LOS ANGELES () — The battle to reinstate criminal charges against actor Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on a movie set is officially over.
Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey withdrew the appeal of a July decision at trial to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in the death of Halyna Hutchins, who was the cinematographer during a rehearsal on set for the movie “Rust.”
The attorney representing Hutchins’ relatives is outraged over the decision. Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents the parents and sister of Hutchins, said the decision has left the family reeling.
“There was no justice, because a jury couldn’t hear the evidence,” Allred said at a news conference held in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. “(Alec Baldwin) was responsible, and he is responsible.”
Hutchins died shortly after being wounded during a rehearsal in the movie “Rust” in October 2021 at a film-set ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Allred said their civil case against Baldwin will proceed.
“It’s not over until it’s over, and it’s not over yet,” Allred said. “Although the attorney general of New Mexico, Raúl Torrez, is the Grinch who stole this Christmas, we will work to ensure that a future Christmas will be without this Grinch.”
Baldwin’s trial in March 2024 was upended by revelations that ammunition was brought into the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins’ killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammo unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin’s lawyers say investigators “buried” the evidence in a separate case file and filed a successful motion to dismiss.
The district attorney’s office said that under state law the New Mexico attorney general would have carried forward the appeal but “did not intend to exhaustively pursue the appeal on behalf of the prosecution.”
“As a result, the State’s efforts to continue to litigate the case in a fair and comprehensive manner have been met with multiple barriers that have compromised its ability to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” local prosecutors said.
Legal analyst John Day tells affiliate KOAT that in his opinion, the attorney general made the correct decision in withdrawing the appeal, and it will have little bearing on the success or failure of the civil lawsuit.
“To criticize (the attorney general) for not pursing it because (Allred) has a civil case, it’s a little bit like what they call crocodile tears,” Day said. “She still has claims which could be very good and very successful against Baldwin and the production companies in the civil case.
“But the fact is, this criminal case has been a train wreck for many, many months; it’s been very expensive for the taxpayers of New Mexico, and the attorney general obviously did not want to get stuck in the same mud that enveloped the special prosecutors (in the criminal case).”
In response to Eyewitness News’ request for comment, Baldwin’s attorneys said in a statement:
“Yesterday’s decision to dismiss the appeal is the final vindication of what Alec Baldwin and his attorneys have said from the beginning – this was an unspeakable tragedy but Alec Baldwin committed no crime. The rule of law remains intact in New Mexico.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Television,
