The Santa Fe District Attorney who charged Alec Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter for accidentally shooting Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust has stepped down from the case after a series of setbacks, her office announced Wednesday.
The move comes after state Rep. Andrea Reeb announced she would be stepping down as special prosecutor in the case as well.
In their place, Carmack-Altwies appointed long-time New Mexico attorneys Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis to serve as special prosecutors in the case over the fatal October 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, her office said.
Actor Alec Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter for Hutchins’ death, though the gun enhancement charges for Baldwin were later dropped.
In a statement, Carmack-Altwies said she chose to stand down in order to focus on other cases in the state.
Her departure comes as Baldwin was slammed on social media for reposting rocker Peter Frampton’s gun control message.
Earlier in her investigation, she told Good Morning America there were ‘so many levels of failures’ on the Rust set prior to the October shooting that she would investigate as she considered bringing charges against the actor.
In addition to the involuntary manslaughter charge, she charged Baldwin with a harsh firearm enhancement offense, which could have landed him in prison for up to five years if he had been convicted.
But it wasn’t introduced into law until May 2022 – six months after Baldwin accidentally shot and killed Hutchins on the movie set, and attorneys for both Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed argued the enhancement was unconstitutional.
