(RightWing.org) – District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies defeated her opponent in the recent New Mexico Democratic primaries. Carmack-Altwies assumed office in January 2021 and is best known for her decision to prosecute Hollywood film actor Alec Baldwin for his alleged involvement in a fatal accident on a movie set in October 2021.
District One residents delivered a sound victory to the incumbent law enforcement official over her former boss and head of New Mexico’s First Judicial District Attorney’s Office, Marco Serna. She won by a margin of 16,360 to 10,146 votes, or 61.7% to 38.3%, on June 4.
Carmack-Altwies’ wife and stepfather served as law enforcement officers, and her campaign priorities focused on taking an uncompromising approach to her job as the First Judicial District’s top law enforcement official. She vowed to target the worst offenders in the community and ensure violent criminals serve prison time. She also said she would prioritize keeping drunk drivers off the road and tackling gun crimes.
As a Democrat, Carmack-Altwies also promised to “work with and protect” the community’s immigrant families. She also said she would focus on sentencing practices offering alternatives to incarceration for so-called “low-level offenses,” claiming that sending those criminals to prison “has simply not worked.”
In January 2023, Carmack-Altwies announced her decision to charge Baldwin and set armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed with involuntary manslaughter for their role in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on October 21, 2021. Baldwin discharged a live bullet from a prop gun on the set of “Rust,” killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Assistant film director David Hall pleaded no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon and received a six-month sentence. The judge later suspended it after the 63-year-old director agreed to testify against Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed. A jury convicted Gutierrez-Reed in March, and the judge overseeing her trial sentenced her to 18 months in prison, the maximum time the jurist could impose.
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