Alec Baldwin speaks onstage on the 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Gala at New York Hilton on December 06, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola / Getty Images)
New Mexico prosecutors have charged actor and producer Alec Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter for the 2021 on-set shooting through the filming of Rust that killed 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who loaded the pistol which killed Hutchins, had been each charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors mentioned in a press release to VICE News. Each cost carries a most doable sentence of 18 months in jail.
First assistant director Dave Halls, who handed Baldwin the gun, has pleaded responsible to “negligent use of a deadly weapon,” mentioned the workplace of Mary Carmack-Altwies, the district lawyer whose jurisdiction contains Santa Fe. A duplicate of the plea settlement was not instantly made obtainable however features a suspended sentence and 6 months’ probation, in response to Carmack-Altwies’ workplace.
“If any one of these three people—Alec Baldwin, Hannah Gutierrez Reed or David Halls—had done their job, Halyna Hutchins would be alive today,” particular prosecutor Andrea Reeb mentioned in a press release to Variety. “It’s that simple. The evidence clearly shows a pattern of criminal disregard for safety on the ‘Rust’ film set. In New Mexico, there is no room for film sets that don’t take our state’s commitment to gun safety and public safety seriously.”
Luke Nikas, an lawyer representing Baldwin, mentioned in a press release to VICE News that the choice to cost Baldwin “distorts Halyna Hutchins’ tragic death and represents a terrible miscarriage of justice.”
“Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun–or anywhere on the movie set,” Nikas mentioned. “He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win.”
Baldwin was producing and starring within the Western movie Rust when he shot Hutchins and director Joel Souza, who was injured and later launched from the hospital. Baldwin has repeatedly denied that he pulled the trigger and blamed the capturing on a malfunction with the gun, even after an FBI report released last summer concluded Baldwin needed to have pulled the set off for the gun to fireside.
Baldwin and Hutchins’ household announced in October that they had settled and filming on Rust would resume, with Hutchins’ widower added as an government producer. But Carmack-Altwies’ workplace requested greater than $600,000 from a state board final yr for potential prosecution of 4 folks together with “well-known movie actor Alec Baldwin,” and mentioned in October that the settlement would don’t have any influence on whether or not or not they might deliver costs in opposition to Baldwin or anybody else.
“There is a very clear process for pursuing justice in this case,” Carmack-Altwies mentioned within the assertion to VICE News Thursday. “We are committed to upholding the integrity of that process to ensure equal justice under the law.”
