Actor Alec Baldwin and his legal team feel « blindsided » by today’s charges, his attorney Luke Nikas told CNN in a statement Thursday.
Actor Alec Baldwin and his legal team feel « blindsided » by today’s charges, his attorney Luke Nikas told CNN in a statement Thursday.
They were not given any indication Baldwin would face criminal charges and say they « learned of the charges in the media, » according to Nikas.
In her first televised interview after announcing the charging decisions, New Mexico’s First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told CNN’s Josh Campbell her office was in “almost constant contact” with the opposing parties’ attorneys “for about the last six weeks.”
Earlier Thursday, Nikas said the decision to charge « distorts Halyna Hutchins’ tragic death and represents a terrible miscarriage of justice. »
“Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun — or anywhere on the movie set. He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win,” Nikas said.
Many other actors have said they “always check their guns or have someone check it front of them,” New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told CNN shortly after announcing her intention of charging actor Alec Baldwin and film armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed with involuntary manslaughter.
She noted that some of those actors were even « A-list » celebrities.
« An actor does not get a free pass just because they are an actor. That is what is so important. We are saying here in New Mexico, that everyone is equal under the law, » she added.
Carmack-Altwies said there were live rounds mixed in with dummy rounds and crews were not checking ammunition regularly.
Somehow, a live round got loaded into the gun that was handed to Baldwin.
Baldwin failing to check the gun before firing it is a key piece of information that prosecutors are using to argue that he was negligent about the safety standard, Carmack-Altwies said. Negligence is an important part of the involuntary manslaughter charge, according to CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams.
Overall, there was a “lack of safety and safety standards on set, » the district attorney said.
