Alec Baldwin indicted by grand jury for involuntary manslaughter over deadly ‘Rust’ shooting

A grand jury Friday indicted Alec Baldwin on an involuntary manslaughter charge in the deadly shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of “Rust,” months after prosecutors dropped their case against the actor over her death. Baldwin is charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter.

The indictment charges Baldwin, 65, with involuntary manslaughter (negligent use of a firearm) or, in the alternative, involuntary manslaughter (without due caution or circumspection), both fourth-degree felonies.
In response to Friday’s indictment, Baldwin’s attorneys, Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, said, “We look forward to our day in court.”

Mr Baldwin, 65, was practicing firing a Colt .45 pistol before filming a scene for Rust, an upcoming Western film shot near Santa Fe, in October 2021.

But the gun went off, fatally striking 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

The actor has maintained he did not pull the trigger and only drew back the hammer of the pistol.
He has also argued he is not at fault for Ms Hutchins’ death because he did not know the weapon contained live rounds and because no live ammunition was supposed to be on set.

But special prosecutors in New Mexico said in October that “additional facts” had come to light after they commissioned forensic experts to reconstruct the weapon, which had been broken during FBI testing.
They said doing so revealed that the incident could only have taken place if the trigger had been 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,” their report concluded.

The new evidence was brought to a grand jury of 12 beginning on Thursday, with the indictment issued on Friday. If convicted, Mr Baldwin faces up to 18 months in prison.

By Agencies