Yahoo News Alec Baldwin to Face Trial for Involuntary Manslaughter Over ‘Rust’ Shooting
Alec Baldwin will face a trial in July stemming from manslaughter charges over the accidental shooting death of Rust’s cinematographer.
Santa Fe judge Mary Sommer on Friday denied Baldwin’s bid to dismiss the indictment, concluding that prosecutors and the grand jury weren’t biased against him. “The court does not find prosecutorial bad faith,” the order stated.
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Baldwin, a producer on the low budget Western, has been accused of negligently firing the gun when the scene only called for him to pull it from the holster and ignoring industry norms dictating gun safety. Prosecutors have alleged that he endangered others by missing initial firearms training and hiring an inexperienced armorer. If convicted, he faces 18 months in prison.
Baldwin’s arguments for dismissal were multipronged. He claimed that prosecutors pursued charges against him in bad faith, withheld “favorable evidence” that could vindicate him and failed to properly instruct the grand jury that ultimately found that he should stand trial for his role in the shooting of Halyna Hutchins. Grand juries rarely decide that there’s not enough evidence to hold a trial.
According to Friday’s ruling, the court rejected claims that prosecutors engaged in “intentional misconduct” reflecting “dishonesty of belief, purpose or motive” when they presented evidence to the grand jury.
On arguments that the indictment should be dismissed because evidence in favor of Baldwin was suppressed, Sommer concluded that prosecutors had no duty to present such evidence. She said that prosecutors have “broad discretion as to what evidence to present to, or exclude from, the grand jury, and courts will not review any good-faith decisions the prosecutor makes in that regard once an indictment is returned.”
The court also sided with the district attorney’s office on allegations that jurors weren’t properly instructed in assessing the charges and that it didn’t follow rulings from the judge overseeing the grand jury.
The ruling keeps Baldwin’s trial on track to start on July 9. It follows a judge in April sentencing Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the Rust armorer who loaded the live round into the gun Baldwin was holding when it discharged and killed the film’s cinematographer, to 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter.
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