Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ Retrial Being Pushed By Prosecutors After Surprise Dismissal

Alec Baldwin may be facing new charges related to the 2021 accidental shooting death of cinematographer Haylna Hutchins that occurred while filming the western Rust in New Mexico. The actor was holding the prop gun that fired a live round and left Hutcins, a married mother of one, dead, and another set employee injured. After the incident, several staffers came forward to claim they’d made complaints ahead of the shooting about unsafe working conditions that were ignored. Hutchins’ family filed a wrongful death suit and the film’s armorer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Charges against Baldwin were recently dropped, leaving Hutchins’ family in an uproar. Now, prosecutors are asking a judge to reinstate the charges.

Deadline reports prosecutors want a retrial. New Mexico Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer threw out the case on the fourth day of Baldwin’s trial “with prejudice,” meaning the case could not be refiled as there wasn’t sufficient evidence found to be presented, even if the prosecutor wanted another shot at a successful conviction of Baldwin.

The prosecutor also wants to know what Baldwin’s defense lawyers knew about alleged suppressed evidence, and when they learned of it. She also wants to know whether the attorney for the film’s connected armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, tipped off Baldwin’s team to evidence of further live rounds that suddenly appeared through a close friend of Gutierrez-Reed’s renowned Hollywood gun coach father Thell Reed, the report notes. Guiterrez-Reed is currently serving an 18-month sentence.

Baldwin has long maintained that while cocked the hammer of the gun on set during rehearsal but he did not pull the trigger and the gun somehow went off on its own. The FBI, an independent analysis, and the man who made the gun disagree with Baldwin’s account.