District attorney drops five-year enhancement in Rust case

SANTA FE -- First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies has abandoned her attempt to apply a five-year sentencing enhancement to the charges against actor Alec Baldwin and Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.

Both still face a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed by a bullet from a pistol Baldwin held during an October 2021 rehearsal on a movie set south of Santa Fe. The bullet also struck and wounded director Joel Souza.

The change reduces the maximum incarceration for the defendants from 6 1/2 years to 18 months, if convicted.

“In order to avoid further litigious distractions by Mr. Baldwin and his attorneys, the District Attorney and the special prosecutor have removed the firearm enhancement to the involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of Halyna Hutchins on the Rust film set,” Heather Brewer, a spokeswoman for Carmack-Altwies, wrote in an email Monday. “The prosecution’s priority is securing justice, not securing billable hours for big-city attorneys.”

The District Attorney’s Office declined to elaborate Monday on why Carmack-Altwies initially sought to apply the five-year firearm enhancement if doing so was not a necessary part of securing justice in the case.

“The statement sent earlier covers the prosecution’s reasoning for dropping the enhancement,” Brewer wrote in response to questions from The New Mexican.

Carmack-Altwies declined to answer questions about her decision when approached by a reporter Monday in the hallway at the First Judicial District Court, where she was trying a murder case.

The amended complaints in the Rust case were filed Friday and were applauded by Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney Jason Bowles.

“We applaud the district attorney’s decision to drop the gun enhancement. It was the right decision ethically, and on the merits,” Bowles wrote in an email Monday.

A spokeswoman for Baldwin’s attorney wrote in an email the firm had no comment on the decision.

Attorneys for Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed filed motions earlier this month challenging the firearm enhancement, contending it didn’t go into effect until 2022 — about seven months after the incident at the Bonanza Creek Ranch outside Santa Fe.

“Retroactively applying an enhancement that increases the basic sentence for a charged offense by five years ... would be flagrantly unconstitutional,” Baldwin’s defense argued in a motion asking the court to decline to allow the District Attorney to proceed under that theory.

When the motion was filed by Baldwin’s attorneys, Brewer indicated Carmack-Altwies would review it but at the time gave no indication whether it would affect a decision on the enhancement charge.

“However, the DA’s and the special prosecutor’s focus will always remain on ensuring that justice is served and that everyone — even celebrities with fancy attorneys — is held accountable under the law,” she wrote at the time.

Some of Brewer’s statements on behalf of the District Attorney’s Office have drawn criticism from some on social media, including state Sen. Joseph Cervantes, an attorney.

“It’s disappointing to see NM government prosecutors resort to insulting out of state and well paid defense lawyers,” Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, wrote in a Twitter post Monday. “Especially when those out of state lawyers are evidently more familiar with NM laws. This case will be pled down after the damage done.”