Alec Baldwin has been looking down the barrel of potential criminal charges after he fired a fatal shot on the set of his film “Rust” last year in New Mexico. Baldwin initiated a negligent discharge that killed his Director of Photography Halyna Hutchins and wounded the film’s director Joel Souza.
Now, the local prosecutor, Mary Carmack-Altwies, has asked the state of New Mexico for special supplemental funding to prosecute “between one and four people,” apparently including Baldwin, over the homicide.
She needs the money, she says, to counter the big-name defense attorneys who would no doubt represent Mr. Baldwin. The state has approved over $300,000 in special funding to initiate the case.
Baldwin initially claimed he didn’t pull the trigger on the gun that fired the fatal shot. Amazingly he made that far-fetched claim despite the fact that cameras reportedly recorded the shooting.
Baldwin claimed “The gun just went off.” Literally no one really believed the famously volatile actor, though, and FBI investigators subsequently concluded that the gun in Baldwin’s hand that fateful day “could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger.“
Oops.
The Daily Mail has the latest in the case . . .
New Mexico prosecutors have indicated they may charge Alec Baldwin over the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of his movie Rust last year, after the actor handed over his cellphone to be considered as evidence.
In a letter to the state’s financial board, asking for funding to prosecute the high profile case, Santa Fe District Attorney District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said she was ‘ready’ to file charges against four people.
She stopped short of confirming the charges she planned to bring, but said was ‘certainly looking all the homicide statutes and any gun statutes under New Mexico criminal code’.
‘One of the possible defendants is well known movie actor Alec Baldwin,’ she wrote.
Carmack-Altwies asked for $635,000 to prosecute the case, saying she needed the money to go up against well-paid attorneys.
The state agreed to award her office $317,000 to appoint a special prosecutor to take the case forward.
The request was quietly submitted on August 30 and was recently approved. After it was filed, Baldwin – who welcomed his seventh child with wife Hilaria last week – listed his Hamptons home for sale.
It sounds like Baldwin’s either freeing up money for his criminal defense, or perhaps he’s looking to shield assets from any civil claims.
He has always maintained that he did not pull the trigger, and that the blame lies with the stunt handlers and prop managers who should have ensured the gun was ‘cold’ – empty of live bullets.
‘I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger, no,’ he said in an interview about the shooting.
He lays the blame with the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who he says was in charge of ensuring the safety of the props.
Ultimately, as the producer of the ‘Rust’ production, the buck stops not with Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, but with Bladwin himself.
In addition, the ‘Rust’ movie was an ultra-low-budget production that was reportedly racked with all manner of problems. Among them was a turnover of staff and basic safety protocols that were “all but ignored.”
Cutting corners has already cost the production company. New Mexico has already fined the film’s makers $137,000 for the safety protocol failures.
If Baldwin is ultimately charged and convicted, a prison term may just be the tip of the iceberg for him. The lawsuits — Hutchins’ family has already filed a wrongful death suit against Baldwin — could dog him for years and cost him tens of millions of dollars in legal fees and damages awards.
As Alec’s wife just popped out another kid. I guess the Baldwin boyz will have to. support her & the brood if their brother goes to jail🙄. What a tool…
Guns just don’t go off Bozo. No sympathy here.
Well, they do if it’s a Remington 700 or a Taurus 24/7 but Alec pulled the trigger and the fibbies confirmed it.
Was the Remington 700 a safety being engaged/disengaged that caused a discharge or just random engagement? Either way reminds me I may want to update the trigger for later.
It was the safety being disengaged
I never have had any problems with mine but I always hunt with an empty chamber.
In the case of the 700, it was shown that people had adjusted the trigger pull weight to be way to low and the recall was was to modify the triggers to where they couldn’t be set to less than two pounds. So yes they would shoot them selves but only after their owners lowered them way below spec.
Mine never had that problem in 40 years of use because I didn’t alter it, I guess. Not supposed to touch the trigger if you don’t have a target in the sights so how did people get shot ???
