SANTA FE, NM — A jury will hear opening statements Wednesday in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cameraman, a trial that delves into the combination of gun safety, celebrities and a low-budget Western film set on a remote ranch.
Prosecutors and defense attorneysselected 16 jury members — 11 women and five men — on Tuesday, forming a jury drawn from a region with strong currents of gun ownership and security informed by backcountry hunting. Four of the jurors are considered alternates while the other 12 deliberate as they are assigned the case.
The shooting of camerawoman Halyna Hutchinsa 42-year-old rising star in her field, sent shockwaves through the film industry nearly three years ago and led to charges against Baldwin that could land him in prison for up to 18 months.
Baldwin has pleaded not guilty and is returning to the desert Southwest for the trial in a courthouse in downtown Santa Fe, a short drive from where scenes from “Rust” were filmed.
Baldwin claims the gun went off accidentally after he followed instructions to point it at Hutchins, who was standing behind the camera. Unaware it was loaded with a live round, he says he pulled the hammer back — not the trigger — and it went off.
Prosecutors say they will present evidence that Baldwin “went off script” and failed to follow basic gun safety standards when he pointed the gun at Hutchins on Oct. 21, 2021.
“Ultimately, the prosecution’s main theory is that there was a gun involved, and Baldwin had a gun in his hand, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a movie set or a hunting safety course, you’re responsible for what comes out of the barrel,” said John Day, a Santa Fe attorney and former prosecutor.
Attorney Baldwin Alex Spiro interviewed potential jurors on Tuesday for strong opinions on gun safety and whether a person should take full responsibility for whether a weapon is loaded or “rely on experts, does anyone have a problem with that?”
Most of those who responded said they always treat a gun as if it were loaded.
Baldwin, the star of “Beetlejuice”, “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “30 Rock” who has been a household name as an actor and public figure for more than three decades, was also a co-producer of “Rust,” which had an initial budget of about $7.5 million — a low figure by union standards. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ruled shortly before the trial that its producer status is not relevant to the case.
Workplace Safety Researchers Previous court testimony confirmed that there were two shootings on set prior to the fatal shooting. In addition, six crew members left the set the night before Hutchins’ death due to concerns about hotel accommodations and safety, among other things.
At the request of prosecutors, Marlowe Sommer has withheld a summary of the findings, which they call unreliable.
In court papers, defense attorneys have emphasized that the gunmaker, Hannah Gutierrez-Reedhas already been found responsible for the shooting, along with testimony that the gun was checked by an assistant director before being handed to Baldwin — and that the shooting was incomprehensible and shocking to the entire film crew because they were convinced there was no live ammunition on set.
Gutierrez-Reed is serving an 18-month prison sentence while she appeals her March conviction on a charge of involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors accused her of undetectedly dropping live ammunition on the film set, in a trial that also showed video footage of Baldwin charging gun supervisors to reload his revolver and brandishing the gun like a pointer.
The prosecutors have two alternative standards for proving the accusation. One is based on the negligent use of a firearm. The other is proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Baldwin acted with total disregard or indifference for the safety of others.
Testimony at the trial will examine flaws in a final safety check of the weapon before Baldwin began practicing with it, as well as the mechanics of the weapon and whether it could have gone off without a trigger pull. The live bullet that killed Hutchins also wounded director Joel Souza.
Day says Baldwin’s insistence that he never pulled the trigger was first expressed in a December 2021 interview interview with ABC Newslimits the options for the defense during the trial.
“Because he said that to George Stephanopoulos, the defense has to try to show that, well, the gun goes off if you look at it funny,” Day said. “They also have to bring in experts in the film industry who can say, ‘You know, if someone gives an actor a gun and tells him it’s safe, he has to believe them.'”
Los Angeles civil rights attorney Mark Sedlander says it’s rare for a workplace fatality to result in criminal prosecution, but the fatal shooting in “Rust” raises fundamental workplace safety issues.
“This is a case about a woman who tragically lost her life while she was on the job, away from her family, doing her job, just like every other American in this country. She went to work one day and never came back,” said Sedlander of the law firm Mancini Shenk.
In April 2023, prosecutors initially dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin, saying they had been informed that the weapon may have been modified before the shooting and therefore malfunctioned.
A more recent analysis of the weapon conducted by prosecutors found that the “trigger had to be pulled or depressed sufficiently to release the fully cocked or retracted hammer.”
Defense attorneys argue that the FBI’s destructive testing of the weapon, which broke off pieces of the firing mechanism, destroyed evidence that could have exonerated Baldwin.
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Dalton reported from Los Angeles.
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