assistant director, Dave Halls, who was responsible for safety on set, accepted a plea bargain for the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon. He received a suspended sentence and six months of probation.

In her statement, Reeb, who was a lifelong prosecutor before being elected to the state legislature last November, said she was resigning to avoid being a distraction: “After much reflection. I have made the difficult decision to step down as special prosecutor in the Rust case. My priority in this case—and in every case I’ve prosecuted in my 25-year career—has been justice for the victim. However, it has become clear that the best way I can ensure justice is served in this case is to step down so that the prosecution can focus on the evidence and the facts, which clearly show a complete disregard for basic safety protocols led to the death of Halyna Hutchins. I will not allow questions about my serving as a legislator and prosecutor to cloud the real issue at hand.”

Baldwin’s attorneys sought her removal by citing Article III of New Mexico’s constitution, which restricts members of one branch of government, such as the state legislature, from serving in another, such as the judicial. They declined to comment for this story. 

The Santa Fe District Attorney’s office says they have no information about who might fill Reeb’s vacancy. 

The Santa Fe District Attorney investigating the lethal accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins has dropped a charge against actor-producer Alec Baldwin that could have sent him to jail for a mandatory five years. 

Heather Brewer, a spokesperson for New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, told The New York Times that the charge in question—known as an enhancement because it applies mandatory sentencing guidelines in firearm cases—was dropped to “avoid further litigious distractions by Mr. Baldwin and his attorneys.”

The withdrawal of the charge against Baldwin, first reported by TMZ, is significant, though there is still the remote possibility that, if convicted of involuntary manslaughter, he could still serve time in jail.  

Earlier this month, Baldwin and his legal team argued that adding the five-year enhancement charge was “a basic legal error” since the law creating the charge didn’t exist until May 2022, seven months after the accident on the set of Baldwin’s film Rust. At the time of the incident, a three-year enhancement law against “brandishing” a firearm was in place, but Baldwin’s lawyers claimed that law did not apply either, because “brandishing” is understood to mean an “intent to intimidate or injure a person.” Baldwin has said the shooting was an accident, and told George Stephanopoulos in a December 2021 interview that he had “no idea” the gun was loaded, and that he “didn’t pull the trigger.” In November 2022 he initiated a lawsuit against other Rust crew members for negligence in an effort to “clear his name.” 

Baldwin’s attorneys have pushed back forcefully on numerous fronts. In addition to fighting the enhancement charge, they claimed that the special prosecutor on the case, Andrea Reeb, should be disqualified from the case, because her position as a state lawmaker prohibits her from holding judicial authority.

Spokesperson Brewer commented on these maneuvers at the time by saying, “Another day, another motion from Alec Baldwin and his attorneys in an attempt to distract from the gross negligence and complete disregard for safety on the Rust film set that led to Halyna Hutchins’ death.”

Strangely enough, last week producers on Rust, a lower-mid-budget Western written and directed by Joel Souza based on a story by Souza and Baldwin and co-produced by Baldwin, announced that they would finish production the spring. Hutchins’s widower, Matthew Hutchins, will now serve as an executive producer.  

“Though bittersweet, I am grateful that a brilliant and dedicated new production team joining former cast and crew are committed to completing what Halyna and I started,” Souza said in a statement. “My every effort on this film will be devoted to honoring Halyna’s legacy and making her proud. It is a privilege to see this through on her behalf.” 

The producers of Rust say they are determined to finish the movie, even after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins lost her life when a gun held by Alec Baldwin fired a live round of ammunition, killing Hutchins and wounding writer-director Joel Souza.

Souza, who was hit in the shoulder, will be returning to the project, which now counts Hutchins’s widowed husband, Matthew Hutchins, as one of its executive producers. (Lawyers for Hutchins did not immediately reply to a request for comment.) The current plan is to resume filming in the spring, the producers said in a statement. A previous announcement that the movie would begin completion in January did not come to fruition. 

“Though bittersweet, I am grateful that a brilliant and dedicated new production team joining former cast and crew are committed to completing what Halyna and I started,” Souza said in the statement. “My every effort on this film will be devoted to honoring Halyna’s legacy and making her proud. It is a privilege to see this through on her behalf.” 

Last month, Santa Fe district attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies announced criminal charges against Baldwin, armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, and assistant director Dave Halls. Halls accepted a plea bargain, but the other two cases of involuntary manslaughter are moving closer to trial. Baldwin’s lawyers have contested his charge, noting that the “firearm enhancement” that adds a mandatory five-year sentencing was written into law after the shooting incident. 

In addition to Matthew Hutchins, the slate of producers has also added Grant Hill, a two-time Academy Award nominee for producing best-picture contenders The Thin Red Line and The Tree of Life.

Cinematographer Bianca Cline (Marcel the Shell With Shoes On) will step into the director of photography void left by Hutchins. Cline’s representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the producers’ announcement said that Cline was hired “at [Matthew] Hutchins’ behest and with his blessing and support” and that she “will complete Halyna’s vision for the film.” It also said she would donate her salary “ to charity in honor of Halyna.”

Some of Rust’s original crew have pledged to return to finish their work, among them stunt coordinator Allan Graf, hair and makeup department heads Anna Williams and Stacy Lockhart, and costume designer Terese Davis.

Among the new additions to the crew are safety officers Gary Jensen and Paul Jordan, line producer Stephen Marinaccio, and production designer Christine Brandt.

An exact start date was not confirmed. The independent film does not currently have a distributor.

If Rust actually is completed, there will be not just one movie but two that ultimately result. The producers said they had also authorized director Rachel Mason and producer Julee Metz to make a documentary about Halyna Hutchins, her untimely death, and the completion of the movie.