The most likely scenario is that he accidentally hammer-slipped it – on draw he put his finger on the SA trigger and squeezed, but it didn’t go boom until he cocked it. On releasing the cocked hammer it went forward and fired.
This is mechanically the same as “fanning” a single action revolver with the off hand palm. It works because SA revolver triggers of this type don’t need a forward reset motion between shots.
If this is what happened, Baldwin may not have felt himself do a trigger pull.
What’s gonna hurt him in court a lot is the email chain the armorer claims to have in which he skipped gun training sessions.
There has not been one 700 that has been proven to be defective from the factory. Every lawsuit has revealed an owner filing the sear lower and changing the geometry, a cheap trigger job instead of getting an actual replacement.
And I thought the 24/7 problem was cracking chassis?
I still carry a .45 gen 1 24/7pro that I gave up trying to make drop-fire… by repeatedly throwing onto a carpet-covered but unpadded concrete floor, with a chambered, empty primed case. I got tired of it after about 35 or so attempts.
Wasn’t about to send it back to Taurus for a $100 credit voucher.
The fibbies can’t find their own ass. Too busy swatting those Obiden dislikes.
hilaria ensued.
seven kids! “i like my cigar too, but i take it out of my mouth once in a while.”
maybe costanza wants those hampton digs.
This will be thrust of the defense’s arguments, “He has always maintained that he did not pull the trigger, and that the blame lies with the stunt handlers and prop managers who should have ensured the gun was ‘cold’ – empty of live bullets.”
Cutting corners to save $ is one thing but cutting Safety corners is another story. In short the wrong corners were cut in an attempt to save production costs.
And having the armourer being used for “other duties as directed” leaving the guns unattended is not a good idea either.
This wasn’t a shoestring budget. It was a raggedy threadbare budget.
You need to spend a great deal of money to convict a rich murderer. And the state has the money from the tax payer. But Kyle Rittenhouse had to struggle to raise a defense fund that is his civil right. Except the rich fascist private tech companies didn’t agree. When they cancelled his Go fund Me defense campaign.
Your point?
“asked for $635,000 to prosecute the case” is something weakass prog hyphenated bimbo shyster would pitch. Gimme. Just charge the SOB or shut up gal. Evidently she is a damn weak “prosecutor”.
Or maybe Soros can send her some more $.
“convict a rich murderer“
Empty hyperbole, murder usually requires malice aforethought.
I’d say criminally negligent homicide would be about the most any prosecutor could achieve in court.
“Empty hyperbole, murder usually requires malice aforethought.”
Here’s the thing – How did live ammo get in that gun? Was the production so sloppy that random people had access to that gun between takes?
Perhaps Baldwin treated someone on that set so badly they had the motivation to set him up on a murder charge? There would be the malice…
Not to mention it being loaded specifically in the next chamber up to bat. One could make an argument that this could demonstrate malicious intent.
Negligent homicide does seems to be the most any prosecutor could hope to charge Alec Baldwin with as Miner pointed out and it does appear in this case that malice aforethought will be a steep order to prove. Of course there could be evidence that we have no knowledge about.
SOP on a movie set will be an issue as will other crew members using the prop gun for target practice. Going to be interesting for sure.
Maybe Baldwin had been porking the victim regularly, but she got tired of him and he had to make her pay. It’s Hollywood, anything can happen.
I know there are those who argue that the armorer is solely responsible for the safety of guns on the set, and the actor bears no responsibility. But there has to be some limit to which individual industries can set their own safety standards, if it means those standards fall unconscionably short of the standards used by everyone else. As a society we cannot just sit back and accept that, if the Assistant Director tells you a gun is safe, you’re good to point it at another human and pull the trigger. A major in Film Studies and a monogrammed folding chair are not enough to hang a human life on.
I think that there is plenty of negligence to go around, but in criminal law, negligence of others is not a defense. That will be saved for the civil litigation. I assume that the movie has liability insurance covering the tort cases, but only up to its policy limits. Nonetheless, that will save him the cost of defense attorneys for those cases.
