New Mexico

Alec Baldwin's manslaughter trial set to begin in New Mexico

Published

2 years ago

July 8, 2024

Alec Baldwin's manslaughter trial set to begin in New Mexico

Nearly three years after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico film set of “Rust,” actor Alec Baldwin is set to stand trial.

Baldwin is charged with involuntary manslaughter for his role in the deadly incident that also injured the film’s director, Joel Souza.

Jury selection for Baldwin’s criminal trial begins Tuesday. It’s unclear if the actor will take the stand to testify.

Actor Alec Baldwin being processed after the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, N.M., on Oct. 21, 2022.Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office via AFP – Getty Images file

How did we get here?

Baldwin was rehearsing with a prop gun for a scene on Oct. 21, 2021, at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

Baldwin has maintained in multiple interviews that he did not pull the trigger and that the gun misfired a bullet. Baldwin told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he was taking direction from Hutchins and pulled the hammer back as far as he could without cocking it. But in 2022, results from FBI testing of the .45-caliber Colt prop revolver stated that the gun would not have gone off without the trigger having been pulled.

Just last month, Baldwin’s attorneys asked the judge to throw out the case, saying the firearm was badly damaged during forensic testing at the FBI lab, but the motion was denied.

The Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, N.M., on Oct. 23, 2021. — The set of “Rust” on the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, N.M., on Oct. 23, 2021.Jae C. Hong / AP file

Twists and turns

Baldwin was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter and a firearm enhancement charge. But the firearm enhancement charge was eventually dropped. It reduced his potential prison sentence by five years.

In March 2023, special prosecutor Andrea Reed stepped down after it was determined that she could not oversee the case because, as a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, she was disqualified under state law. But it didn’t stop there. Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies resigned from the case and appointed special prosecutors Kari T. Morrissey and Jason Lewis.

The following month, the charges against Baldwin were dismissed, with the prosecutors citing “new facts in the case.” “We therefore will be dismissing the involuntary manslaughter charges against Mr. Baldwin to conduct further investigation,” prosecutors said in a statement at the time. “This decision does not absolve Mr. Baldwin of criminal culpability and charges may be refiled.”

Image: Halyna Hutchins — Halyna Hutchins on Jan. 28, 2019, in Park City, Utah.Fred Hayes / Getty Images file

Over the course of the next several months, Morrissey and Lewis continued to examine evidence and interview witnesses. In October 2023, two sources told NBC News that Baldwin and the special prosecutors had discussed taking a plea deal but that it was rescinded, and that the prosecutors intended to bring Baldwin’s case before a grand jury. Three months later, Baldwin was indicted by a New Mexico grand jury on one count of involuntary manslaughter.

Baldwin’s attorneys Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro said in response: “We look forward to our day in court.”

Following the actor’s indictment in January, SAG-AFTRA, the union representing over 150,000 actors, issued a statement slamming the prosecutors’ decision to re-charge him.

The armorer sentenced to jail

At the time of Baldwin’s initial charges, the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for overseeing the weapons on set, was also charged with involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence. She was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in April and is currently serving an 18-month jail sentence.

Gutierrez-Reed was called upon to testify in Baldwin’s upcoming trial but she asserted her Fifth Amendment right not to answer any questions pertaining to Baldwin during her pretrial interview in May. In June, the judge ruled that Gutierrez-Reed would not have to testify.

Image: Hannah Gutierrez-Reed — Hannah Gutierrez-Reed watches her father, Thell Reed, leave the podium after he asked the judge not to impose prison time on his daughter on April 15.Eddie Moore / Pool via AP

Meanwhile, Dave Halls, the assistant director on set who pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation, is expected to take the stand. In interviews, Baldwin maintained that Halls declared the gun “cold,” meaning it had no live ammunition before it was handed to Baldwin.

But the prosecutors accused Baldwin of offering contradictory versions of events to law enforcement and in the media about whether he pulled the trigger and whether he was taking direction from Hutchins.

“In sum, every time Mr. Baldwin spoke, a different version of events emerged from his mouth,” said a court filing this spring from the special prosecutors.

