Special prosecutors for the New Mexico district attorney’s office announced on Tuesday that they plan to present new charges to a grand jury against actor Alec Baldwin for the shooting of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021, months after previous involuntary manslaughter charges were dropped, as first reported by NBC News.
“After extensive investigation over the past several months, additional facts have come to light that we believe show Mr. Baldwin has criminal culpability in the death of Halyna Hutchins and the shooting of Joel Souza,” prosecutors Kari Morrisey and Jason Lewis said in a statement. “We believe the appropriate course of action is to permit a panel of New Mexico citizens to determine from here whether Mr. Baldwin should be held over for criminal trial.”
“It is unfortunate that a terrible tragedy has been turned into this misguided prosecution,” Baldwin’s attorney Luke Nikas said in his own statement. “We will answer any charges in court.”
Hutchins was killed when a Colt .45 revolver being held by Baldwin during rehearsal fired a live round, hitting the cinematographer and also injuring director Joel Souza. Baldwin has denied pulling the trigger on the gun.
Baldwin was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter this past January, but those charges were dropped in April just before preliminary hearings after the case’s initial special prosecutor, Andrea Reeb, stepped down following an attempt to press firearm enhancement charges against Baldwin that were not in effect when the shooting occurred. Defense attorneys for Baldwin also claimed that Reeb could not prosecute the case as she was also a state legislator, therefore violating New Mexico state constitution laws.
When the involuntary manslaughter charges were dropped by Morrissey and Lewis in April, they said in a statement that their decision to do so “does not absolve Mr. Baldwin of criminal culpability and charges may be refiled” pending further investigation and forensic analysis of the firearm.
In August, a new forensic report on the “Rust” firearm determined that the gun could not have fired without someone pulling the trigger, confirming previous FBI forensic analysis.
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