Almost three years after the director of photography Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed on the set of the film “Rust”, in New Mexico, Alec Baldwin goes to trial about his death. Here are the essential things you should know.
The actor is about to enter a New Mexico courtroom for the first time since the shooting on October 21, 2021. He is accused of involuntary homicide. If a jury unanimously convicts him, he could face 18 months in prison.
Baldwin, the star and co-producer of the Western, was pointing a revolver at Hutchins during a rehearsal in a small church on the film’s Bonanza Creek Ranch set when the gun went off, killing her and injuring director Joel Souza. Baldwin said she pulled the hammer — but not the trigger — and the gun went off.
Two main themes will predominate, one big and one small: the chaotic atmosphere of the film set and the details of the classic Italian-made revolver that Baldwin pointed out to Hutchins.
It was never officially determined who brought the projectiles that killed Hutchins to the set. Prosecutors in previous “Rust” gunsmith trial Hannah Gutierrez-Reed claimed she was responsible. She was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to the same 18 months in prison that Baldwin faces.
Prosecutors have two alternative standards for proving the charge. One of them is based on the negligent use of a firearm. The other is to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Baldwin acted with complete disregard or indifference for the safety of others.
Despite the legal and technical complexities of the case, the 12 Santa Fe County citizens who will form the jury will only have to reach one verdict – guilty or innocent – on a single count.
The trial in New Mexico’s First Judicial District Court — about 20 miles northeast of the movie set and filming — is scheduled to last nine days, and Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer insists she will keep the lawyers in line and on schedule. Jury selection begins Tuesday, with opening statements expected Wednesday and concluding the following Friday. Once jurors receive the case, however, they can deliberate for as long as necessary.
Baldwin, 66, emerged as a major movie star in the late 1980s and early ’90s through films like “Beetlejuice” and “The Hunt for Red October,” and has remained a household name ever since. He would go on to play memorable supporting roles in films like 2003’s “The Cooler,” which earned him an Oscar nomination. Comedy dominated his later career, as he won two Emmys for playing network executive Jack Donaghy on six seasons of “30 Rock,” and won a third for playing Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live.”
He also played the role of an outsized public personality, as a beloved talk show guest, a coveted liberal, and at times as a man unable to control his angry outbursts, which brought public embarrassment and a previous disagreement. with the law much smaller than the current one.
Baldwin is the oldest of six children — five of them actors — from Massapequa, New York, who has lived in New York City for most of his adult life. He has one adult daughter, Ireland Baldwin, with his first wife Kim Basinger, and seven young children with his second wife, Hilaria Baldwin.
Baldwin will bring with him an elite legal team of mostly New York-based lawyers, many of them Harvard Law graduates, from the firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart. & Sullivan. Alex Spiro, a 41-year-old defense attorney who has represented Elon Musk, Megan Thee Stallion and other prominent figures and has become one of the most sought-after lawyers in the country, will aggressively cross-examine the state’s witnesses.
The defense will try to show that it is not an actor’s job to ensure there are no live bullets in his gun, a position strongly supported by Baldwin’s union, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
Baldwin said in an interview with ABC News, and implied in interviews with authorities, that he never pulled the trigger on the revolver.
Your lawyers too attack weapon evidenceand the severe damage done to the revolver during an FBI test, they say, amounted to the destruction of evidence and left the defense no chance to examine it.
Prosecution firearms experts who testified at Gutierrez-Reed’s trial are returning to the witness stand, over Baldwin’s objections, to testify about the handling of the revolver and whether the gun was working properly.
And they can press witnesses to know whether Hutchins received adequate medical treatment between the shooting and his death at a hospital.
Santa Fe County District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies appointed Kari Morrissey as special prosecutor in the Baldwin case in early 2023, after his predecessor resigned from his position due to conflicts of interest. Morrissey promptly had the charge against Baldwin dismissed, but revived in January this year by the grand jury. Both moves came from further examination of the evidence, she said.
Morrissey graduated from the University of New Mexico and its law school, and practiced law in Albuquerque for more than 20 years. New Mexico criminal defense attorney Erlinda Johnson joined Morrissey’s team in April.
The trial could bring a cultural clash among the team of lawyers, as heated hearings and proceedings have already demonstrated.
Morrissey and Spiro, in particular, have butted heads frequently – “I’m not going to sit here and be called a liar!” – she said during one such moment at a hearing in May – and will likely do the same and provide some drama during the Law Suit.
Prosecutors will try to convince jurors that, as a producer and the most important person on set, Baldwin brought a recklessness to the production and that, as an actor, he was negligent in handling his gun.
The crew members inside the small church building who became eyewitnesses to Hutchins’ murder will provide the trial’s most essential testimony. They include director Joel Souza, who was shot and injured by the bullet from Baldwin’s gun, and assistant director David Halls, the film’s assistant director, who some said was responsible for the shooting but pleaded no contest to negligent handling of a fire gun.
Zac Sneesby, a crew member who held a microphone during the rehearsal, will testify that he saw Baldwin pull the trigger on the revolver, prosecutors said in court documents, potentially making him the most important witness of all.
Prosecutors could also call Gutierrez-Reed to testify, but Marlowe Sommer rejected an immunity deal they wanted to grant her.
Jurors will hear testimony from firearms experts who allege the revolver was working properly and could not have fired without pulling the trigger.
And Baldwin himself can take a stand in his defense, but he is not obliged to do so. His lawyers have not said what he will do.
Santa Fe, capital of New Mexico, arts mecca with 89,000 inhabitants and tourist destination for its historic southwestern beauty, is not a small city. And its modern downtown court complex is hardly a country courthouse. But the location is still a far cry from the coastal urban courtrooms where the celebrity trials of Bill Cosby, OJ Simpson, Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump were held.
The process can generate an unusual scene. Dozens of members of the national media will compete for seats in the Santa Fe courtroom and in a packed courtroom, and cameras will surround the courthouse for arrivals and departures.
And the public can watch. The trial will be broadcast and broadcast on several channels, including Court TV.
Hutchins, who was 42 when she died, was a budding filmmaker and mother of a young son when she was killed. She grew up on a remote Soviet military base and worked on documentaries in Eastern Europe before studying film in Los Angeles and embarking on a career promising career as a filmmaker.
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