AP Santa Fe (USA)

Santa Fe (USA)

Updated Friday, January 19, 2024-20:58

  • Cinema Alec Baldwin could be accused of involuntary manslaughter again for the 'Rust' case

A grand jury on Friday indicted

Alec Baldwin

on charges of

involuntary manslaughter

in a fatal shooting that occurred in 2021 during a rehearsal on a film set in New Mexico, reopening the case against the actor.

Special prosecutors presented the case to a grand jury in Santa Fe this week, months after receiving a new analysis of the gun that was used.

Baldwin's legal team did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the indictment, and special prosecutors declined to answer questions after spending about a day and a half presenting their case to the grand jury.

Although the process is shrouded in secrecy,

two of the witnesses seen in court were members of the crew

: one who was present when the fatal shot was fired and another who had left the shoot the day before for safety reasons.

Baldwin, lead actor and co-producer of the Western film 'Rust,' was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on the set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went off. , killing her and injuring director Joel Souza.

Baldwin has said that he pulled back on the hammer, but not the trigger, and the gun discharged.

Judges recently agreed

to put on hold several civil lawsuits

seeking damages from Baldwin and the producers of 'Rust' after prosecutors said they would bring charges to a grand jury.

The plaintiffs include members of the filming crew.

In April,

special prosecutors dismissed the manslaughter charge against Baldwin,

saying they had been informed that the gun may have been modified before the shooting and malfunctioned.

They later changed their minds and began to consider filing charges against Baldwin again after receiving a new analysis of the gun.

The

analysis by ballistics and forensic testing experts

was based on spare parts to reassemble the gun fired by Baldwin, after parts of the gun broke during tests carried out by the FBI.

The report examined the gun and the marks he left on a spent cartridge to conclude that the trigger must have been pulled or depressed.

The analysis led by Lucien Haag of Arizona Forensic Scientific Services stated that although Baldwin repeatedly denied pulling the trigger, "in view of the evidence, results and observations set forth herein, the trigger had to be pulled or depressed enough to release the fully cocked or retracted hammer from the test revolver."

The set's weapons supervisor, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, has 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' probation.

He agreed to cooperate in the investigation of the shooting.

An earlier FBI report on the agency's analysis of the gun found that, as is typical for firearms of that design, it

could be fired without pulling the trigger if force was applied to the decocking hammer,

such as by dropping the weapon.

The only way to get it to fire was to hit the gun with a mallet while the hammer was down and resting on the cartridge, or to pull the trigger while it was fully cocked.

The weapon ended up breaking during testing.

The 2021 shooting led to a series of civil lawsuits, including wrongful death lawsuits filed by members of Hutchins' family, centered on accusations that the defendants were lax about safety standards.

Baldwin and other defendants have disputed those allegations.

Rust Movie Productions has paid a $100,000 fine to state workplace safety regulators after a scathing account of failures to violate industry-standard protocols, including testimony that directors of production took limited or no action to address two misfires on the set before the fatal shooting.

Filming on 'Rust' resumed last year in Montana, under an agreement with the director of photography's widower, Matthew Hutchins, that made him executive producer.