Halyna Hutchins' Family Breaks Silence On Alec Baldwin's New 'Rust' Charges

Actor Alec Baldwin is yet again facing charges connecting to the October 2021 shooting of "Rust" cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Director Joel Souza was hospitalized and Hutchins was killed when a gun that the actor was holding went off, although how live ammunition ended up on a movie set is still under investigation.

In January 2023, both Alec Baldwin and "Rust" armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed were charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. In April 2023, the charges against Baldwin were dropped pending further investigation. Gutierrez-Reed was slapped with an additional charge of tampering with evidence after prosecutors claimed they found a witness stating that she transferred narcotics to another individual on the day that Halyna Hutchins was killed, thus impeding the police investigation. Her trial, originally scheduled for December 2023, was postponed to February 2024.

Less than an hour after involuntary manslaughter charges were refiled against Alec Baldwin, attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing Halyna Hutchins's mother, father, and sister in a civil suit against the "30 Rock" actor and other "Rust" producers, released a brief statement regarding the charges:

"Our clients have always sought the truth about what happened on the day that Halyna Hutchins was tragically shot and killed on October 21, 2021. They continue to seek the truth in our civil lawsuit for them and they also would like there to be accountability in the criminal justice system. The grand jury has decided that there is sufficient evidence to indict Alec Baldwin on the charge of involuntary manslaughter.  We are looking forward to the criminal trial which will determine if he should be convicted for the untimely death of Halyna, who was the daughter of our clients Olga Solovey and Anatolii Androsovych, the sister of Svetlana Zemko, and the co-worker-of-our-client-, Mamie Mitchell."

Attorney Gloria Allred is also representing Mamie Mitchell in a lawsuit against Alec Baldwin and other "Rust" producers.

One year after his initial charges were filed, actor Alec Baldwin was again charged with involuntary manslaughter, which carries a penalty of up to 18 months in prison if convicted.

According to the filing, put forth by special prosecutors Kari T. Morrissey and Jason J. Lewis, Baldwin “did cause the death of Halyna Hutchins by an act committed with the total disregard or indifference for the safety of others, and the act was such that an ordinary person would anticipate that death might occur under the circumstances.”

“We look forward to our day in court,” Mr. Baldwin’s lawyers, Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, said in a statement on Friday, as per the New York Times.

As previously reported by  The Blast, the legal team representing Hannah Gutierrez-Reed - attorneys Jason Bowles of Bowles Law Firm and Todd J. Bullion of Bullion Law Office – have been trying to prevent prejudice in potential jurors by limiting the jury pool to those who have not read about her in the media.

“As this Court is aware, this case has generated intense publicity over the past year and a half,” the filing states. “There have been numerous statements made in the press regarding Ms. Gutierrez-Reed. The likelihood is that some or most jurors will have heard or read something in the press.”

The court documents go on to state, “What counsel is trying to avoid is the panel being prejudiced by jurors saying what they have heard in front of other panel members,” explaining that “This is important to ensure a fair and impartial jury for Ms. Gutierrez-Reed.” Counsel for the state did not oppose the motion.

According to court documents obtained by The Blast in mid-January, her legal team filed three separate motions attempting to exclude evidence in the upcoming trial. One piece of evidence involves the death of her ex-boyfriend, who was intoxicated when she gave him the keys to his motorcycle. He subsequently died in a motor vehicle crash. Although this event took place prior to the “Rust” shooting, her legal team is concerned that the prosecution is trying to paint a picture of her as a “careless or reckless person.”

“The facts of this motorcycle accident do not have a tendency to make a fact of consequence in determining the outcome of the instant case more or less probable than it would be without the evidence,” the filing states. “A motorcycle accident in a different state, that took place over a year before the date of incident in this case, without any persons in common with the exception of Ms. Gutierrez Reed, is simply put irrelevant to the case at hand. The fact that this incident did not involve Ms. Gutierrez Reed working as an armorer or on a film set compounds the irrelevancy of this information. It will be of zero assistance to the jury in deciding the charges pending against Ms. Gutierrez Reed and should be excluded.”

Her legal team goes on to speculate that “The government may intend to utilize the motorcycle accident information to make a propensity argument that Ms. Gutierrez Reed is a careless or reckless person” and asked for the incident to be excluded from the trial, citing its lack of relevancy to the “Rust” shooting in October 2021.