For a while, many believed that actor Alec Baldwin would skate on a manslaughter charge resulting from the fatal shooting on the set of “Rust,” which took the life of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured the movie’s director.
Last week, a judge upheld the manslaughter charge, setting the stage for Baldwin to face a trial beginning in July.
That came in the wake of Baldwin filing a motion in March to have the case dismissed. His lawyers, in early May, filed two additional motions.
According to PEOPLE, the actor’s lawyers are still pushing to have the charges dismissed before the trial kicks off, and legal experts, such as Emily D. Baker, have weighed in on the possibilities of what happens next.
Baker, a lawyer and former Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney, believes that the chances of Baldwin having the charges thrown out at this point are not likely.
PEOPLE noted:
Even before Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer issued her ruling on the 66-year-old’s March 14 motion to dismiss the case against him — in which the actor’s lawyers alleged that special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey gave prejudicial instructions to the grand jury that ultimately indicted the actor in January — Baldwin’s attorneys filed two additional motions on May 6.
Baker explained what Baldwin’s lawyers are focusing on in their attempts to have the case thrown out completely.
She said his attorneys “attacked the indictment first. Now they’re attacking the other ways to get this dismissed because it’s better for their client to get this dismissed than to go to trial.”
“It’s incredibly unlikely that that will happen,” Baker added. “Judges are hesitant to turn over indictments and these motions both seek in different legal ways to throw out the indictment.”
Baldwin’s lawyers pointed out in their “destruction of evidence” argument that when the FBI ran tests on the gun that was used in the fatal shooting of Hutchins, the agency destroyed it.
Referencing the trial of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March, Baker doesn’t believe the judge in Baldwin’s case will toss the charges.
“I don’t think the case will be dismissed based on that because what we heard at Hannah’s trial was that they were able to do a substantial amount of test firing of the weapon before the destructive testing, and so there’s quite a lot of information on the record,” Baker added.
Baker added that at the very least, Baldwin’s sizeable legal defense team will create a mountain of paperwork for the much-smaller team of prosecutors.
It’ll be interesting to see if he’s ultimately charged, and, if so, if he’ll be sentenced. The involuntary manslaughter charge comes with a maximum 18 month sentence.
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Author: Ryan Ledendecker
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