Baldwin’s trial is expected to last about two weeks.

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New Mexico

New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

Published

2 hours ago

January 9, 2026

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New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

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New Mexico

What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

Published

14 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

The governor sets the agenda for the session, including for the budget, so here is what they are looking at so far.

SANTA FE, N.M. — As the regular session of the New Mexico Legislature is set to begin Jan. 20, lawmakers have already filed dozens of bills.

Bills include prohibiting book bans at public libraries and protections against AI, specifically the distribution of sensitive and “Deepfake” images

Juvenile justice reform is, again, a hot topic. House Bill 25 would allow access to someone’s juvenile records during a background check if they’re trying to buy a gun.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sets the agenda and puts forth the proposed budget lawmakers will address during the session. The governor is calling for lawmakers to take up an $11.3 billion budget for the 2027 fiscal year, which is up 4.6% from current spending levels.

Where would that money go? More than $600 million would go to universal free child care. Meanwhile, more than $200 million would go to health care and to protect against federal funding cuts.

There is also $65 million for statewide affordable housing initiatives and $19 million for public safety.

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New Mexico

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Paul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation
| Las Cruces Sun-News

After years of failure to land a “big fish” business for New Mexico’s economy (or effectively use the oil and gas revenues to grow the economy) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with the help of her Economic Development Secretary Rob Black have lured no fewer than three large data centers to New Mexico. These data centers are being built to serve the booming world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they will have profound impacts on New Mexico.

It is our view that having these data centers locate in New Mexico is better than having them locate elsewhere. While we have many differences of opinion with this governor, we are pleased to see her get serious about growing and diversifying New Mexico’s oil-dependent economy albeit quite late in her second term.

Sadly, the governor and legislature have chosen not to use broad based economic reforms like deregulation or tax cuts to improve New Mexico’s competitiveness. But, with the failure of her “preferred” economic development “wins” like Maxeon and Ebon solar both of which the governor announced a few years ago, but haven’t panned out, the focus on a more realistic strategy is welcome and long overdue.

Currently, three new data centers are slated to be built in New Mexico:

Oracle’s Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa with an investment of $165 billion.
Project Zenith slated to be built in Roswell amounts to a $11.7 billion investment.
New Era Energy & Digital, Inc. While the overall investment is unclear, the energy requirement is the largest of the three at 7 gigawatts (that’s seven times the power used by the City of San Francisco).

What is a data center? Basically, they are the real-world computing infrastructure that makes up the Internet. The rise of AI requires vast new computing power. It is critical that these facilities have uninterrupted electricity.

That electricity is going to be largely generated by traditional sources like natural gas and possibly nuclear. That contravenes New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act of 2019 which was adopted by this Gov. and many of the legislators still in office. Under the Act electrical power emissions are supposed to be eliminated in a few years.

With the amount of money being invested in these facilities and the simple fact that wind and solar and other “renewable” energy sources aren’t going to get the job done. In 2025 the Legislature passed and MLG signed HB 93 which allows for the creation of “microgrids” that won’t tax the grid and make our electricity more expensive, but the ETA will have to be amended or ignored to provide enough electricity for these data centers. There’s no other option.

New Mexicans have every right to wonder why powerful friends of the governor can set up their own natural gas microgrids while the rest of us face rising costs and decreased reliability from so-called “renewables.” Don’t get me wrong, having these data centers come to New Mexico is an economic boon.

But it comes tempered with massive subsidies including a 30-year property tax exemption and up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds. New Mexico is ideally suited as a destination for these data centers with its favorable climate and lack of natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. We shouldn’t be giving away such massive subsidies.

Welcoming the data center boom to New Mexico better than rejecting them and pushing them to locate in other states. There is no way to avoid CO2 emissions whether they happen here or somewhere else. But, there are questions about both the electricity demand and subsidies that must be addressed as New Mexico’s data center boom begins.

What will the Legislature, radical environmental groups, and future governors of our state do to hinder (or help) bring these data centers to our State? That is an open question that depends heavily on upcoming statewide elections. It is important that New Mexicans understand and appreciate these complicated issues.

Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility

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