Alec Baldwin Trial Day One

Nearly three years after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico film set of “Rust,” actor Alec Baldwin is set to stand trial. Mr. Baldwin is charged with involuntary manslaughter for his role in the deadly incident that also injured the film’s director, Joel Souza.

Alec Baldwin was rehearsing for a scene on Oct. 21, 2021, at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Mr. Baldwin has maintained in multiple interviews that he did not pull the trigger and that the gun misfired a bullet. However, in 2022, results from FBI testing of the .45-caliber Colt prop revolver stated that the weapon would not have gone off without the trigger having been pulled.

Baldwin was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter and a firearm enhancement charge. However, the firearm enhancement charge was eventually dropped. It reduced his potential prison sentence by five years.

The film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for overseeing the weapons on set, was also charged with involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence. She was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in April and is currently serving an 18-month jail sentence.

Ms. Gutierrez-Reed was called upon to testify in Baldwin’s upcoming trial, but she asserted her Fifth Amendment right not to answer any questions about Baldwin during her pretrial interview in May. It is unclear if she will testify if called to the stand.

David Halls, the assistant director on set who pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation, is expected to take the stand. In interviews, Mr. Baldwin maintained that Mr. Halls declared the weapon “cold,” meaning it had no live ammunition before it was handed to Mr. Baldwin.

The trial is expected to last 8 days.

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