A search warrant has been issued for actor Alec Baldwin’s cellphone in the investigation of October’s fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the New Mexico set of his Western movie Rust, court documents filed in the case showed Thursday.
The search warrant and accompanying affidavit were filed in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court nearly two weeks after a New Mexico prosecutor overseeing the probe said some of the individuals who handled guns on the film set may face criminal charges in the death of Halyna Hutchins.
Investigators requested confiscation of Baldwin’s Apple iPhone in order to examine text messages, email correspondence, social network communications, browser activity and other information on the device, according to the seven-page affidavit.
“There may be evidence on the phone, due to individuals using cellular phones during and/or after the commission of crime(s),” the affidavit said. “There were several emails and text messages sent and received regarding the movie production ‘Rust’ in the course of (police) interviews,” the document said.
Baldwin was holding a handgun on the film set when it went off during rehearsal, killing Hutchins.
Earlier this month, the actor said during a lengthy television interview that he never pulled the trigger, and he denied responsibility for the shooting. He also said then that he had no idea how a live round got onto the set of the film.