‘Rust’: Alec Baldwin pleads not guilty to manslaughter charge
Actor Alec Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in the Rust shooting and has avoided a formal arrangement in court.
Baldwin is facing 18 months in prison if he is found guilty of negligently shooting Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer of the Western movie Rust, in October 2021. Hutchins was killed when Baldwin’s prop gun was allegedly fired during preparation for a scene, with the film’s director, Joel Souza, also injured. The set’s armourer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, is also facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering.
Although Baldwin has maintained he did not pull the trigger and was not trained to point a gun and fire it, a dispute over the functionality of the Colt .45 led to the dismissal of the original charges in April 2023, as the prosecution was not ready for a preliminary hearing. In October last year, they maintained he had “criminal culpability” for the death of Hutchins.
On January 19th this year, Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury in New Mexico, a year after prosecutors filed their charges that were later dropped. He was then due to appear for a video arrangement on Google Meet on February 1st but has now waived the appearance.
The terms also stop him from soliciting witnesses for a behind-the-scenes documentary about making the film.
In a statement released last month, SAG-AFTRA said they sympathise with Baldwin, asserting that it was not his job to be a firearms or weapons expert. “Performers train to perform, and they are not required or expected to be experts on guns or experienced in their use,” the union said in a statement.
They continued later: “The guidelines require an experienced, qualified armourer to be put in charge of all handling, use, and safekeeping of firearms on set. These duties include ‘inspecting the firearm and barrel before and after every firing sequence,’ and ‘checking all firearms before each use’.”
This is a developing story.
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