[ad_1]
Alec Baldwin pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 accidental fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a New Mexico film set.
A grand jury indicted Baldwin, 65, on a single charge on Jan. 19.
Baldwin was holding a prop gun on the set of the movie “Rust” at Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe on Oct. 21 when the gun fired a live bullet, killing Hutchins, 42.
Director Joel Souza was injured.
Baldwin waived the charge and pleaded not guilty, his attorney said.
Baldwin has maintained that he did not pull the trigger before firing the gun. He also said Deputy Chief Dave Halls had stated the gun was “cold,” with no live ammunition.
Halls pleaded no contest in March to misdemeanor negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation.
The production’s gunsmith, Hannah Gutiérrez-Reed, was charged last year with involuntary manslaughter and her trial will begin on February 21. She pleaded not guilty.
At the scene, Baldwin was to take out his gun, raise it “and start cocking the gun, cut,” he said in an interview with ABC News in 2021.
Baldwin then said he was following Hutchins’ instructions and pulled the hammer back as far as he could without cocking it.
Baldwin’s attorneys, Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, have said they are looking forward to his day in court.
Baldwin had been charged with manslaughter in the on-set shooting, but that case was dropped in April. Prosecutors said at the time that new facts in the case required additional investigation and forensic analysis.