“I know there are those who argue that the armorer is solely responsible for the safety of guns on the set, and the actor bears no responsibility.”
Er, *no*.
When it comes to safety, everyone in the process is responsible…
I’ve read that the crew was firing live ammo earlier during the shoot. (pun intended) That would mean that as Producer, he would bear some responsibility for negligent behavior on set. Also, if he knew about live ammo being fired through that weapon then he had an obligation to treat it as loaded. So a good case can be made against him on two different levels of responsibility.
Good. No special treatment for the rich and famous, right liberals?
He already got special treatment.
If it had been you or I who killed a woman by pointing a gun at her, cocking the hammer, and pulling the trigger, we would have been arrested immediately and thrown in jail with bail so high we’d have to sell the house to pay bail.
But instead of arresting him a year ago, they let Alec Baldwin go free to enjoy his life while claiming that he’s the real victim in the case!
Very true.
I truly hope the arrogant idiot fries. Hangs. Is quartered. Whatever.
The Screen Actors Guild has a protocol for safely handling firearms on a movie set. No firearm may be aimed at a person. It may be aimed close to a person but not directly at him or her. That way, if all other precautions have failed, an unplanned discharge results in a near miss instead of a hit.
Baldwin says he was instructed to aim the gun at the camera operator. It was the director’s responsibility not to give such an instruction, Baldwin’s to refuse to obey, and the camera operator’s not to let herself be put in danger. As professionals, all three should have known better. Their irresponsibility cost the camera operator her life, the director a serious wound and is likely to cost Baldwin the rest of his life.
I seriously doubt he would get life.
10 years maybe?
Hmm, I think he’ll get off with a misdemeanor conviction at best. I say this because a Democrat sheriff’s office is leading the investigation, a Democrat DA’s office is prosecuting, and a Democrat governor is closely watching the case.
If Baldwin had been smart he should have written the family members of the woman killed a check for at least 5 million dollars with no strings attached within a few days and told them that he couldn’t change what happened but he was going to try to do right. He should have then had his attorneys approach the prosecutor and work out a plea for a misdemeanor of some sort that would carry a fine for the crime, considerable court cost (aka a bribe to the government), and some County jail time. this would have made him look respectable and would have headed off any potential of a felony criminal prosecution. He could have walked out of the county jail many dollars lighter and he would be looked at as a man instead of the sniveling little bitch that he is.
“If Baldwin had been smart ”
And that’s where you lost me…
Baldwin’s not stupid but he is irrational, emotional, and spoiled. He needs to learn to be a lot more calculating but I suspect he’s too old to learn new tricks.
Hey hey there. I resemble that remark. How wooooood.
If Baldwin were smart, he wouldn’t have killed a woman working for him.
End of discussion.
I don’t give a shit what someone else says I am going to check it for myself. Mr shit for brains was critical of a accidental police shooting in 2018. He said I wonder what it feels like to accidentally kill someone? Guess he knows now. But he is so much smarter than us hillbilly people that are raised with guns.
“I don’t give a shit what someone else says I am going to check it for myself.”
Preach it. I just have a hard time believing it was truly an ‘accident’.
Knowing Baldwin’s arrogant and sanctimonious asshole personality, who on that set hated Baldwin enough to set him up like that?
I hope that keeps him up at night…
You’ve just died, and arrived in a little room outside the pearly gates. Jesus, Mohammed, Krishna, Thor, Zeus, and a dozen other gods and god-like figures all point to a gun on a table. You are told the gun is empty, and that you should pick it up, and perform some task with the gun.
You pick up the gun, don’t bother to clear it because your favorite deity told you it was unloaded. The next sound you hear is that infamous gong, from the Gong Show, and the words, “You go to hell!”
It was a test, and you failed.
If Jesus Christ tells you the gun is safe, you had better properly clear the gun anyway.
Believe Baldwin or the FBI?
Trick question.
When two known liars are disputing facts, it’s up to you to look at those facts yourself, and make your own decision.
GUILTY!!!
