By Andrew Hay
(Reuters) -A Santa Fe judge on Friday accepted a plea deal, could bringing the first conviction for the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during filming of the Western movie “Rust” in New Mexico.
Dave Halls, first assistant director on “Rust,” pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon for his role in Hutchins’ death.
Santa Fe District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer presided over a virtual hearing in Halls’ case Friday.
Hutchins was killed when actor Alec Baldwin fired a live round from a revolver while rehearsing. As first assistant director, prosecutors said Halls was responsible for set safety on “Rust.”
Baldwin pleaded not guilty to a criminal charge of involuntary manslaughter. Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for firearms safety and training, will enter the same plea, according to her lawyer. They were the only others charged in the case.
Halls told police he should have checked more carefully that the rounds Gutierrez-Reed loaded into the revolver Baldwin used were inert dummies.
(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Donna Bryson and Leslie Adler)
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