Special prosecutors brought the case before a grand jury in
Santa Fe this week, months after receiving a new analysis of the gun that was
used. They declined to answer questions after spending about a day and a half
presenting their case to the grand jury.
Defense attorneys for Baldwin indicated they’ll fight the
charge.
“We look forward to our day in court,” said Luke Nikas and
Alex Spiro, defense attorneys for Baldwin, in an email.
While the proceeding is shrouded in secrecy, two of the
witnesses seen at the courthouse included crew members — one who was present
when the fatal shot was fired and another who had walked off the set the day
before due to safety concerns.
Baldwin, the lead actor and a co-producer on the Western
movie “Rust,” was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a
rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went
off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer, but not the
trigger, and the gun fired.
The charge has again put Baldwin in legal trouble and
created the possibility of prison time for an actor who has been a TV and movie
mainstay for nearly 40 years, with roles in the early blockbuster “The Hunt for
Red October,” Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” and the sitcom “30 Rock.”
The Indictment provides prosecutors with two alternative
standards for pursuing an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in
the death of Hutchins. One would be based on negligent use of a firearm, and
the other alleges felony misconduct “with the total disregard or indifference
for the safety of others.”
Judges recently agreed to put on hold several civil lawsuits
seeking compensation from Baldwin and producers of “Rust” after prosecutors
said they would present their case to a grand jury. Plaintiffs in those suits
include members of the film crew.
Los Angeles-based attorney Gloria Allred, who is
representing the slain cinematographer’s parents and younger sister in a civil
case, said Friday that her clients have been seeking the truth about what
happened the day Hutchins was killed and will be looking forward to Baldwin’s
trial.
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of
the West Coast Trial Lawyers firm in Los Angeles, pointed to previous missteps
by prosecutors, saying they will need to do more than present ballistics
evidence to make a case that Baldwin had a broader responsibility and legal
duty when it came to handling the gun on the set.
Special prosecutors dismissed an involuntary manslaughter
charge against Baldwin in April, saying they were informed the gun might have
been modified before the shooting and malfunctioned. They later pivoted and
began weighing whether to refile a charge against Baldwin after receiving a new
analysis of the gun.
The analysis from experts in ballistics and forensic testing
relied on replacement parts to reassemble the gun fired by Baldwin, after parts
of the pistol were broken during testing by the FBI. The report examined the
gun and markings it left on a spent cartridge to conclude that the trigger had
to have been pulled or depressed.
The analysis led by Lucien Haag of Forensic Science Services
in Arizona stated that although Baldwin repeatedly denied 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.”
The weapons supervisor on the movie set, Hannah
Gutierrez-Reed, has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and evidence
tampering in the case. Her trial is scheduled to begin in February.
“Rust” assistant director and safety coordinator David Halls
pleaded no contest to unsafe handling of a firearm last March and received a
suspended sentence of six months of 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 common with firearms of that design, it could go off without
pulling the trigger if force was applied to an uncocked hammer, such as by
dropping the weapon.
The only way the testers could get it to fire was by
striking the gun with a mallet while the hammer was down and resting on the
cartridge, or by pulling the trigger while it was fully cocked. The gun
eventually broke during testing.
The 2021 shooting resulted in a series of civil lawsuits,
including wrongful death claims filed by members of Hutchins’ family, centered
on accusations that the defendants were lax with safety standards. Baldwin and
other defendants have disputed those allegations.
The Rust Movie Productions company has paid a $100,000 fine
to state workplace safety regulators after a scathing narrative of failures in
violation of standard industry protocols, including testimony that production
managers took limited or no action to address two misfires on set before the
fatal shooting.
The filming of “Rust” resumed last year in Montana, under an agreement with the cinematographer’s widower, Matthew Hutchins, that made him an executive producer. -AP
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