Alec Baldwin Wants To Be Put On Trial For Rust Shooting?
Legal experts predict Alec Baldwin will take his Rust shooting case to trial instead of taking a plea deal.
Alec Baldwin might choose to take the Rust case to court now that his charges have been downgraded. The actor’s recent involuntary manslaughter charges for the accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins have been downgraded, shaving five years off a potential prison sentence. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Baldwin may take the case to trial rather than accept a plea deal now that his maximum sentence is 18 months.
It’s common for celebrities to take plea bargains when charged with a crime in order to avoid a messy trial that might tarnish their brand. Plea deals aren’t automatically seen as an admission of wrongdoing, like being found guilty by a jury. In the case of Alec Baldwin, however, a trial might actually work to his advantage.
Alec Baldwin has been in the public eye a lot for the last year and a half for all the wrong reasons. The Hunt for Red October star was involved in an incident that resulted in the death of a cinematographer on the set of the film Rust. Baldwin allegedly pointed a gun he thought wasn’t loaded at Halyna Hutchins, resulting in her tragic death.
Alec Baldwin has maintained his innocence in the shooting since he first spoke about it in December of 2021. The actor claims he never pulled the trigger on the gun. A trial could help him prove his innocence to the world if he wins.
The downgrading of the Glengarry Glen Ross star’s charges resulted from the Santa Fe County district attorney filing a complaint at the behest of Baldwin’s lawyers. The complaint argued that Alec Baldwin was charged unconstitutionally with violating a firearm statute that didn’t even exist when the shooting incident occurred.
The statute was amended after Baldwin allegedly shot Hutchins, making a crime that was already committed more serious and increasing potential jail time by five years. Baldwin’s lawyers objected to prosecutors using the stricter statute when charging the actor and they won that battle when the charges were lowered.
Legal experts believe that this small victory, coupled with the decreased threat of a long jail sentence, will embolden Alec Baldwin to go to trial. Baldwin is already largely thought to be guilty in the court of public opinion, and a “not guilty” verdict could change that. A successful trial could also help Baldwin with all of the civil lawsuits the actor faces due to the Rust shooting.
Alec Baldwin is currently fighting at least five such suits, all of which could use a plea deal to help establish the actor’s liability in Hutchins’s death. It will be harder for the civil prosecutors to make the case that Baldwin is responsible financially for Hutchins’s death if a jury exonerates him.
Even with the downgrading of his manslaughter charges, Alec Baldwin is not guaranteed to escape jail time. Some experts have suggested that if the actor is found guilty, his lawyers may ask for probation in lieu of a prison sentence. The experts argue that since Baldwin has no prior criminal convictions, a judge would be apt to grant the probation request.
Alec Baldwin’s first court appearance for the Rust case is set for Friday.
