A district attorney in New Mexico said she could be close to charging up to four people, including actor Alec Baldwin, in the “Rust” film set shooting that occurred in Santa Fe on Oct. 21, 2021. During the shooting, Baldwin’s prop gun was discharged, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies made an emergency funding request for $635,500 to continue to fund the investigation of the high-profile case.
“We are within weeks, if not days, of receiving the final report from the sheriff’s office,” Carmack-Altwies said during a New Mexico Board of Finance meeting on Sept. 20. She said while they are still awaiting reports “it’s become apparent that we will be potentially charging between one and four people with criminal charges and each of those charges will probably include some variation of our homicide statute.”
In a letter to the board of finance, the district attorney’s office specified that Baldwin could be one of the possible defendants and that “this case could require up to four separate jury trials.”
During the meeting, Carmack-Altwies said homicide cases are the most complex and litigious and that her office would use the money to hire more people to work on the case.
“These cases look to be too big for just my office to handle,” Carmack-Altwies said, adding that she and two other attorneys from her office will remain on the case, but they also need to focus on others. “We need an almost full-time attorney and someone who is very experienced on complex cases and very experienced with litigation,” she said.
The funds could also go to that new attorney’s support staff, like paralegals, as well as experts who can aid in the investigation – like a firearm expert, an armorer who has worked on movies before and potentially a movie set safety expert. She also requested a public information officer because her office was overwhelmed with media attention over the case.
“The report coming in in October means we will be under the gun – no pun intended – to get moving on these cases and to get these cases charged if that is what the facts warrant,” she said, adding that any money she doesn’t spend will be returned. “It’s merely that we need it starting in October to start retaining people.”
