While Alec Baldwin repeatedly declared his confidence that he wouldn’t be criminally charged in the fatal 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, he and his influencer wife Hilaria apparently learned a different reality in the past several weeks.
Santa Fe County District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told CNN Thursday that her office had been in “almost constant” contact with Baldwin’s attorneys for six weeks, letting them know charges were coming. She said Baldwin’s legal team just weren’t told the exact charges — that the 64-year-old film and TV actor would be indicted on two counts of involuntary manslaughter for Hutchins’ death on the New Mexico set of their film “Rust.”
CNN entertainment reporter Chloe Melas said the involuntary charges probably came as a “shock” to Baldwin. When she interviewed the actor in August, he said he had reason to believe he wouldn’t be charged and repeated his controversial claim that he didn’t pull the trigger on the gun that killed Hutchins. In Baldwin’s usually belligerent way on social media, he also scrapped with strangers who’ve taunted him about the shooting, telling one man in July that he can come apologize and “clean my pool” “when I’m eventually not charged with any crime.”
EXCLUSIVE: "The trigger wasn't pulled. I didn't pull the trigger," Alec Baldwin tells @GStephanopoulos in first interview since fatal shooting on set of "Rust." #BaldwinABChttps://t.co/b9Y1VQziLq pic.twitter.com/Ip1EQ1i9N4
— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 3, 2021
The way Baldwin has continued to give interviews, insisting he’s in no way responsible for Hutchins’ death, has been been harmful to his public image and probably to his case, as he’s dmonstrated an arrogance that possibly emboldened prosecutors to make an example of him, said Eric Schiffer, a Los Angeles-based expert in public relations and crisis management.
“His messaging was so narcissistic and callous in the beginning, considering the loss of life, and he continued to hurt himself in unimaginable ways,” Schiffer said. “It was right out of the Donald Trump school of media relations. He continued to break one of the important rules of crisis management, which is that you try to avoid further damage.”
“There was such a problem with him saying he didn’t fire the gun,” Schiffer continued. “No one believed the gun just went off magically, except for people who believe in unicorns jumping over rainbows. He always had a credibility problem, just on the basics.”
In the past few weeks, Baldwin and his similarly controversial wife have publicly revealed no worries about pending criminal charges. They’ve engaged in their usual flurry of activities – promoting themselves and their podcasts on social media and often sharing multiple daily images of their seven children on Instagram, as if to bolster the narrative that they are harried, loving parents trying to keep family life as normal as possible in the wake of tragedy.
In early December, Hilaria Baldwin also promoted the couple’s appearance at a glitzy charity event attended by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. She even tried to link Markle’s experience of being the target of online racism and hate to her own claims of being bullied on social media after Hutchins’ shooting and after she became embroiled in a scandal alleging she faked being half-Spanish.
On Thursday morning, Hilaria Baldwin was photographed, looking “calm and focused,” as she left the couple’s Manhattan apartment building with four of their children, ahead of Carmack-Altwies’ announcement about the charges. The New York Post said the former yoga teacher braved the rain in black leggings with a matching fuzzy jacket and slides and ignored reporters’ questions as she loaded four of their children into a black SUV.
Hilaria Baldwin pictured while Alec awaits decision on Rust shooting charges https://t.co/0iCXsSMr5S
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) January 19, 2023
Following the prosecutor’s announcement, Baldwin’s attorney Luke Nikas issued a statement saying that charging his client with involuntary manslaughter is “a terrible miscarriage of justice.” He also told CNN that Baldwin and his lawyers feel “blindsided” by the charges and that they weren’t told a criminal indictment was forthcoming. Prosecutors also plan to file involuntary manslaughter charges against the film’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, while assistant director Dave Halls, who reportedly handed Baldwin the gun, has signed a plea agreement for the charge of “negligent use of a deadly weapon.”
Nikas said Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun — or anywhere on the movie set. Baldwin said he was assured by the crew that the gun was safe to use and was told by Hutchins to point it in her direction. “He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win.”
Hutchins’ family, on the other hand, said they support the involuntary manslaughter charges against Baldwin, with their attorney saying in statement: “Our independent investigation also supports charges are warranted. It is a comfort to the family that, in New Mexico, no one is above the law.”
It’s not immediately clear why Hutchins’ family supports the charges, given that Hutchins’ husband, Matthew Hutchins, settled his lawsuit against Baldwin in October, called his wife’s death “a terrible accident” and agreed to become the executive producer on “Rust” so it can be finished and bring in some money for Hutchins and his son, who was 9 when his mother was killed.
Carmack-Altwies said there were a number of contributing factors that went into charging Baldwin and the others, including lack of safety standards on the set that Baldwin, as a producer on the film, should have been aware of. Somehow live rounds ended up on the set and ended up in the gun handed to Baldwin.
'An actor doesn't get free pass': Rust prosecutor tears into Alec Baldwin saying he DID pull the trigger https://t.co/cRR3yzpyVc pic.twitter.com/SobVAoTApv
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) January 19, 2023
“He didn’t check it, he didn’t do any of the things that he was supposed to do to make sure that he was safe or that anyone around him was safe,” Carmack-Altwies said. “And then he pointed the gun at Halyna Hutchins and he pulled the trigger.” An FBI forensics report also countered Baldwin’s claim that he didn’t pull the trigger. “That trigger was pulled,” Carmack-Altwies said.
Perhaps it will be some consolation to Baldwin that Carmack-Altwies said her office won’t ask for him to be taken into custody. Instead, he’ll be issued a summons to appear in court for an arraignment, which he could do from New York do via video. However, if he’s convicted, Baldwin could face up to 18 months in prison.
It remains to be seen how Alec and Hilaria Baldwin will present themselves in public going forward. Both have come under fire for their statements or demeanor in interviews and on social media in the aftermath of Hutchins’ death. With Hilaria Baldwin, entertainment outlets have blasted her for being “obsessed” with social media and for “over-sharing” information about her children to garner sympathy for her family following the tragedy.
More recently, Alec Baldwin made headlines for posting several videos, begging his 2½ million Instagram followers to also follow his wife. As a birthday present for Hilaria’s 39th birthday, Baldwin said he wanted to help her reach 1 million followers.
“Obviously I love my wife, I’m crazy about my wife, blah, blah, blah — all the things we say about people we’re in love with,” Baldwin gushed. “My wife’s the most fabulous person I’ve ever met in my whole life. That’s true. That’s true. That’s definitely true.”
Los Angeles-based defense attorney Joshua Ritter agreed with Schiffer that Baldwin, and, to a lesser extent, his wife need to quiet down as the criminal case proceeds. “His attorneys need to sit on his chest until this plays out because the more he opens his mouth the worse he’s making it for himself,” Ritter, a former Los Angeles County prosecutor, said in an email.
Meanwhile, now that Baldwin has been charged, it’s not likely that “Rust” will be finished, said former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani. “This trial is going to push things out at least a year or two, and with this criminal cloud hanging over the film, I doubt it will ever be completed,” Rahmani said.
This story has been updated to include a statement from Baldwin’s attorney.
