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Alec Baldwin “violated …set safety rules,” declared the prosecution this morning in the Rust star’s involuntary manslaughter trial for the 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
“After the shooting the defendant began to claim he did not pull the trigger,” said special prosecutor Erlinda Johnson in opening statements in Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer’s Sante Fe County courtroom. “The evidence will show ladies and gentlemen, that’s not possible,” Johnson added poignantly to the jury, as Baldwin himself sat a few feet away.
Setting the tone and temperament for the trial, the prosecution and the defense went at each other’s cases with harsh accusations of going to “the edge of truth and beyond” and “gaps in the evidence.”
“That gun the defendant had asked to be assigned, worked perfectly fine, as it was designed,” special prosecutor Johnson said near the end of her relatively brief but pointed remarks Wednesday. “One of the main problems that afternoon of October 21 was that the defendant didn’t do a gun safety check with that inexperienced armor,” Johnson went on to say in reference to the now-incarcerated Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.
“He pointed the gun at another human being, cocked the hammer and pulled that trigger with reckless disregard for Ms. Hutchins’ safety,” Johnson steely stated of Baldwin.
Hutchins was killed and Rust director Joel Souza was injured on October 21, 2021 after the Colt .45 Baldwin was pointing at the cinematographer shot off a live round during a rehearsal at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe. Recharged with involuntary manslaughter in January, exactly a year after he was charged the first time, Baldwin entered a not guilty plea in the weeks afterwards.
Set to be in court every day for the week and half trial, Baldwin faces up to 18 months behind bars himself and hefty fines if found guilty
Taking to the court podium after Johnson, Baldwin’s lead lawyer Alex Spiro wasted no time seeking to flip the script, even on his own client’s insistence he didn’t pull the trigger on the gun “Even if he did intentionally pull the trigger …that doesn’t make him guilty of homicide.”
“The most critical issue in this case is how a real bullet got on a movie set,” Spiro exclaimed with a mention of Gutierrez-Reed and slagging the prosecution in advance for likely showing “emotionally charged” video in the aftermath of Hutchins’ death “The evidence will show that real bullets are never supposed to be on movie sets,’ he added, showing footage of Baldwin on set.
“They were try to get Alec,” Spiro claimed of the police and prosecutors in a clear plea hoping for a distrust of authority among the jury. “How far they would go for the shiny object.”
“This was an unspeakable tragedy …Alec Baldwin committed no crime,” the Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan partner told the jury as his client looked on with a stare. “None of it had anything to do with Alec Baldwin,” Spiro said, going on to detail to the court the “magic” of movies, how actors concentrate on their roles not what’s going on around them, and how guns are part of the culture of cinema.
Spiro took the first of many swipes at the Santa Fe Sheriff’s department for making “lot of mistakes” like “no securing the prop cart” which contained the Colt .45 in question. After the court was given a glimpse of some police lapel footage of the Rust scene, the prosecutors demanded a quick chat with the judge, clearly upset. “People point guns on movie set …no one saw him pull the trigger,” Spiro went on. “It as an actor handling a prop.”
“The SAG guidelines don’t tell actors to check the gun,” the New York attorney said bringing up support the guild has offered longtime member Baldwin early on in this case. “
Found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in her own trial, Gutierrez-Reed was sentence to 18 months behind bars in April She is appealing the verdict that another jury reached in less than three hours in March.
“You will hear that this workplace was on a tight budget,” prosecutor Johnson noted earlier of the $7 million indie Western that Baldwin was a producer on as well as the star and story co-author. “There are people who act in a reckless manner and place other individuals in danger. That, you will hear, was the defendant Alexander Baldwin.”
The day actually started a little late with WIFI difficulties and once again the heat in the Land of Enchantment courtroom.
Once things got settled, Judge Sommer began things by giving the jurors and alternates an overview of court protocol and procedures – which included telling them no Googling but it was okay to say “hello” to officials and lawyers in the hallway. Throughout the judge’s instructions, Baldwin was writing away at the defense table, seemingly striking out something on a yellow legal pad.
Now that the opening statements are over, the trial is on a break. The first witnesses are scheduled to testify later today.
