New Mexico prosecutors have decided not to appeal a court’s decision to dismiss charges of manslaughter in the 2021 death of a cinematographer on the set of Alec Baldwin’s ill-fated western film The Last. The case is currently under trial.
Special Counsel Kari Morrissey announced yesterday (December 23) that she is withdrawing her appeal of the judge’s order dismissing the case.
On October 21, 2021, Baldwin fired a revolver that was being used as a prop, not realizing that it was improperly loaded with live ammunition, resulting in the death of cinematographer Halina Hutchins.
At a trial in 2023, the 30-year-old rock actor was charged with manslaughter in a case that was later dropped, but was retried in 2024. Prosecutors had intended to show that Baldwin was reckless and criminally negligent when he fired the revolver, but the case fell short. The case was dismissed with prejudice after Baldwin’s attorneys revealed that prosecutors and local sheriffs had hidden a cache of bullets that were considered evidence. As a result, the case against the actor was dismissed in July.
Meanwhile, armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed was found guilty of manslaughter in March and sentenced to 18 months in prison the following month.
Baldwin’s attorneys, Alex Spiro and Luke Nikas, praised the decision to drop the appeal.
“Today’s decision to dismiss the appeal is final proof of what Alec Baldwin and his lawyers have said all along: This is an unspeakable tragedy, but Alec Baldwin committed the crime. (via Variety) “The rule of law remains intact in New Mexico.”
Halina Hutchins’ family had opposed the appeal being dropped. They continue to pursue a civil lawsuit against Baldwin and the film’s producers in New Mexico state court.
Baldwin said last week on David Duchovny’s “Fail Better” podcast that “there will be more to come” about the incident, adding: “The truth of what happened is not being told.”
He continued: “There’s still a lot of work to do, but I have no doubt that my efforts to uncover and clarify what really happened will be successful. I was counter-punching. I was being accused. I was being prosecuted.
Baldwin also said that in the years after Hutchins’ death, mainstream media “suppressed every story” that could help prove his innocence, while “amplifying every story” that painted Hutchins negatively. said.
He added: “We’re going to see even worse things coming out in future legal filings and things like that. For the last three years, people have been eating out all the time. Because in this country, when people hate you on that level… , because they want three things: They want you to die.”
He went on to say that some people continue to push him away from the industry, likening it to “walking the earth and dying because you can’t see it.”
But he said he thought things were getting better, adding: I have seven children, so that makes me happy. But I also enjoyed the fact that there is so much that is unknown about this case because it hasn’t been fully tried. ”
Last month, Baldwin discussed the incident at the Turin Film Festival and said he did not want to see the film. He described the film as “the most difficult thing I’ve ever dealt with in my life,” spoke to Variety about the impact it had on his wife, and revealed that he waived his fee for the film. Instead, everything he was scheduled to receive was given to Hutchins’ husband, Matt.
He said he completed the film against doctors’ orders, saying, “I said to Joel[Sousa, director of The Last”]“Are you going to do it? If I think it’s important to do this, I’ll do it. If that’s the only way to resolve the lawsuit with (Hutchins’) husband and let the estate finish the movie, then let’s do it. “So we go to Montana. It’s over…and I waived the fee. I got my money back within budget. I abandoned the backend altogether. I gave everything to my husband. ”
