Irish American actor Alec Baldwin has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of "Rust" in October 2021.
An indictment was filed in the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe on Friday, January 19 against Alexander (Alec) Rae Baldwin regarding the "Rust" movie set shooting.
The indictment charged Baldwin with two different counts of involuntary manslaughter, but he can only be convicted of one, the New York Times reports.
The more serious charge accuses Baldwin of “total disregard or indifference for the safety of others,” while the other accuses him of the negligent use of a firearm. Both are felony counts.
Baldwin was previously charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with Hutchins' death, but the charges were dropped two weeks before a criminal trial was due to begin in April 2023.
However, a New Mexico grand jury decided on Friday to indict Baldwin for involuntary manslaughter after hearing evidence from special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis.
If convicted, Baldwin faces up to 18 months in jail. A trial date has not yet been set.
“We look forward to our day in court,” Baldwin’s lawyers Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, said in a statement on Friday.
Halyna Hutchins died in October 2021 after a prop gun that Baldwin was holding fired a live round on the set of the western action movie "Rust," which was being filmed in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Baldwin had been practicing firing a Colt .45 pistol before filming a scene for the movie when the gun went off, fatally wounding the 42-year-old cinematographer and injuring director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has maintained that he never pulled the trigger and only drew back the hammer of the pistol.
However, special prosecutors Morrissey and Lewis told a New Mexico grand jury on Thursday that "additional facts" had come to light during a forensic investigation, indicating that the trigger was pulled.
"Although Alec Baldwin repeatedly denies pulling the trigger, given the tests, findings and observations reported here, the trigger had to be pulled or depressed sufficiently to release the fully cocked or retracted hammer of the evidence revolver," Morrissey and Lewis said in evidence presented to the grand jury on Thursday.
Baldwin has additionally maintained that he is not at fault for Hutchins' death because he did not know the weapon was loaded with live ammunition, adding that no live rounds were supposed to be on set.
In an interview with ABC in December 2021, Baldwin claimed the gun had been declared "cold", meaning it contained no live ammunition, by assistant director Dave Halls.
Halls pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge for negligent use of a deadly weapon in March last year and was sentenced to six months unsupervised probation.
"I feel that someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me," Baldwin told ABC in December 2021.
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