'Rust' Shooting: Alec Baldwin Was Reportedly Offered Lenient Plea Deal Before Prosecutors Withdrew It
March 16 2024, Published 10:30 a.m. ET
Alec Baldwin was reportedly offered a lenient plea deal for his role in the accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust, but prosecutors withdrew the offer before he decided whether or not to accept the terms, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to new court documents released on Friday and obtained by Variety, special prosecutor Kari Morrissey offered the actor "a plea deal identical to the petty misdemeanor deal accepted by Dave Halls," Rust's first assistant director who received six months of unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, 24 hours of community service, and a firearm safety class but avoided any prison time after pleading to negligent handling of a deadly weapon.
Alec is set to go to trial in July for involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Baldwin was reportedly offered the deal on October 5 and given until October 27 to decide, but prosecutors retracted the offer on October 17 and informed his lawyers that they would proceed with a grand jury to indict him.
After the initial charges against him were dismissed last year, Baldwin was indicted in January on a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter. His case is set to go to trial in July, and if convicted, he could face up to 18 months in prison.
Alec Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter trial began this week.
The plea deal was revealed in a filing by Baldwin's legal team this week asking a judge to throw out the case. His attorneys claimed that prosecutors "stacked the deck" against Baldwin by leaking information to the press, relying on biased witnesses, and failing to present exculpatory evidence to the grand jury.
"Enough is enough," the lawyers wrote. "This is an abuse of the system, and an abuse of an innocent person whose rights have been trampled to the extreme ... The State had one goal — indict Baldwin, no matter the truth, no matter the rules or the Court rulings, and no matter what it took to do so."
Baldwin's lawyers asked a judge this week to throw out the case.
The charges stem from a 2021 incident on the set of Rust where Baldwin, an actor and producer on the film, accidentally fired a live round that killed Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, Rust's head armorer, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter earlier this month following two weeks of testimony and less than three hours of deliberation and now faces up to 18 months in prison. She will be sentenced on April 15.
Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted for involuntary manslaughter earlier this month in connection to Hutchins's death.
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