Alec Baldwin’s trial for involuntary manslaughter connected to the fatal Rust movie shooting has been set to begin this summer.
On Monday, a New Mexico judge directed in a scheduling order that jury selection begin on July 9, with the trial beginning the next day. Opening statements will be heard from both the case’s special prosecutors and Baldwin’s defense attorneys.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, died in October 2021 after being shot while on the set of the Western film.
Baldwin was holding a .45 Colt caliber F.lli Pietta single-action revolver during a rehearsal on set when it fired and hit Hutchins in the chest. The actor has maintained that he had no knowledge that the gun carried live ammunition. It is not the common practice on-set to handle live weaponry.
Special prosecutors had originally charged Baldwin with two counts of involuntary manslaughter but dropped them in April 2023, citing new evidence that had complicated the investigation. Baldwin was then indicted in January on a charge of involuntary manslaughter. He has pleaded not guilty.
According to a statement from District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies’s office, involuntary manslaughter is punishable by up to 18 months in jail and a $5,000 fine.
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The July trial is expected to last eight days.
Baldwin has already paid an undisclosed settlement to Hutchins’s family. He is also facing a lawsuit from Rust script supervisor Mamie Mitchell in which he has filed a cross-complaint against the other defendants in an attempt to abdicate fault for the civil complaint.
