Alec Baldwin To Be Criminally Charged Soon?
The District Attorney is making an announcement on January 19th which may end up with criminal charges against Alec Baldwin for the shooting on the set of Rust.
It has been over a year since the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Alec Baldwin’s western film Rust. Since then, the incident has been covered in a thick cloud of lawsuits, investigations, accusations, and yet no one has been able to definitively state why a prop gun was loaded with a real bullet. Deadline reports that the results of the Santa Fe County Sherriff’s Office investigation, submitted in November, are expected to be made known on Thursday, January 19th when the District Attorney makes an announcement about criminal charges.
Alec Baldwin, and the world, will know at 11:00 AM on the 19th if he will be charged in the death of Halyna Hutchins. District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies will make a statement, as will special prosecutor Andrea Reeb, which doesn’t mean that charges will be filed. However, in October, Carmack-Altwies asked the state of New Mexico for additional funding to assist with possible prosecution of up to four individuals.
While the pending decision about criminal charges is the most pressing issue coming from the fateful shooting on the set of Rust, even if Alec Baldwin is not charged, he still has to deal with significant fallout from the incident. In November 2021, one month after the shooting, Baldwin sued the crew of his film, which he was starring and producing, alleging that the production crew was responsible for the incident. A counter lawsuit, filed in December 2022 by assistant director Dave Halls, sought damages against Baldwin and other members of the production.
To date, only one lawsuit has been settled, and that was from the family of Halyna Hutchins. The wrongful death suit was settled in October 2022, part of which made Hutchins husband, Matt Hutchins, an executive producer on the film which was to be completed as part of the settlement. Given the haze of other lawsuits and a criminal investigation, production has not resumed on the film, and depending on tomorrow’s announcement regarding Alec Baldwin, it may never resume despite the settlement.
Text messages recovered from Alec Baldwin’s phone by the FBI reveal that the actor was worried the Santa Fe County Sherriff’s Office was going to ignore his theory that the shooting was a result of sabotage. In one text, Baldwin mentioned that local law enforcement lacked the ability to pursue the sabotage angle. According to the report, the Boss Baby star warned Matt Hutchins that “I’m told their agenda is to write it off as an accident and throw it to the civil courts.”
No matter what happens on the 19th, the public may never know what exactly happened on the movie set. Alec Baldwin may face manslaughter charges, or he may not be charged with any crime, another member of the crew could be charged, or no one. Reality is usually not as neat and tidy as an episode of CSI, which may lead to a disappointing result when the District Attorney makes her announcement.
At the moment, after having months with the FBI-assisted report on the shooting and additional investigative funding provided by the state, it sure seems like someone will be charged with a crime.
