By Brad Brooks
(Reuters) – The New Mexico criminal case against actor Alec Baldwin stemming from a fatal shooting on the set of his movie “Rust” in 2021 ended on Monday, with prosecutors withdrawing their appeal to dismiss the case.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey declined to plead, the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Baldwin’s attorneys, Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, said, “Today’s decision to dismiss the complaint is a final vindication of what Alec Baldwin and his attorneys have said from the beginning – this was an unspeakable tragedy, but Alec Baldwin did not commit a crime.”
A New Mexico judge dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in July, agreeing with the actor’s lawyers that Morrissey and the sheriff’s office withheld evidence about the source of the live round that killed “Rust” cinematographer Halina Hutchins in 2021.
The district attorney’s office said it still strongly disagrees with the judge’s decision to proceed with the case against Baldwin.
But the decision to decline to appeal that decision came after the attorney general’s office told Morrissey it “did not intend to pursue the appeal exhaustively on behalf of the prosecution,” according to the statement.
Hutchins died when Baldwin pointed a gun at him as they set up a camera on a film shoot near Santa Fe. The gun fired a live round that was inadvertently loaded by the film’s chief gun manager, Hannah Gutierrez. Gutierrez was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March and sentenced a month later.
The “30 Rock” actor denied ever pulling the trigger, saying he was directed to fire it at the camera. But the FBI and an independent firearms expert determined that the gun did not fire without the trigger being depressed.
According to historian Alan Rhode, Hutchins’ death was the first fatal on-set shooting with a live round mistaken for a dummy or blank round since the Hollywood silent era.
Shootings on Hollywood sets have been settled by civil lawsuits in the past, such as the most recent fatality in 1993, when Brandon Lee was killed when a blank bullet lodged in the barrel of a revolver while filming “The Crow.”