The trial of Alec Baldwin over his role in the fatal shooting of the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of his film Rust has begun in a Santa Fe courthouse.
Baldwin emerged as a major movie star in the late 1980s and early 90s through films such as Beetlejuice and The Hunt for Red October, and has remained a household name ever since.
The trial comes nearly three years after Hutchins’s death on the western film set in October 2021, and could see the actor face up to 18 months in prison.
In March, the film’s chief weapons handler, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Here is what you need to know about Baldwin’s case.
1. What is the case against Alec Baldwin?
Baldwin is charged with felony involuntary manslaughter after Hutchins was shot with a prop gun during a rehearsal of Rust, taking place in a small church on the movie set at Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico.
A rising cinematographer at the start of her career, Hutchins later died from her wounds in a local hospital. The director, Joel Souza, was also wounded.
Baldwin, who was starring in and co-producing the film, said he was holding the gun and pulled back the hammer – but not the trigger – when the gun fired unintentionally.
The prosecutors will try to convince jurors that Baldwin was negligent in handling the gun. If a jury unanimously convicts him, he could get 18 months in prison.
2. What must be proved for a guilty verdict?
Prosecutors have two alternative standards for proving the charge. 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.
Two major themes will dominate the trial, one large, one small: the chaotic atmosphere of the movie set, and the details of the Italian-made classic revolver that Baldwin pointed at Hutchins.
Baldwin’s team scored a major victory on the first of these the day before the trial started, when a judge ruled that his role as a co-producer of the film was not relevant, only his status as the lead actor. Baldwin’s producer job has been important to prosecutors’ arguments that he contributed to the workplace environment that led to the shooting.
3. How will the armorer’s conviction affect Baldwin’s case?
The defense will try to show that it is not the job of an actor to make sure real rounds are not in a 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 revolver’s trigger. It has never been officially determined who brought the live rounds that killed Hutchins on to the set.
Prosecutors at the previous trial of the Rust armorer, Gutierrez-Reed, alleged that she was responsible. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to the same 18 months in prison Baldwin faces. Prosecutors may call Gutierrez-Reed to the stand to testify against Baldwin, though the judge in the case rejected a previous immunity deal they wanted to give her.
4. What is Baldwin’s defense?
Baldwin’s elite legal team of mostly New York-based attorneys from the firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan includes Alex Spiro, a 41-year-old defense attorney who has represented Elon Musk, Megan Thee Stallion and other prominent figures. Spiro has become among the most sought-after lawyers in the country, and is slated to give aggressive cross-examination to the state’s witnesses.
In addition to arguing that it was not Baldwin’s responsibility to ensure the safety of firearms on set, the actor’s legal team will attack the gun evidence – arguing that serious damage done to the revolver during an FBI test amounted to the destruction of evidence and left the defense no chance to examine it. The defense team may also press witnesses over whether Hutchins received proper medical treatment between the shooting and the declaration of her death at a hospital.
5. Who’s expected to testify at the Alec Baldwin trial?
The crew members inside the small church building who became eyewitnesses to Hutchins’s killing will provide the trial’s most essential testimony. They include the director, Souza, who was himself shot and wounded by the bullet from Baldwin’s gun, and the assistant director David Halls, who some said was responsible for the shooting but pleaded no contest to negligent handling of a firearm.
Prosecutors convinced a judge just before trial to exclude a summary of a workplace safety report that puts much of the blame for the shooting on Halls.
Zac Sneesby, a crew member who was holding a boom microphone during the rehearsal, will testify that he saw Baldwin pull the trigger of the revolver, prosecutors said in court filings, making him potentially the most important witness of all. Prosecutors also may call Gutierrez-Reed to the stand, but the judge, Mary Marlowe Sommer, rejected an immunity deal they wanted to give her.
Jurors will hear testimony from firearms experts who allege the revolver was working properly and could not have fired without the trigger being pulled. Baldwin himself can take the stand in his defense, but he does not have to. His attorneys have not said what he will do.
6. How long is the Alec Baldwin trial expected to last?
The trial at the first judicial district court of New Mexico – about 20 miles north-east of the movie set and the shooting – is projected to last nine days, and Marlowe Sommer insists that she will keep the lawyers in line and on schedule.
Jury selection begins on Tuesday, with opening statements expected on Wednesday, and the end projected for the following Friday. Once the jurors get the case, however, they can deliberate as long as needed. The trial will be streamed and broadcast by several outlets including Court TV.