Alec Baldwin’s Involuntary Manslaughter ‘Rust’ Trial: What You Need Know, How To Watch & Who Will Testify
Nearly three years after the customized Colt .45 in Alec Baldwin’s hand fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the indie Western Rust, the actor’s involuntary manslaughter trial has begun.
With a jury seated July 9 in Santa Fe, Baldwin’s trial follows the successful prosecution earlier this year of Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the 27-year-old daughter of legendary movie gunman Thell Reed. A relatively inexperienced armorer also working in the props department on the low-budget film, she was found guilty in March of involuntary manslaughter but not guilty of tampering with evidence and sentenced to 18 months in a New Mexico state prison on April 15.
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Having entered a not guilty plea shortly after he was recharged this past January, Baldwin will be in Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer’s courtroom every day of the trial beginning today with jury selection.
Failing over and over to get the case against Baldwin dismissed through the years, the actor’s Quinn Emanuel attorneys and their client were handed a win Monday. Sommer, after listening to oral arguments in a July 8 pre-trial motions hearing, ruled that Baldwin’s role as a co-producer on Rust cannot be entered as evidence into the trial.
That’s a huge blow to special prosecutors Erlinda Johnson and Kari Morrisey. The duo had stated in court documents and previous hearings that Baldwin’s producer role in Rust’s hierarchy allowed him to dominate Rust, and take over directing the movie. The special prosecutors maintained that as a working producer Baldwin knew of other issues on Rust, like gun discharge, and further matters of firearm safety. Johnson and Morrissey postulate that Baldwin’s status on the movie allowed him to neglect his own firearm safety training provided by the now-incarcerated Gutierrez-Reed.
With that, here’s a look at what the case against Baldwin, first brought in early 2023, dropped and recharged in early 2024, is about, and what the stakes are.
What Happened?
On October 21, 2021, a customized Colt .45 was handed to Baldwin inside the church set on Bonanza Creek Ranch just outside Santa Fe by Rust assistant director David Halls. Halls allegedly declared the weapon was a “cold gun,” aka checked to be safe. Halls later testified he had not checked it properly after taking it off Gutierrez-Reed, who was outside the location. The handing off of the gun was 12 days into filming on the low-budget film based on a story conceived by director Joel Souza and Baldwin, who was both the star and a co-producer on the movie.
In a shootout-scene rehearsal, Baldwin was pointing the 1880s-era gun at the camera when it suddenly fired. A live round discharged from the gun, ripping through Hutchins and wounding Souza. The latter recovered in a fairly short time. The Ukrainian born Hutchins, was airlifted more than 60 miles to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, and pronounced dead several hours later. Her last words were reportedly “That was no good, that was no good at all.”
What Are The Charges?
Free without bail for more than two and a half years, Baldwin is charged with involuntary manslaughter (negligent use of a firearm), a lesser charge, and involuntary manslaughter (without due caution or circumspection). “The above-named defendant did cause the death of Halyna Hutchins by an act committed with the total disregard or indifference to the safety of others, and the act was such that an ordinary person would anticipate that death might occur under the circumstances,” the grand jury indictment reads of the latter charge, a felony.
Although there are what seem like two counts against Baldwin, and the special prosecutors have two alternative standards, the New Mexico jury will only have to return one verdict on one count.
Since being recharged earlier this year, Baldwin is not permitted to drink alcohol or possess a firearm by court order.
Did Baldwin Pull The Trigger?
Oddly, there is no known video footage of the accident from the more than a dozen people who were in the Rust church location at the time. To this day, some also dispute as to who said what to whom about the gun. A seasoned action movie veteran, Baldwin has always insisted that while he cocked the hammer, he did not pull the trigger and the gun somehow went off on its own. Although the firearm is in admittedly in less than stellar condition now, the FBI and independent forensic investigators say there is no way the gun could have fired without the trigger being pulled.
Baldwin’s contention that he never pulled the trigger, and the state’s differing stance, is expected to be one of the major elements of the trial. Also, even with on-set gun safety rules, the defense is adamant that an actor like Baldwin is not responsible for checking a firearm during filming – a stance SAG-AFTRA supports.
How Did Live Bullets Get On The ‘Rust’ Set?
The short answer is nobody really knows. Special prosecutors laid the blame for the live round being on the Rust set on armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed in her trial this spring. Yet no one has provided a comprehensive description of how the live round got on the set, where there had been a series of unintended weapons discharges before the fatal shooting of Hutchins, and instances of crew members leaving over money and safety.
Painting a larger portrait of what went down, a 2022 report by the Occupational Health & Safety Bureau’s New Mexico office determined that Gutierrez-Reed was not provided “time to conduct her duties to the best of her diligence” and required to “focus on other tasks” like working in the props department. Placing the responsibility for the shooting on Rust producers, OSHA handed out a civil penalty in April 2022 to Rust Productions for $136,793, one of the largest such penalties ever levied by the organization. That penalty was reduced to $100,000 early last year after a protest from the producers.
In pre-trial motions in July, introduction of the OSHA findings were deemed to be limited in Baldwin’s trial.
Could Alec Baldwin Go To Jail?
