Dan Abrams: Prosecutors ‘Threw the Book at Alec Baldwin’

ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams said Thursday during breaking news report that the prosecutors in New Mexico “threw the book” at actor Alec Baldwin by charging him with involuntary manslaughter for the fatal 2021 shooting on set for the film, “Rust.”

Abrams said, “The prosecutors just threw the book at Alec Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez Reed. They threw everything they possibly could at both of them. In particular, when you talk about these involuntary manslaughter charges, typically in the state of New Mexico, the maximum punishment for involuntary manslaughter is up to 18 months. Well, they have added an enhancement on one of the charges, a firearm enhancement, which adds a potential mandatory penalty because a firearm was involved. The firearm enhancement makes the crime punishable by a mandatory five years. This was discretionary, meaning prosecutors had to decide what they wanted to do here, and they have gone all out in determining that Alec Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez Reed are criminally responsible.”

He added, “I’ll give you one more quote from them. They say ‘The evidence shows a pattern of disregard for safety on the Rust film set. In New Mexico, there’s no room for sets that don’t take our gun safety and public safety seriously.’ Let me add one other point here, which is the next step in this proceeding will be a preliminary hearing, which will be a kind of mini-trial where a judge will determine, is there enough evidence to go to trial.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN