No Crime, No Gun: Alec Baldwin Wants ‘Rust’ Involuntary Manslaughter Charges Tossed Before Trial Starts

deadline.com:

As Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial looms, the Rust star-producer is again attempting to get a judge to dismiss the charges stemming from the fatal 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the indie film. “Because the State does not even allege that Baldwin was aware of any level of risk (let alone a substantial risk) that the gun was loaded with live ammunition, he is innocent as a matter of law,” says one of two filings that Baldwin’s defense team of NYC-based Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan lawyers and Albuquerque firm LeBlanc Law put in the Santa Fe County courts this week. “The State has not alleged facts that constitute a crime,” Baldwin’s attorneys declare in their 22-page motion to dismiss the indictment for failure to allege a criminal crime (read it here). “Even taking every allegation that the State has presented as true solely for the purposes of this motion, defendant Alec Baldwin could not have been aware of a substantial risk that his alleged actions could cause the death of Halyna Hutchins because he had no reason to believe that the firearm contained live ammunition.” A footnote in the filing may offer a strong hint of where the defense will lay their emphasis in the upcoming hearing and trial. “The State may assert that Baldwin acted with criminal negligence because he did not inspect the firearm after the designated safety professionals had already done so,” the lack of a crime motion states. “Putting aside the fact that the State already took the opposite position at Gutierrez-Reed’s trial and that, regardless, this argument doesn’t change the absence of Baldwin’s subjective awareness of a substantial risk to human life on the set, the State’s own