Criminal charges against Alec Baldwin are going to be dropped as soon as special prosecutors appointed in the case file the paperwork in court. But Deadline suggests the special prosecutors are going to continue investigating, which means charges against Baldwin could be resurrected in the future:
Less than two weeks before a mini-trial is scheduled to begin in New Mexico over the October 2021 killing of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, all charges are going to be dropped against Alec Baldwin, for now.
Recently appointed special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis are expected to be filing paperwork soon, perhaps even today, to dismiss the involuntary manslaughter claims against the multi-Emmy-winning actor without prejudice, we hear. That means, as they are set to investigate further into what actually went down that terrible day on the Bonanza Creek Ranch set near Santa Fe, this case could be resurrected in the future.
Representatives for the Santa Fe’s District Attorney’s office had no comment on the situation when contacted by Deadline Thursday.
As of now, Baldwin’s co-defendant and ex-Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed still has charges standing against her, we understand — thereby keeping the probe open and retaining subpoena power for prosecutors going forward.
Both Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin had previously pleaded not guilty. Since an interview on ABC just weeks after the slaying of Hutchins, Baldwin has repeatedly insisted he did not pull the trigger on the 1880s prop gun that killed the DoP. An insistence that the FBI disagreed with in its report on the matter released last year. With Baldwin lawyers last month contesting the state of the gun, further investigation into the firearm looks certain to being undertaken as a part of any renewed probe.
These latest developments are occurring as production on a resurrected Rust was set to start in Montana with Baldwin and director Joel Souza, who was wounded in the October 2021 shooting. Originally scheduled to begin earlier this week, Rust 2.0 now is looking at starting tomorrow, we hear — though that could shift based on these new developments. The timing of the charges beginning dropped against Baldwin just before the new Rust production commences seems almost uncanny, though we are told it is purely coincidence.
The looming move by the special prosecutors also comes mere days after the filing of the witness list for the May 3-starting preliminary examination became public. Even with charges against Gutierrez-Reed still active, it looks unlikely that the preliminary examination aka mini-trial will go ahead as scheduled, especially with prosecutors digging anew into the evidence, context, and circumstances of the on-set tragedy
Baldwin’s insistence that he didn’t fire the gun has been absurd from the moment he sputtered that nonsense on ABC. If anything is more than obvious, it’s that Baldwin failed to check the firearm when it was handed to him. That certainly doesn’t make him guilty of murder but it does make him guilty of negligence. Hopefully, upon more investigation, he’ll be held to account for this.