Baldwin movie set shooting
In this 2021 image from video released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, Alec Baldwin stands in costume and speaks with investigators following a fatal shooting on a movie set in Santa Fe, N.M. (Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office via AP)

The trial for actor Alec Baldwin for the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust began today in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with jury selection in the case.

Baldwin is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting of Hutchins, a charge the movie’s armorer, Hanna Guiterrez-Reed, was found guilty of back in March and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Hutchins was killed in October 2021 when Baldwin pointed a “prop gun” at Hutchins and pulled the trigger. The shot also injured the film’s director, Joel Souza.

Baldwin has said the gun fired accidentally after he followed instructions to point it toward Hutchins, who was behind the camera. Baldwin said he was unaware the gun contained a live round and that he pulled back the hammer—not the trigger—and the gun fired.

At a pre-trial hearing on Monday, prosecutors received a setback when president Judge Mary Marlow Summer ruled that Baldwin’s role as a co-producer of the movie isn’t relevant to the trial and won’t be admissible as evidence. Prosecutors had hoped to highlight Baldwin’s safety obligations on the set as co-producer to bolster an alternative theory of guilt beyond his alleged negligent use of a firearm.\

However, the prosecution did get some good news in the preliminary hearing, as the judge agreed to exclude from admissible evidence findings from a state workplace safety investigation that placed much of the blame on the film’s assistant director, shifting fault away from Baldwin. The judge also ruled that the prosecution could show graphic images from Hutchins’ autopsy, as well as from police lapel cameras during the treatment of her wounds.

While Judge Summer said in court that jury selection shouldn’t take more than one day and she expects opening arguments to begin on Wednesday, the prosecuting attorney in the case wasn’t so optimistic. “It is my guess that with this group of defense attorneys, that’s not gonna happen,” Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey said at the hearing.

If convicted of the charge, Baldwin could face up to 18 months in prison, the same sentence handed to Guiterrez-Reed. In recorded jail phone conversations, Guiterrez-Reed said she would not testify in Baldwin’s upcoming criminal trial if subpoenaed and that she wants him to go to jail, too.

We’ll be following the trial closely and keep TTAG readers updated every step of the way.

26 COMMENTS

    • My Ouija board is broken. It just keeps spelling out “S-E-N-D-M-O-R-E-R-O-A-D-K-I-L-L”.

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    • “Prop gun” does not mean fake or simulated. Prop is short for property, as in belonging to the production company. Indeed, supplying guns to the film industry is how Cimarron Firearms got their start.

  1. No matter how the gun is labeled, it was still capable of firing a live round which it did unfortunately.

  2. next time ya loading up the car/truck for
    that trip to the range, or going to or from the LGS, or just participating on general life activities, take a look around for FedEx delivery vehicles ’cause… FedEx Trucks Will Be Spying On You For the Police.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIUQApnhENU

  3. If two special prosecutors out of Rio Arriba County can upend the City Different and Santa Fe County, I’m all for it.

    I’m surprised they got this far. A conviction though… probably still a pipe dream. To a Santa Fean Mr. Baldwin is one of the “good people”.

    If the trial goes on for a week, which it should, maybe I’ll see if I can sit in for a day. That would be a hoot.

    • “If the trial goes on for a week, which it should, maybe I’ll see if I can sit in for a day.”

      The judge has scheduled 8 days for the trial, but knowing Baldwin, he will try and stretch it out, maybe 2 weeks…

  4. If his lawyer is responsible for his new ima-extreme-doofus look, that could be grounds for appeal, is what I am thinking. If l was on the jury, l would be wondering “how dumb you guys think l am, anyhoo?”

  5. The greatest mistake was Baldwin convincing himself that it was just a “prop gun.”. That is a violation of the ZEROETH RULE OF GUN SAFETY. It wasn’t a prop gun. It was a real fun that they were using as a prop.

    Baldwin then proceeded to violate all the other FOUR RULES OF GUN SAFETY with a real gun resulting in a death and a severe injury.

