SANTA FE, New Mexico (AP). — A grand jury indicted actor Alec Baldwin on Friday on one count of involuntary manslaughter for a 2021 fatal shooting that occurred during a rehearsal on a set in New Mexico.
Special prosecutors presented the case to a grand jury in Santa Fe this week, months after receiving new analysis of the gun involved in the shooting. They refused to answer questions after spending about a day and a half making their case to the jury.
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Baldwin’s defense attorneys indicated they will fight the charges.
“We look forward to justice being served,” Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, Baldwin’s defense attorneys, said in an email.
While the process is shrouded in secrecy, two of the witnesses presented in court included members of the film crew, one who was present when the gun was fired and another who had left the set the day before due to safety concerns.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of the western film “Rust,” was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on a set outside Santa Fe in October 2021, when the gun went off. killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer, but did not pull the trigger, and the gun discharged.
The charges have once again put Baldwin in legal trouble and have once again opened up the possibility that the actor could be sentenced to prison. Baldwin has been a major television and film star for nearly 40 years, with roles in the first box office hit “The Hunt for Red October,” “The Departed” by Martin Scorsese and the comedy “30 Rock.”
Judges recently agreed to stay several civil lawsuits seeking compensation from Baldwin and the producers of “Rust” after prosecutors said they would present charges to the jury. Among the plaintiffs in the civil cases are members of the film crew.
Special prosecutors dismissed a manslaughter charge against Baldwin in April, saying they were informed that the gun may have been modified before the shooting and was malfunctioning. They later changed their minds and began weighing whether to refile charges against Baldwin after receiving a new analysis of the gun.
The review by ballistics and forensic testing experts relied on replacement parts to recreate the gun fired by Baldwin, after parts of the original gun broke off during testing by the FBI. The report examined the gun and the marks he left on a spent cartridge to conclude that the trigger had to have been pulled or depressed.
The analysis led by Lucien Haag of Forensic Science Services in Arizona noted that, although Baldwin repeatedly denied pulling the trigger, “given the evidence, findings and observations reported here, the trigger had to be pulled or depressed enough to to release the fully cocked or retracted firing pin of the evidence revolver.”
The weapons supervisor on the film set, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the case. Her trial is scheduled to begin in February.
“Rust” deputy director and security coordinator David Halls pleaded not guilty to unsafe handling of a firearm last March and received a suspended sentence of six months of probation. He agreed to cooperate in the investigation of the shooting.
An earlier FBI report on its analysis of the weapon found that, as is common with firearms of that design, it could be fired without pulling the trigger if force was applied to the firing pin without cocking, such as by dropping the weapon.
The 2021 shooting led to a series of civil lawsuits, including wrongful death lawsuits filed by members of Hutchins’ family, centered on allegations that the suspects were lax with safety standards. Baldwin and other defendants have disputed these allegations.
Rust Movie Productions paid a $100,000 fine to state workplace safety regulators after reported failures to comply with industry-standard protocols, including allegations that production managers took limited or no action to address two set failures before the fatal shooting.
Filming on “Rust” resumed last year in Montana, under an agreement with the cinematographer’s widower, Matthew Hutchins, which made him executive producer of the film.
2024-01-20 01:59:40
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