Jan 31 (Reuters) – Actor Alec Baldwin and set designer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed were arrested on Tuesday for a 2021 crash in New Mexico, court documents show. Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins shot dead on set of western film ‘Rusty’ and charged with manslaughter
District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies is filing the charges after months of speculation about whether she had evidence that Baldwin acted when he shot Hutchins with a revolver during rehearsal criminal disregard for safety.
Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed were each charged with two counts of manslaughter. The most serious charge – which carries a possible five-year prison sentence – would require prosecutors to convince jurors that Baldwin was not only negligent but reckless in using the firearm.
A statement of probable cause accompanying the charges lists Baldwin as an actor and producer of the film and says: “On the day of the shooting alone, the evidence suggests that at least a dozen instances of reckless conduct or negligence occurred within a short period of time before lunch and the time of the shooting, And that doesn’t include Baldwin’s reckless handling of guns.”
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The “30 Rock” actor has denied responsibility for the shooting, saying he cocked the revolver but never pulled it, and it was the job of Gutierrez-Reed and other weapons experts to make sure it was unloaded.
Legal experts said it would be difficult for prosecutors to convince jurors that Baldwin was criminally responsible.
Gutierrez-Reed has said she checked the bullets loaded into the guns for fakes before handing them over to first assistant director Dave Halls. Halls handed it to Baldwin, telling him it was a “cold gun,” meaning it contained no explosives, according to police.
Halls has signed a plea agreement to the misdemeanor charges and is expected to cooperate with prosecutors.
Dec. 13 Halls testified to the New Mexico Bureau of Worker Safety that Gutierrez-Reed gave the gun to Baldwin and that he never declared the Pietta replica Colt .45 a “cold gun.”
Industry-wide gun safety guidelines instruct actors to assume guns are loaded with blanks. The use of live ammunition is strictly prohibited on site.
Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, NM; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Rosalba O’Brien
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