Interruption: Attorney General announces charges against Alec Baldwin in death of Halina Hutchins

Actor Alec Baldwin will face charges in connection with the death of cinematographer Galina Hutchins in October 2021 on the set of Rust.

New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Oltvis and Special Prosecutor Andrea Reeb released a statement Thursday morning announcing their decision.

Baldwin will be charged with manslaughter, as will gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reid. Assistant director David Halls agreed to plead guilty to negligent use of a lethal weapon.

“If even one of these three people – Alec Baldwin, Hannah Gutierrez Reed or David Halls – had done their job, Halina Hutchins would be alive today. It’s that simple,” Reeb said in a statement. “The evidence clearly shows a criminal disregard for safety on the set of Rust. There’s no place in New Mexico for movie sets that don’t take our state’s commitment to gun safety and public safety seriously.”

Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed will each face two counts of manslaughter.

“The first charge can be called simply manslaughter,” Carmack-Oltwis said in a statement. “In order for this charge to be proven, there must be hidden negligence. Manslaughter is a fourth-degree felony under New Mexico law, punishable by up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. This charge also includes a charge of negligent handling of a firearm, which is likely to be consolidated under the law.

“Another charge is manslaughter while committing an unlawful act. This accusation requires proof that the death was due to more than mere negligence. It is also a fourth-degree felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

“This charge includes firearm enhancements or an additional mandatory penalty for using a firearm. The improvement of firearms makes the crime punishable by a mandatory five years in prison.”

Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was injured when Baldwin fired his gun during an October 21, 2021 incident that took place while filming the Western outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

According to the Albuquerque Journal, Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office officials believe that Gutierrez-Reid, who was in charge of all firearms on set, loaded the gun from a box that had live ammunition mixed in with fake ones. Halls later said the gun was “cold” before he handed Baldwin the .45 revolver that had been fired.

Last year, New Mexico state officials fined the film’s producers for careless handling of firearms on set.

Baldwin denied ever pulling the trigger.

“Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that shouldn’t even have been on the site. Someone is responsible for what happened and I can’t say who it is, but I know it’s not me,” he told ABC News.

“The trigger was not pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger,” he said.

“I cock the gun. I say, “Do you see this? Can you see what? Do you see that?” Baldwin said. “And then I release the trigger of the gun and the gun fires. I release the trigger of the gun, the gun fires.

“So you never pulled the trigger?” asked interviewer George Stephanopoulos.

“No, no, no, no, no. I would never point a gun at someone and pull the trigger on him,” Baldwin said.

According to Insider, a civil lawsuit filed last year by the Hutchins family alleged that the film violated several safety rules.

“Defendant Baldwin and the other defendants in this case failed to complete standard safety checks and did not follow basic safety rules when using weapons in the making of Rust, with fatal consequences,” the lawsuit states.

“Halina Hutchins deserved to live, and the defendants would have had the power to prevent her death if they had only considered it sacred their duty to protect the safety of every person on a set where firearms were present, instead of cutting corners in security procedures where human life was threatened. at stake, rushing to meet the schedule and ignoring numerous complaints about safety violations.

The lawsuit stated that basic safety rules were blatantly ignored.

The defendants “violated the most basic rules for the use of firearms in film production,” the lawsuit says.

The violation included “at all times handling the weapon as it was loaded, keeping the weapon unloaded except when necessary to load it for a scene, and always keeping the weapon pointed in a safe direction, among other things,” Insider said.

According to CNN, the lawsuit was settled in October.