Alec Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury on Friday, facing an involuntary manslaughter charge related to a fatal shooting during a rehearsal on a movie set in New Mexico in 2021. This development revives a previously dormant case against the actor.
Special prosecutors presented the case before a grand jury in Santa Fe this week, following months of examination of the gun used in the incident. After spending about a day and a half presenting their case, the prosecutors chose not to respond to questions.
In response to the charges, Baldwin’s defense attorneys, Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, expressed their intention to fight the accusations. “We look forward to our day in court,” they said in an email.
The grand jury proceedings have been conducted with secrecy, but witnesses seen at the courthouse included crew members, one of whom was present during the fatal shot, and another who had left the set a day earlier due to safety concerns.
During a rehearsal on the set of the Western movie “Rust,” Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer, pointed a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, resulting in her death and the injury of director Joel Souza. Baldwin claimed he pulled back the hammer, not the trigger, and the gun fired.
This legal development places Baldwin at risk of prison time, adding to the legal challenges for an actor with a longstanding career spanning nearly 40 years. Despite missteps by prosecutors in the past, legal experts suggest that convicting Baldwin will be an uphill battle, given his robust defense.
Recent decisions by judges to temporarily halt civil lawsuits seeking compensation from Baldwin and “Rust” producers indicate the potential impact of the criminal charges. Plaintiffs in these suits include members of the film crew.
Special prosecutors had initially dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in April, citing the possibility of gun modification. However, they reconsidered after a new analysis of the gun, conducted by experts in ballistics and forensic testing, concluded that the trigger had to be pulled or depressed.
The weapons supervisor on the movie set, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, has pleaded not guilty to charges related to involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering, with her trial scheduled for February. Another member of the crew, David Halls, the assistant director and safety coordinator, pleaded no contest to unsafe firearm handling.
The 2021 shooting led to various civil lawsuits, including wrongful death claims, alleging lax safety standards by the defendants. “Rust” Movie Productions paid a $100,000 fine to state workplace safety regulators for violations of industry protocols.
Despite the legal challenges, the filming of “Rust” resumed in Montana last year, with an agreement involving the cinematographer’s widower, Matthew Hutchins, as an executive producer.
