Alec Baldwin is set to stand trial on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 killing of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins after a New Mexico judge denied the actor’s bid to dismiss the case Friday.
Baldwin, who has pleaded not guilty, is set to go to trial in July.
“We look forward to our day in court,” Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, attorneys for Alec Baldwin, said in a statement Friday.
Judge Mary Marlowe’s decision comes after she heard oral arguments from Baldwin lawyers and prosecutors in a Santa Fe court on May 17.
During that hearing, special prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey said, referring to Baldwin, that “the actor has responsibility for the firearms once it is in their hands.”
But Baldwin’s attorneys argued that the case should be tossed because Morrissey failed to present critical evidence during a grand jury proceeding in January that resulted in Baldwin’s indictment on the manslaughter charge.
The charge of involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum prison sentence of 18 months upon conviction.
Hutchins was killed Oct. 21, 2021, as Baldwin rehearsed a scene on the “Rust” set.
Baldwin has said that Hutchins told him to aim the gun at her while he practiced a cross-draw maneuver. As he made that move, he has said, the gun discharged a live round of ammunition, fatally striking Hutchins and injuring the film’s director, Joel Souza.
Baldwin has maintained in interviews that he did not pull the trigger and that the gun malfunctioned.
Prosecutors in January 2023 initially charged Baldwin and the film’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed with involuntary manslaughter.
Two months after that, a special prosecutor assigned to the case, Andrea Reeb, resigned.
A month later, special prosecutors who replaced Reeb cited “new facts in the case” when they announced that they would temporarily dismiss the manslaughter charge against Baldwin.
Baldwin afterward flew from New York to Montana, where he filmed the remaining scenes of the film as part of a settlement of a wrongful death claim from Hutchins’ family.
In January, the grand jury indicted Baldwin on the same manslaughter charge. He pleaded not guilty.
Gutierrez-Reed was convicted in March of involuntary manslaughter, but jurors found her not guilty of tampering with evidence.
She is serving an 18-month sentence at the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility.
Baldwin and Hutchins’ husband, Matthew Hutchins, in 2022 agreed to settle on undisclosed terms the lawsuit her family filed against the actor and announced that Matthew Hutchins would serve as an executive producer on the film.
In a statement he issued at the time, Matthew Hutchins said, “I have no interest in engaging in recriminations or attribution of blame (to the producers or Mr. Baldwin). All of us believe Halyna’s death was a terrible accident.”
“I am grateful that the producers and the entertainment community have come together to pay tribute to Halyna’s final work,” Hutchins said.
Sumiko Moots and Diana Dasrath contributed.
