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Prosecutors have downgraded the involuntary manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin and Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, saving both from a potential five-year prison sentence. Both are implicated in the death of the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, who was fatally shot when a prop gun held by Baldwin discharged on set during filming in October 2021.

This month, Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers argued a motion that their clients were being persecuted for a law that was not in place until after the shooting. Last Friday saw the conclusion of said motion, as the Santa Fe District Attorney formally downgraded the involuntary manslaughter charges, saving the two from being convicted under a firearm enhancement, per The Hollywood Reporter.

The aforementioned law will save Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed from a minimum prison sentence of five years, and instead sees them face a maximum of 18 months behind bars for involuntary manslaughter.

While the gun was in Baldwin’s hands at the time of the shooting, he maintains that he did not pull the trigger. He has also gone on record saying that he was told the prop revolver was “cold,” and therefore free of live rounds.

Both he and Gutierrez-Reed, whose job was to load the gun with fake rounds only intended to look like real bullets on-camera, are still in embroiled in debates concerning their roles in the untimely death of Hutchins and injuring of assistant director Joel Souza.

When the formal charges for Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed were first announced, prosecutors said that both should have been well aware of standard gun safety protocol. However, details have since come to light accusing Baldwin of “reckless deviation from known standards and practice and protocol” in the form of negligence, carelessness, and complete absence from a Rust firearms training.

Despite the ongoing lawsuit, Baldwin still intends to resume production on Rust starting this spring, with a new cinematographer already on board to replace Hutchins.