What We Know About Alec Baldwin’s Motion to Have Charges Against Him Dropped
Trigger Warning: This article contains references to death and murder
Alec Baldwin applied for a surprise motion in court to get the involuntary manslaughter case dismissed against him. The court trials for the actor’s Rust shooting began on July 10, and the attorneys have presented their opening statements in front of the judge. Regarding the latest development in the case, the actors’ lawyers requested that the judge dismiss the case since the prosecutor was unable to present the actor’s lawyer with the batch of bullets.
Earlier, too, the actor and his attorneys tried to get the case against the actor dropped as Baldwin denied taking responsibility for killing the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.
What did Alec Baldwin’s attorneys claim in court?
As the hearings for the Rust trials go on at New Mexico’s judiciary court, the lawyer, Luke Nikas, of the 30 Rock actor, claimed, “This is over and over and over again; this is not the first time. This is not the second time. It’s not the third time. It’s time for this case to be dismissed.”
Earlier, too, the actor’s attorney in court claimed that Baldwin did not even pull the trigger, and the shooting was a result of the mishandling of the weapons by the firearms security officer, who placed a loaded gun instead of the dummy.
The judge, Mary Sommer, declined the request, as she claimed that there was no evidence of the gun being faulty, and the trigger had the fingerprints of the actor.
On July 10, Baldwin was described as a reckless man by the Rust prosecutor, Erlinda Johnson. The prosecutor stated that the mishandling of the weapon killed the cinematographer on the sets. The shooting incident took place in 2021, and since then, the actor has stated his innocence.
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Alec Baldwin described as a reckless man in court
In the opening statements by the prosecutor, Erlinda Johnson said, “When someone plays make-believe with a real gun in a real-life workplace, and while playing make-believe with that gun violates the cardinal rules of firearm safety, people’s lives are endangered, and someone could be killed.”
Meanwhile, Alex Spiro, the attorney for Baldwin, claimed in the opening statements that “Not a day goes by when we don’t wish Alec had saved her life. But never, the witnesses will tell you, in history, is [this] something that an actor has done—intercepted a live bullet from a prop gun. No actor in history. No one could have imagined or expected an actor to do that. So just remember that truth. Justice is truth.”
In the Rust shooting, apart from the cinematographer, who lost her life, the director, Joel Souza, was also injured.
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