Prosecutors will be charging Alec Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed officially on January 31, with a fourth-degree felony charge of involuntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter in the commission of a lawful act, which carries a mandatory sentence of up to five years in jail. The Santa Fe District Attorney’s Office announced the formal charging process on social media and in a statement issued on January 30. 

“On Tuesday my office will formally file involuntary manslaughter charges against #AlecBaldwin and #HannahGutierrezReed in the fatal shooting of #HalynaHutchins on the ‘#Rust’ film set in Santa Fe County in October 2021,” wrote First Judicial DA Mary Carmack-Altwies on Twitter. “The District Attorney and the special prosecutor are fully focused on securing justice for Halyna Hutchins,” she said in a separate statement (via Deadline). “The evidence and the facts speak for themselves.”

Baldwin has insisted repeatedly that he did not pull the trigger of the Colt .45 pistol that killed Hutchins, despite the FBI saying it was physically impossible for the firearm to go off on its own (via Variety). Dave Halls, meanwhile, continues to contradict himself and the stories he’s told since the 2021 incident occurred. First, Halls claimed to have given the gun to Baldwin after declaring it “cold,” or safe to use. Now, in an updated December 2022 deposition, Halls is claiming that he never did any of this. “I don’t have any recollection of me saying that,” Halls told attorneys from the New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau in a December 13 deposition obtained by Variety. 

A judge will eventually have to decide if there’s probable cause for a criminal trial after the DA’s office chose to forgo taking the case before a grand jury.