(Los Angeles) American actor Alec Baldwin, who was charged with involuntary manslaughter over a fatal shooting on the set of the film Rust in 2021, requested on Wednesday that his trial in a New Mexico court be held on short notice, according to court documents.
Published at 9:45 p.m.
On October 21, 2021, the filming of the western “Rust” in New Mexico turned into drama when Alec Baldwin aimed a weapon that was supposed to only contain blank bullets, but a very real projectile killed the camerawoman Halyna Hutchins and the director Joel Souza injured.
This rare news shocked Hollywood and provoked calls for a ban on firearms on sets.
The 65-year-old actor, who faces 18 months in prison if convicted, protested his innocence from the start. He always maintained that he had been assured that his weapon was harmless and also denied having pulled the trigger.
An initial charge of manslaughter led to the charges being dropped in April before a new charge was announced by the responsible public prosecutor's office on Friday.
According to legal documents accessed by AFP, the court ordered Alec Baldwin to appear virtually or in person to answer the charges before February 1.
His defense responded on Wednesday with a motion in which the actor called for a speedy, legally compliant trial.
His lawyers, Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, argued that the motion was aimed at “mitigating public defamation and suspicion and avoiding the dangers to proving one's innocence that often arise from a long delay in prosecution.”
The gunsmith from the film Rust, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is also charged with manslaughter in the case and her trial is scheduled to begin on February 21st.
During the initial investigation, police concluded that she was the one who put the ammunition in the gun used by Alec Baldwin, and not a dummy.
The investigation never clarified how live ammunition ended up on the set, where only blank cartridges are allowed.