Alec Baldwin will be turning in his phone to police "this week," his attorney has stated, one month after a search warrant was issued for it as part of the ongoing investigation into the shooting on the set of his movie Rust.
On October 21, 2021 Baldwin was holding a gun on the New Mexico set that discharged, leading to the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and the injury of writer-director Joel Souza.
As part of the investigation, police in New Mexico filed a search warrant and affidavit in Santa Fe Magistrate Court on December 16, 2021 seeking access to Baldwin's phone.
However, on Thursday, authorities said that Baldwin—who also served as a producer on Rust—had not yet surrendered his device to investigators.
"When Mr. Baldwin had not immediately provided his phone pursuant to the initial search warrant, the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office also reached out for assistance from the Santa Fe District Attorney's Office," read a news release from the Santa Fe Sheriff's Office, per USA Today.
"The District Attorney's Office began working with Mr. Baldwin's attorney to retrieve the phone," the statement said.
Jurisdictional concerns led to the district attorney informing the police that it "would be facilitating the retrieval of the phone on a consent basis."
"To date, the cell phone has not been turned in to authorities," the release said.
Baldwin's lawyer, Aaron Dyer, told USA Today on Thursday that he had reached an agreement with both the Santa Fe Sheriff's Office and the district attorney for the phone to be turned over "this week," with logistics being finalized with New York authorities.
Dyer wrote: "Mr. Baldwin's phone is being turned over this week for review. Ever since this tragic incident, Mr. Baldwin has continued to cooperate with the authorities, and any suggestion to the contrary is simply untrue.
"We requested that the authorities obtain a warrant so that we could protect his privacy on other matters unrelated to Rust and have been working through that process."
In December's affidavit, investigators requested access to Baldwin's Apple iPhone in a bid to examine his communications over email, social media and text. His browser activity, recent call history and photos and videos are also set to be probed.
"There may be evidence on the phone, due to individuals using cellular phones during and/or after the commission of crime(s)," the document read.
"There were several emails and text messages sent and received regarding the movie production Rust in the course of (police) interviews," the affidavit said.
In an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that aired in December, Baldwin alleged that the gun he was holding at the time of the incident discharged without him pulling the trigger. Production on the film was immediately shut down.
According to a previous search warrant affidavit, the gun was handed to the actor by Rust assistant director David Halls, who shouted "cold gun" to indicate that the prop did not contain any live rounds. Baldwin and Halls have said they were unaware of the gun containing any live ammunition.
Days later, Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed said in a statement through her attorney that she had "no idea" where the live ammunition came from. Earlier this week, she filed a lawsuit against the production's ammunition supplier over the incident.
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