This is a textbook example of what happens when rabidly anti-gun people have guns. Just guessing Baldwin hasn’t bothered to take any firearm safety courses and couldn’t recite the 4 rules if they were on a cue card. One must break at least two rules for really bad things to happen. He broke ALL 4. I hope he rots in HELL.
The local police released the statement he made after the shooting.
He clearly states that he has experience with guns, has been shooting at the range with gun experts, and has even shot machine guns.
He further stated that he knows the difference between blank ammo, dummy ammo, and live ammo.
These statements are all very harmful to his case.
Trying to hide his assets, selling houses likely isn’t going to work. I SINCERELY hope super-douche Alec is put on trial, especially if it’s televised! I want to see a close-up of his face when the guilty verdict is read.
Baldwin is an arrogant ass and I want to see him cut down to size.
Perhaps he should sell “artworks” like Hunter Biden.
Uh… didn’t Baldwin shoot twice? ie he killed her but he also wounded someone else?
That would tend to negate any decent defense…
No, super douche Baldwin fired once. But the round passed though Halyna Hutchins fatally wounding her and injuring director Joel Souza.
Daughter came to visit. Lives in another state. Walked in dropped her bag and put her holstered gun on the dining table and took a nap. Couple hours later she went to the dining room took the gun out of the holster cleared it reloaded it and put it back in the holster. It’s not that complicated. Unless I’m missing something.
You ain’t missing a thing.
Why aren’t the responsible individuals who were in charge of the prop gun / ammo and Baldwin not sitting in jail, awaiting a trial?!?!
Hoyt
If I remember correctly from early reports they were rehearsing two scenes at once. The armourer was at the other one.
Industry protocol (OHS law in some states) says hire two people which they did not or that the director appoints a second qualified person as safety officer. As Baldwin is the producer and director it makes him the responsible person. Which is why he has tried everything to blame someone else plus the gun.
The interview he gave before production started saying he didn’t need training as he is a gun expert won’t help either.
Because they committed the crime in New Mexico where law enforcement is totally biased and incompetent.
The Two Victims will be charged will unlawful dumping of tainted body fluids.
The Armorer will be charged with providing a firearm to an incompetent nincompoop.
Baldwin will be charged with performing misdemeanor unlicensed cosmetic surgery.
No Jail, $5,000 in fines, each.
There are two classes of people in Capitalvania and two sets of laws, one set of laws for the rich and powerful and another set of laws for the troglodyte worker slaves. Why do you not think the criminal Trump is not in prison.
Baldwin wil get off with a fine at most.
And though the Far Right are gloating over Baldwin’s mistake and carelessness I ask you “How many dumb ass Hill Jacks carry striker fired pistols that do not have manual safeties and end up accidentally shooting innocent people with them”?
Dude, Ted Kennedy actually killed a woman and no libs cared. I don’t think Trump has done anything as bad as that. So yeah, if Ted the Lionhearted can drive drunk, crash his car, drown a scank and then get elected to the senate for 40 more years, then maybe we’re entitled to accidentally shoot a random person sometimes.
“How many dumb ass Hill Jacks carry striker fired pistols that do not have manual safeties and end up accidentally shooting innocent people with them”?
Tell us how many?
I could give you pages of them but with the ignorant wave of the far right hand you would ignore any info that did not fit your far right warped agenda. So why bother. You can lead a Hillbilly to knowledge but you cannot force him to think.
I’d never own a striker fired hunk of shit.
Trump is not in prison for the simple reason he has never committed a crime. The fact that you and your Lefty friends don’t like him and have done far worse is no excuse. Stick to the topic we are tired of you people focusing on Trump, when it is clear that the Biden’s, Pelosi’s, Waters, and a host of others are all crooks.
If you can’t manage to be safe with a striker fired pistol without a manual safety, please don’t carry one. I have one, made in Germany around 1913. Never had an issue with it. Never went bang without me making it do so intentionally.
It doesn’t take a PHd to safely carry a striker, maybe it may take more than a GED? Is that your issue?
If an actor is on set and he’s handed a firearm and told to point it at someone and shoot, why is the actor at fault if it was loaded with a live round?