  6. I hope they bust your hazz Baldwin. The gun you had you had to pull back the trigger to make it fire. You killed one person and wounded another. You couldn`t ever be that stoned. So it looks like murder to me and anyone with half a brain.

  7. Read one article that says witnesses saw him pull the trigger.

    Watching him goof with guns on 30Rock leads me to believe he had a habit of ignoring gun safety.

  8. Make no mistake all: Alec Baldwin will be found guilty and do 18 months. 100%.

    Just watch the opening statement from the prosecutor. All true no refuting any of it by the defense. Videos of his recklessness with gun onset. Witness testimony. Waving it everywhere. Shooting blanks at personnel. Unhinged. Lies about pulling trigger. Jury will see what a rotten person he is. Blames everyone else.
    4 Rules is just one of the set pieces in prosecutions case. Watch opening statement – she is money (prosecutor)
    If a betting site taking odds n this one – go all in.

    • Having personal knowledge of Santa Fe, at depth, I’ll take that bet.

      He walks. It was an uphill battle to get to this point. Those ain’t normal prosecutors, they’re not even from Santa Fe County. That by itself should tell you what’s going on.

      • He may be ‘one of them’, but he also killed one of them, an extremely attractive young model of one.

        I’d say 50-50 he walks…

        • He’s got the same chance of being convicted in Santa Fe that Trump had of acquittal in Manhattan.

          It’s like you think this is the court system of 1999. It ain’t.

          Lawyers will tell you this. The outcome of criminal cases and torts is about in-group/out-group dynamics and not much else until you get into the Federal system.

        • Another place that I never agreed with the “mainstream”.

          There was no particular reason to believe that at all. People simply believed what they wanted to believe and ignored the fact that they had no experience and had applied no thought to their position.

          Why would Biden interfere with the prosecution of his son when he can put his finger on the scale of the sentencing or simply pardon the guy? (Or why would his handlers allow him to do this when there’s a better political solution?)

          He wouldn’t. Because incentive structures are real. “bUt BiDeNZ CoRrUPT!” is an unthinking argument that ignores how people actually behave and substitutes in a really rather unformed belief. [Insert my old talk on heuristics here.]

          Same deal here. Baldwin is higher on the hierarchy than the person he killed. He’s popular and important for reasons that a Santa Fean can’t articulate but they know it to their bones. But IRL it’s because he’s on the record for years as saying what they want to hear, i.e. the “right things”. He’s very public about that. The chick he shot is a nobody. Probably a good person but, are we going to take down a truly good person for someone who was just a bit good? Unlikely.

          The city’s an echo chamber known as “The San Francisco of the High Desert” for a reason.

          If she popped him, she’d go to prison. He pops her it’s extremely unlikely that there’s any form of justice. Purely because of where he ranks on the hierarchy.

          We’re talking about a city where there’s a constant drumbeat to take everyone who gets a DUI, lock them up and throw away the key. For a first offense. Unless of course, you’re well known and have the right politics. Then you can run someone over driving shitfaced and a weekend in jail provokes outrage.

          You say that’s not logical, and you’re right. It’s pure in-group/out-group dynamics in an echo chamber. Ultimately the same as San Fran where telling your boss and friends that you’re Progressive is more important than the city turning into a zombie apocalypse.

  9. Watching the defense claim actors don’t have any responsibility for making sure a gun is unloaded when it’s handed to them gave me an idea. If you are charged with IMS for accidentally shooting someone just tell them you identify as an actor and you should be good to go.

    Baldwin doesn’t think this is his fault because he never learned how to safely handle and clear a gun handed to him. Never take someone else’s word for a “cold” gun unless you watch them clear it right in front of you or do it yourself.

  10. First you gotta cock it. Then you have to pull the trigger.

    If the gun is defective, it can happen otherwise, but that kind of defect does not heal itself – and such a defect apparently was not evident after the fact.

    That’s a mighty big hill for the defense to climb.

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