He could indeed. Baldwin is up against a New Mexico prison sentence of a maximum of 18 months and around $5,000 in fines if found guilty. Of course, if convicted, expect Baldwin to appeal right away.
How Can I Watch The Trial?
Starting on July 10, Court TV cameras will be inside the Santa Fe County District Courthouse filming the trial live online and on TV. The cable networks said overage will run from the trial’s start to finish, once a jury is seated. As is often the case with high-profile trials like this, the feed will be offered to an array of other outlets and cabler newsers.
Jury selection will not be filmed or livestreamed.
In advance of the trial’s formal start, Court TV produced the 45-minute documentary The Case Against Alec Baldwin. The highly charged film features 9-1-1 calls on the day of the shooting and footage of Rust and the immediate horrific consequences that day in October 2021.
How Long Will The Trial Last?
The State v. Alexander Rae Baldwin trial is set to start at 8:30 a.m. MST on July 9 with jury selection. Nearly 80 people make up the pool of potential jurors that has to be whittled to 12, plus alternates. Unless there is an unanticipated delay, opening statements will begin July 10. Pledging to keep prosecutors and defense lawyers on a tight schedule, Sommer has the trial ending July 19.
How long after that the jury deliberates is anyone’s guess. As a potential guide, the jury of seven women and five men in Gutierrez-Reed’s trial were behind closed doors for only about 2 1/2 hours before coming back with a verdict: guilty on the armorer’s involuntary manslaughter charge and not guilty of tampering with evidence.
Why Has This Taken So Long To Go To Trial?
No matter how much Law & Order you may have seen, justice moves slowly in real life and in constantly backed up courts. Even more so when fame and money are involved because this is America.
Spending valuable time trying to gain access to Baldwin’s smartphone and hitting other roadblocks, the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department took more than a year to conclude its probe on what happened on the Rust set. Then-District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies took three months to charge Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed in January 2023. The Baldwin case quickly fell apart due to incompetence, unconstitutional charges, a politically compromised special prosecutor, new special prosecutors being brought on board and the DA moved off the case.
Morrisey and then-fellow special prosecutor Jason Lewis dropped the charges against Baldwin in the spring of 2023 but made it clear they would probably be recharging him. Amid a number of civil cases in California and New Mexico filed against Baldwin and Rust producers, a new grand jury was empaneled in New Mexico in late 2023, and a new indictment was handed down against the now 66-year-old Baldwin on January 19, 2024.
In another twist, prosecutors offered Baldwin a pretty sweet plea deal this year, but that fell apart based on claims of witnesses being strong-armed by the defendant for a documentary project on the case.
The wheels of justice also moved a bit slower through this year as various defense moves to dismiss the case were before the courts. Itself delayed, Gutierrez-Reed’s trial was also held before Baldwin’s in front of the same judge as will be overseeing the 30 Rock star’s case.
Will Baldwin Testify?
It’s unclear if Baldwin will testify in his own defense. That decision could depend in no small part on how the trial is going when the defense begins to put on its case next week.
The state has listed Souza on their witness list, as well as Rust crew members Ross Addiego and Zac Sneesby, who both were on the church set when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and injuring Souza. Assistant director Halls, who made a plea deal for immunity with prosecutors, did some probation and testified at Gutierrez-Reed’s trial, is also on the prosecution’s witness list.
Gutierrez-Reed is also on the state’s witness list, for all the good it will do them. The ex-armorer invoked her Fifth Amendment rights repeatedly during a pre-trial interview for the Baldwin case, and her lawyer Jason Bowles has said his client “doesn’t want to be cooperative in this case.” Late last month, Judge Sommer rejected the prosecution’s motion to have Gutierrez-Reed be a witness with immunity in the trial.
What Could Donald Trump Have To Do With This?
Donald Trump may be in the midst of the Republican National Convention next week, but it wouldn’t be that much of a surprise if he weighs in on Baldwin’s trial.
Ever since Baldwin consistently skewered Trump by impersonating him on Saturday Night Live the past decade, the actor has been one of the ex-Celebrity Apprentice host’s targets. Trump, now a convicted felon, may not want to miss an opportunity to compare his status to Baldwin’s.
Shortly after the Rust shooting, Trump made suppositions about what happened, telling a radio host in 2021 that Baldwin is “a cuckoo-bird. He’s a nutjob. And usually, when there’s somebody like that, you know, in my opinion, he had something to do with it.” Trump’s animosity toward Baldwin was so great that, even during his presidency, he would tweet about SNL and the actor’s appearances, clearly irked by the portrayal.
But Baldwin has been unabashed in stating his political views, drawing fire from the right long before Trump’s rise. Baldwin briefly hosted an MSNBC talk show and, in the 1990s, was a prominent member of the Creative Coalition. He also had floated running for political office, including a bid for mayor of New York.
Why Hasn’t The Finished ‘Rust’ Movie Been Released?
Resurrected in early 2023 with a new cinematographer and armorer and filming in Montana with Baldwin and Souza and most of the original cast, the finished Rust has been shopped around at film festivals. However, likely because of the controversy attached and Baldwin’s unresolved legal situation, the film hasn’t found a distributor domestically or internationally.
Ted Johnson contributed to this report
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