New Mexico prosecutors overseeing criminal cases in the deadly "Rust" shooting have received a new firearms report that appears to cast doubt on actor Alec Baldwin's account of the tragedy. Baldwin has long maintained he did not pull the trigger of his prop Colt .45 revolver, firing a bullet that accidentally killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a movie rehearsal nearly three years ago. Baldwin has said he pulled, then released, the gun's hammer because Hutchins wanted to get a close-up camera angle of the gun's loaded barrel.
Prosecutors initially filed two counts of involuntary manslaughter against Baldwin as well as the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed.
Special prosecutors Kari T. Morrissey and Jason J. Lewis took over the case in late March after missteps by previous prosecutors. They quickly dismissed criminal charges against Baldwin.
Morrissey and Lewis said they could not move forward with Baldwin's prosecution because "new facts were revealed that demand further investigation and forensic analysis."
Sources have said prosecutors were told the gun had been modified before it was delivered to the "Rust" set near Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Morrissey and Lewis in April left open the option of refiling charges against Baldwin, saying their decision to withdraw the charges did not "absolve Mr. Baldwin of criminal culpability."
After special prosecutors dropped the charges, Baldwin reportedly traveled to Montana to resume the filming of "Rust." Production of the movie wrapped up in mid-May.
A respected firearms expert was brought in by prosecutors to determine whether the Italian-made Pietta pistol, a replica of a vintage 1873 model, was functional or faulty, which could have contributed to the deadly accident on set.
The firearms expert, Lucien C. Haag, recently completed his report.
"Although Alec Baldwin repeatedly denies pulling the trigger, given the tests, findings and observations reported here, the trigger had to be pulled or depressed sufficiently to release the fully cocked or retracted hammer of the evidence revolver," Haag wrote in his Aug. 3 report submitted to Morrissey and Lewis and viewed by The Times.
It's unclear whether prosecutors will use the report's findings to bring new charges in the Oct. 21, 2021, shooting that killed Hutchins and injured the film's director, Joel Souza, who has since recovered.
Morrissey has previously said prosecutors would make a determination about Baldwin by mid-August.
The gun's functionality has long been in dispute.
The FBI, in a separate report last year, concluded the gun's trigger needed to have been pulled for the gun to fire. But FBI analysts also acknowledged they damaged the gun during testing at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, to see whether the gun would misfire.
The FBI report said that during testing, analysts could not fire the gun when the hammer was cocked, unless they pulled the trigger. However, the report did note that when the hammer was in the "rest" position, the gun could fire "without a pull of the trigger when the hammer was struck directly" by another object.
In court documents, Baldwin's attorneys have pointed to the broken components, suggesting the gun was not reliable.
In his 30-page report, Haag said he was asked to assess the operation and condition of the weapon at the time of the incident. He described taking possession of the prop gun from the Santa Fe County sheriff's office, where it has been stored in evidence. Haag said he needed to rebuild the weapon to complete his analysis.