Is every actor on every film set expected to first shoot the gun in a safe place to check that it’s not loaded with live rounds? Even if he does that, how does he know the next round in the gun isn’t a live round????
Tragic indeed -but why is Alec Baldwin at fault here?
Because firearms are dangerous and Alec Baldwin was responsible for the safe handling of that firearm the second he accepted it from the armorer.
The Four Cardinal/Universal Rules of Gun Handling:
1. Treat all guns as if they are always loaded.
2. Never point the gun at anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target (and you have made the decision to shoot).
4. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.
These four cardinal rules, among others, are taught in every firearm handling class. If he did not know and understand those rules, he had no business handling a firearm. And he violated ALL of them. So yes, he was responsible to ensure that the gun was in a safe condition before handling it in any manner. Sure, there were lots of other violations of safety protocol as have been noted earlier, but he does not get a pass, just because he is an actor.
By the way, as the producer, he had ultimate responsibility for everything that occurred on the set. Thus, he was legally and ethically responsible to ensure that all the safety protocols were in place and followed. He failed in that role, too.
Not tragic, avoidable and criminal.
It is clear you have no idea whatsoever about gun safety. Read the threads on here and learn something before making excuse for a person who killed someone with a firearm.
“I was just following orders” is not only NOT a good legal defense but wholly insane when you are the producer and big name on set. There is also no reason to be using real guns capable of firing a bullet and no reason to aim anything but a complete ‘dummy’ gun at someone else.
Throwing some peon under the bus is exactly what I would expect hollywood to do, however.
……Every actor on any film set that has ever shot a gun has flaunted all four gun safetly rules…Why aren’t you all shouting at Tom Criuse for his Mozambique drill where he points a gun at two actors???
Well, burn Tom Cruise as well. He’s nothing but a little worm who joined a cult. I have no use for him, any more than the arsewipe under discussion.
So, you think it is acceptable for actors to flaunt the four gun safety rules because they are actors???
“Why aren’t you all shouting at Tom ‘Criuse ‘”
Maybe because he never killed anyone.
If he blew one of them away, we would be.
It’s past due. But, I suspect we have another Roman Polanski untouchable here. If things look bad in court, he’ll bail to France or some other chithole country that will protect a progressive liberal dirtbag.
This is a true IDIOT! He thinks that he is above everybody and will get off because he is a LIBERAL SOCIALIST BAN-THE-GUN LOUDMOUTH.
People who know firearms, especially REVOLVERS know that it is virtually impossible for it to fire itself. Especially since this was a western type “SINGLE” action pistol and must be physically COCKED (pull the hammer back) before the trigger is able to release the action.
Set aside for a moment that this involved a firearm. If Baldwin had skewered someone driving a fork-lift, and blatantly violated the rules for “safe forklift driving”, and there was evidence that he skipped out on the “fork truck safety briefings”… Then it’s pretty clear-cut negligent homicide, or negligent homicide with clear disregard for human life depending on how the State categorizes it. Legally, it dose not matter if he killed someone with a firearm, a vehicle, etc, it’s about criminal negligence.
Baldwin pulled the trigger. Yes, there should have been no live ammo on the set, but the safety brief for firearms on set clearly state that you never aim the firearm at a person. It’s aimed at a slight angle. If the director want’s a straight on shot down the barrel, then that is done with a mirror, a stunt actor, and narrow depth of field
The handling of this case by New Mexico is an absolute disgrace. If you or I had done what was done on that set we would have already been indicted, tried and convicted of negligent homicide. Anyone familiar with that type of firearm knows it cannot be fired without pulling the trigger. All they had to do was have a competent gun smith check out the firearm and he would have told them what the FBI took months to tell them. Pure incompetence and negligence on the part of law enforcement in New Mexico. They didn’t need to investigate Baldwin’s cell phone because they had enough eyewitness evidence to charge him. This has been one big stalling tactic from day one simply because he is a Democrat, anti-second amendment advocate and Hollywood elite. This is why you should never vote for Democrats. They lie, cheat, are hypocrites and don’t obey the laws or rules they create for you and me. Vote these people out of office.
