On Wednesday, actor Alec Baldwin pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges in the 2021 death of Ukrainian-born filmmaker Galina Hutchins on the set of the western Rust, Reuters reports, UNN writes.
Details
Court documents showed that Baldwin, 65, responded to the charges after a grand jury indicted the actor on January 19, reopening a criminal case that had been dismissed several months earlier.
He was allowed to remain free without bail in accordance with a waiver of charges filed with the First District Court of Santa Fe, the newspaper said.
Baldwin denies responsibility for Hutchins' death, insisting that he was told that the gun was "blank," meaning it had only blank cartridges, and that the weapon fired without him pulling the trigger.
The initial charges were dropped due to questions about whether the reproduction Colt 45 revolver Baldwin was practicing with could have been modified to allow the gun to fire on its own.
Prosecutors said that was seeking a grand jury indictment after an independent forensic examination showed that the gun would not fire unless the trigger was pulled.
Baldwin's statement comes days after Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey said in a court document that photographs and other evidence show that the live round was brought to the set by Hannah Gutierrez, who worked with weapons in the film.
According to courtroom testimony and police reports, the gun was in Gutierrez's hands before being taken by the film's assistant director, David Halls, who told Baldwin that the gun was "blank.
Gutierrez will stand trial on February 21 on separate charges of involuntary manslaughter. Halls entered into a plea agreement and received a six-month suspended sentence on a charge of reckless use of a deadly weapon.
But the question of how Baldwin's gun was loaded with live ammunition, which is strictly prohibited on film sets, remains at the center of the cases against Gutierrez and Baldwin, who is also the film's producer.
Prosecutors said they had photos of live ammunition on the set as early as October 10, 2021, 11 days before Hutchins was killed.
Recall
In October 2021, American actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot a 42-year-old woman during the filming of the movie Rust in New Mexico in the United States, killing her. The deceased was a cameraman, Galina Hutchins. She was of Ukrainian descent.