Alec Baldwin isn’t the first celebrity to face manslaughter charges connected to a deadly tragedy
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
Actor and producer Alec Baldwin is not the only public figure to face charges in connection to a death that resulted from a tragic event.
Baldwin and a film armorer will each be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter by Santa Fe, New Mexico prosecutors in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie “Rust” in 2021.
Hutchins was struck and killed by a live round of ammunition fired from a prop gun being held by Baldwin while they were rehearsing a scene for the project.
Baldwin, who has maintained he was not aware the gun he fired contained a live round, called the New Mexico prosecutors’ decision “a terrible miscarriage of justice,” according to his attorney, Luke Nikas, who vowed to fight the charges.
Jason Bowles, an attorney for the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, said a jury will find his client not guilty because she has “committed no crime.”
There are other celebrities who have found themselves in similar legal situations:
Vince Neil
Mötley CrĂĽe’s lead vocalist was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence following the death of his passenger and friend Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley, drummer of the Finnish band Hanoi Rocks, during a drunk driving accident in 1984.
Neil pleaded guilty to the charges, was ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution and served less than a month in jail.
Matthew Broderick
Broderick and his then girlfriend and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” co-star Jennifer Grey were traveling in Northern Ireland in 1987 when the vehicle he was driving collided with another car.
The people in that car, Anne Gallagher, 28, and her mother, Margaret Doherty, 63, died from their injuries.
According to the New York Post, Broderick, who was left unconscious and severely injured by the crash, faced five years in prison for the charge of dangerous driving. He was convicted of careless driving and fined $175.
“The car accident in Ireland was, I would say, top three traumas of my life, maybe top one,” Grey told “Entertainment Tonight” in an interview last spring.
“It’s very hard to describe when you have a near-death experience and are present for the death of other people,” she said. “Being alone on a country road in the middle of nowhere with nobody else around or conscious was pretty terrifying… It led to so many other things in my life.”
“It was an accident,” Grey added. “And [Broderick] was a great driver, and nobody was drinking. It was just an accident. And it was tragic.”
Rebecca Gayheart
The “Beverly Hills, 90210” actress struck and killed nine-year-old Jorge Cruz Jr. in Los Angeles in 2001 after she swerved around a car that had stopped.
During a 2019 appearance on Laura Cathcart Robbins podcast, “The Only One in the Room,” Gayheart said, “I just didn’t want to live after that accident.”
“I couldn’t handle it at all, so I spent about a year just trying to kill myself,” she said. “Basically by doing every self-destructive thing a person can do because I just didn’t understand … any of it.”
Gayheart plead guilty to a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge and was sentenced to probation, a one-year suspension of her license, a $2,800 fine and 750 hours of community service, according to E!.
Amy Locane
The actress was convicted of vehicular homicide for drunk driving crash in 2010 after she hit attorney Fred Seeman and his wife Helene Seeman as they were turning into the driveway of their Montgomery, New Jersey home.
Helene Seeman died from her injuries.
Locane, known for her role in the TV series “Melrose Place” and the film “Cry Baby,” had her eight-year prison sentence upheld by a New Jersey state appellate court in May 2022.
According to a report from MyCentralJersey.com, Locane will be eligible for parole on Deccember 20, 2024.
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Josh Campbell, Paul Vercammen, Holly Yan and Travis Caldwell contributed to this story.