Alec Baldwin Pleads Not Guilty For ‘Rust’ Shooting After Special Investigators Find ‘Criminal Culpability’

Original Charges Dropped In April 2023

Back in October, Baldwin and the special prosecutors had discussed the possibility of him taking a plea deal, however that offer was rescinded in the days leading up to the announcement that they would be bringing the case before the grand jury.  This comes after the original charges were dropped by the same special prosecutors in April 2023, stating that new facts had been revealed which needed further investigation and forensic analysis.

"Consequently, we cannot proceed under the current time constraints and on the facts and evidence turned over by law enforcement in its existing form," the prosecutors said at the time. "We therefore will be dismissing the involuntary manslaughter charges against Mr. Baldwin to conduct further investigation."

They did add at the time that this did "not absolve" the 30 Rock actor of any "criminal culpability," so the new charges should not come as too much of a surprise.

Alec Baldwin Maintains His Innocence Over Set Shooting

Baldwin has maintained in interviews since the fatal accident that he did not pull the trigger and that the gun had been declared "cold" – i.e., not loaded – by the assistant director Dave Halls. Halls himself was sentenced to a six months unsupervised probation in March 2023 after he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon. This made him the first person to be held accountable for Hutchins' death.

"I feel that someone is responsible for what happened, and I can't say who that is, but I know it's not me," the three-time Golden Globe winner said in an interview with ABC News in December 2021.

Baldwin's co-defendant Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the film's armorer, had already been charged with similar involuntary manslaughter charges last year, and is currently waiting for her trial which is set to begin on February 21st. She has pleaded not guilty, and her lawyers Jason Bowles and Todd Bullion are hopeful that their client will be cleared.

"They are seeking the truth and we are also," the attorneys said in a statement following the dismissal of the original charges against Baldwin last year. "The truth about what happened will come out and the questions that we have long sought answers for will be answered. We fully expect at the end of this process that Hannah will also be exonerated."