ill believe it
when i see it
until then
theres almost zero chance
that this isnt connected to
sussman
clinton
and the durham probe
Call my cynical but I have trouble believing one of the ‘special’ people (i.e. rich, connected, etc) will face the consequences that a normal person would for aiming a gun at someone, pulling the trigger, and killing them
There used to be books and movies made about rich people hunting poor people down for sport. I think they’ve gone out of fashion because it’s basically too close to home. Kill someone? Don’t worry, if you’ve got money, that can be taken care of.
I take it you never saw The Hunt (2020)?
And so what. They’re all rich millionaires that can buy (OJ) they’re way out of any law trouble.
Fuck Joseph Robinett Biden
Likely, he’ll never see the inside of a jail cell.
He’ll be tried in Santa Fe within Santa Fe County. The city is called “The San Francisco of the High Desert” for a reason. The way the people there see it, he’s “one of them”. The good people. The Righteous™.
Likely max is that he’ll get probation for a couple of years, and that’s with the DA throwing money at this like crazy. There’s basically no way Santa Feans toss this guy to the wolves and the DA’s office surely knows it. No way they don’t remember trying to prosecute a few of the local restaurant “elites” for various things and failing miserably. This is even more of an uphill fight.
If they’ve got a recording of Alec Baldwin negotiating a hit fee, maybe they can nail him. Short of that, a conviction is unlikely. Even with a conviction a sentencing that goes past some probation borders on laughable.
Mary Carmack-Altwies is 42, a millionaire, “dedicated public servant” and a life-long Democrat who ran on that ticket to get this job. She born in Santa Fe and has run businesses there, so she knows the game.
For her, this is the potential for a breakout “tough on crime” political life within the state, and at a good age too. Which… realistically is possible considering how insane Santa Fe has gotten in recent years and the resulting crime spikes it has seen. But she also has to know that she can’t go too far or she’ll cross over in to “right wing” territory and ruin herself rather than springboarding to state office, and she can’t do that either way because Santa Fe is the capitol too so. It would be a hard city to be a state level pol but also very unpopular with the locals. Very hard.
The popualtion of “The City Different” was batshit nuts when I was at Santa Fe High. These people gotten worse in the intervening years. Much worse. Mental hospital worse.
The only people in Santa Fe that I feel bad for at all are the kids and the people who move their for health reasons only to find out that the city is chock-full of crazy in ways that are hard to describe.
But yeah, very likely Baldwin walks. Best case is probably probation for 1-5 years, likely unsupervised.
They’ll hand him an ankle bracelet and the key and sentence him to 20hrs of Community Service™ talking to young people with nose rings about the perils of gun ownership, probably with Hilariaous sitting at a table full of pre-autographed copies of The Great Actors new book “I Didn’t Pull The Trigger” in front of his, I mean the, stage. And people will buy it. And offer him their sincere condolences.
“Negligent Discharge”? Lol! More like ” Premeditated Hollywoodcide” I’ll bet Halyna was going to spill the beans on the Democrat “feminist” rageaholic’s behavior including possible sexual assaults of female crew members and that’s why Alec/Alex “whacked” her.
dPrato -So what you are saying is that every single movie where a gun was pointed at someone and it was shot with blanks, since the actor who fired it- flaunted all four safetly rules he has no right to be in the business and YOU have no right to enjoy watching such a movie? So you never saw Saving Private Ryan or ever paid to see a movie with a gun in it????
If someone loaded a live round into the actor’s gun- why is the actor responsible???
I have every idea about gun saftey….. I see the four rules on my wall every time I enter my study. But it is clear that any movie with guns in it cannot be made unless all four rules are deliberatly flaunted.
Why is watching a movie with a gun in it -where the actors flaunt all four rules of gun safety- any more moral or legal than watching a child porn movie?
If you demand actors in a thriller or action movie not to deliberatley flaunt the rules of gun safety, you have no moral/legal right to watch the movie.
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