Emails show the prosecutor in the 'Rust' shooting privately admitted it was '100 percent' wrong to upgrade charges against Alec Baldwin

• A New Mexico prosecutor admitted in a private email it was wrong to hit Alec Baldwin with a weapons charge in the "Rust" shooting.
• Prosecutors have since dropped a gun enhancement charge filed against Baldwin in the shooting.

A New Mexico prosecutor admitted that it was "100 percent" wrong to hit Alec Baldwin with a gun enhancement charge that carried a five-year potential prison sentence in the "Rust" movie set shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, emails show.

Baldwin's defense attorneys on Tuesday withdrew their motion challenging the firearm enhancement as "unconstitutional" after it was officially dropped by New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies.

The court filing contains emails from the special prosecutor appointed by the DA to the case, Andrea Reeb.

In a February 12 email to Baldwin's lawyers, Reeb wrote: "We are a tad confused on your motion on the firearm enhancement," according to the court documents.

Roughly 20 minutes later, Reeb sent over another email saying: "And also…let me look at the specific numbers and sections and make sure we have it correct," the court papers show.

About an hour-and-a-half after that Reeb sent an additional email explaining that she had taken the morning "to look at your firearm enhancement issue."

"I 100 percent agree with your assessment on the issue," Reeb wrote in the email, according to the court documents. "I will have our documents drafted to amend the criminal information to take off the firearm enhancement and file something withdrawing the firearm enhancement. We missed it by 3 months."

Reeb added, "So, hopefully, once these documents are filed, you will withdraw those motions as they are moot."

Baldwin's defense team filed its motion on February 10 arguing that prosecutors made an "unconstitutional and elementary legal error" with the application of the gun enhancement because the statue did not exist at the time of the October 2021 shooting.

A spokesperson for the DA's office downplayed that motion in a statement to Insider on the day it was filed.

"Another day, another motion from Alec Baldwin and his attorneys in an attempt to distract from the gross negligence and complete disregard for safety on the 'Rust' film set that led to Halyna Hutchins' death," spokesperson Heather Brewer said as she explained that the DA's office would review the motion.

Brewer went on to say that the DA and the special prosecutor's "focus will always remain on ensuring that justice is served and that everyone — even celebrities with fancy attorneys — is held accountable under the law."

The DA's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider on Wednesday.

Baldwin scored a legal win after prosecutors dropped the gun enhancement charge filed against him in connection to the accidental shooting of 42-year-old Hutchins on the Santa Fe, New Mexico film set.

He was charged earlier this month with two counts of involuntary manslaughter — one of which carried the more serious firearm enhancement.

Baldwin was facing a maximum sentence of 6-and-a-half years in prison, but now due to the removal of the enhancement charge, the TV star faces a maximum of 18 months behind bars if convicted.

"Members of the prosecution team had amplified the error in the Original Information by repeatedly giving interviews on national television in which they erroneously claimed that the enhancement was not only applicable to Mr. Baldwin, but mandatory, and that Mr. Baldwin was facing an additional five years in prison as a result," Baldwin's lawyers wrote in the Tuesday court documents.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer in charge of weapons on the "Rust" set, faced with the same charges as Baldwin; the firearm enhancement was also dropped for her.