Special prosecutors say Rust actor Alec Baldwin’s motion to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against him is “a predictably false, misleading, and histrionic misrepresentation of the facts and circumstances of the history of the case.”
Kari Morrisey and Jason Lewis used that language in a lengthy court document filed last week in state District Court. The document — totaling 316 pages, including exhibits — portrays Baldwin as reckless and arrogant on set, cold and callous in the wake of Hutchins’ death and manipulative and dishonest in his dealing with prosecutors.
The prosecutors’ response to Baldwin’s motion to dismiss is the latest legal firefight between the defense and prosecution in a case that has gained worldwide interest.
Baldwin is scheduled to go on trial in July in connection with the shooting death of Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer who died in October 2021 after being struck by a bullet from a pistol Baldwin held during the walk-through of a scene being filmed at Bonanza Creek Ranch south of Santa Fe.
In the motion filed last month to dismiss the charge, Baldwin’s defense team alleged Morrissey and Lewis withheld information favorable to the actor from the grand jury that indicted him and acted unethically by trying to slander him in the media.
Morrissey and Lewis have tried to “fairly and impartially” investigate and prosecute the case, according to their response, but have been met with “countless lies and manipulation” from Baldwin and his eight-lawyer defense team.
The prosecutors also claim while Baldwin and his lawyers have accused the state of attempting to use the media to prejudice the public against him, it’s the actor who has tried to leverage his celebrity to avoid responsibility for Hutchins’ death.
State District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer has not yet set a hearing on the motion to dismiss the case and the state’s response.
Assistant Director David Halls pleaded no contest in 2023 to a misdemeanor count of negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced to six months probation as part of a plea agreement. A Santa Fe jury convicted movie set armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed of involuntary manslaughter last month. She faces up to 18 months in jail at her sentencing, which is scheduled for April 15.
Baldwin has been charged in connection with the incident twice, first in January 2023 by First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies — later dismissed by special prosecutors, citing the need for more investigation — and again through a grand jury indictment filed in January 2024.
Baldwin’s motion to dismiss filed last month attacked the way prosecutors conducted the January grand jury proceeding, contending they breached their duty to present evidence and call witnesses favorable to Baldwin as required by law and violated rules of professional conduct in their interactions with media.
Last week’s response called the defense’s grand jury argument “laughable” — noting the state spent about a day and a half presenting the case and provided the grand jurors nearly all the information the defense asked to be presented.
The motion also says the state’s interactions with the media were in response to Baldwin’s own and in keeping with the rules, which don’t require them to stay silent in such circumstances.
The state’s response to Baldwin’s attorneys’ motion to dismiss portrays the Rust set as ill-fated from the start.
Baldwin missed an initial firearm training and was “inattentive” during a rescheduled training, talking on his phone and making videos of himself shooting the gun “for his family’s enjoyment.”
Prosecutors also wrote Baldwin’s “relentless rushing of the crew ... routinely compromised safety” on the set.
“Mr. Baldwin was frequently screaming and cursing at himself, at crew members or at no one and not for any particular reason,” the prosecutors say, citing behind-the-scenes footage.
After Hutchins had been shot and airlifted to an Albuquerque hospital, the state’s response says, Baldwin immediately “began preparing the unbelievable narrative that he was not responsible for the discharge of the gun and injuries to his colleagues.”
In a December 2021 interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos — a personal friend of Baldwin’s, according to the state — the actor “lied with impunity” and blamed the incident on Hutchins, saying he’d only pointed the gun at her because she told him to, and claimed for the first time he’d never pulled the trigger.
But later that week, he changed his story, telling investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that Halls — not Gutierrez-Reed — handed him the gun, the prosecutors’ motion says.
“Every time Mr. Baldwin spoke, a different version of events emerged from his mouth, and his later statements contradicted his previous statements and his attorneys’ assertions as set forth in their motion to dismiss,” Morrissey wrote in the response.
She added that after she and Lewis were appointed to the case, they reached out to Baldwin’s lawyers to establish a civil working relationship and “graciously and naively agreed” to an in-person meeting.
During the four-hour meeting, the prosecutors claim, Baldwin’s attorneys presented a PowerPoint presentation outlining his defense and said if the case were to go forward they intended to call a variety of “A-list actors,” including Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, to testify in his defense.
Those names never appeared on his witness list.
Approximately 10 days after offering the actor and producer a plea deal, the prosecutors alleged they learned attorney Luke Nikas had provided all the details of the presumed confidential plea offer to a reporter with NBC News, saying Baldwin might accept the plea offer but intended to file a civil lawsuit against the state on the same day as a possible plea hearing to direct media attention “to the frivolous lawsuit and away from the plea hearing.”
Prosecutors claim Nikas made “numerous false statements” in his motion to dismiss, including an assertion the defense had proven to the state the gun had been modified prior to the shooting.
Nikas used photos to “convince” the prosecutors the gun may have been modified, prompting the state to dismiss the initial charges against Baldwin while forensic testing took place, according to the response.
“The defendant simply doesn’t have a leg to stand on concerning his claim that the hammer of the gun was modified,” the prosecutors say. “He used this false claim to create a delay in the prosecution of his case and has now complained in his motion to dismiss that the case has been hanging over his head for too long.”
