Several “Rust” crew members, including director Joel Souza, who was shot on the set, are expected to be called as witnesses in the case against Alec Baldwin.
After being charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, Baldwin will make his first virtual court appearance on Feb. 24.
According to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital, camera assistant Lane Luper and gaffer Serge Svetnoy are listed as witnesses. Both have previously expressed concerns about the lack of safety on the “Rust” set.
Luper resigned from his position on the “Rust” set prior to the fatal shooting.
“What I put in my resignation letter was lax COVID policies, the housing situation driving to and from Albuquerque, and specifically, gun safety, a lack of rehearsals, and a lack of preparing the crew for what we were doing that day,” Luper previously stated on “Good Morning America” in November 2021.
Meanwhile, Svetnoy confirmed the set’s lack of safety.
Svetnoy’s attorney told reporters months later at a press conference that the film’s producers “were cutting too many corners to save money,” and that negligence on set caused Hutchins’ death.
Actor Jensen Ackles, script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, and business owner Seth Kenney, line producer Gabrielle Pickle, and prop master Sarah Zachry of Seth Kenney Props.
A number of Santa Fe County investigators, including Sheriff Adan Mendoza, are also named, as are FBI analysts and experts.
David Halls, the assistant director, was noticeably absent from the witness list. The first assistant director agreed to enter a guilty plea to careless use of a deadly weapon. The plea agreement is still subject to judicial approval.
Halls allegedly handed the gun to Baldwin before the fatal shooting of Hutchins and confirmed it was “cold,” implying it contained no live ammunition.
According to court documents, Baldwin was formally charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter on Jan. 31. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, a “Rust” armourer, was also charged.
Prosecutors detailed their probable cause case against Baldwin in the same documents.
Alec Baldwin:
“Baldwin’s deviation from known standards, practise, and protocol directly caused Hutchins’ fatal death,” according to the documents.
“By failing to receive required firearms training, failing to check the firearm with the armourer, allowing the armourer to leave the firearms in the church without being present, departing from the practise of only accepting the firearm from the armourer,
failing to deal with safety complaints on set and/or ensuring safety meetings were held, putting his finger on the trigger of a real firearm when a replica or rubber gun should have been used, pointing the firearms at Hutchi Baldwin acted with willful disregard for the safety of others, endangering other people, specifically Hutchins and Souza.”
Hutchins died on set on October 21, 2021, after a gun Baldwin was holding fired. The incident occurred in a church on New Mexico’s Bonanza Creek Ranch.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department has spent the last year investigating how live rounds ended up on the set of a movie. The only other crew members suspected of handling the gun were Gutierrez-Reed and Halls.
Gutierrez-Reed spun the cylinder to show Halls what was in the gun before allegedly handing the gun to Baldwin, according to her lawyer.
Baldwin has repeatedly stated that he did not pull the trigger of the gun, once during a primetime interview shortly after the fatal shooting and once more on a podcast episode. The actor initially stated that he had pulled the hammer. He pulled the gun back as far as he could without pulling the trigger.