(10 Jul 2024)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Santa Fe, New Mexico – 10 July 2024
1. Alec Baldwin arrives at court
STORYLINE:
A jury is set to hear opening statements Wednesday at the involuntary manslaughter trial of Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer, a trial that will delve into the confluence of gun safety, high-wattage celebrity and a low-budget Western movie on a remote ranch set.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys selected 16 jurors — 11 women and five men — on Tuesday, seating a jury from a region with strong currents of gun ownership and safety informed by backcountry hunting. Four of the jurors will be deemed alternates while the other 12 deliberate once they get the case.
The shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, a 42-year-old rising star in her craft, nearly three years ago sent shock waves through the film industry and led to one felony charge against Baldwin that could result in up to 18 months in prison.
Baldwin has pleaded not guilty as he returns to the desert Southwest for the trial at a downtown courthouse in Santa Fe, a short drive from the movie-ranch setting of scenes from “Rust."
Baldwin has claimed the gun fired accidentally after he followed instructions to point it toward Hutchins, who was behind the camera. Unaware that it was loaded with a live round, he said he pulled back the hammer — not the trigger — and it fired.
Prosecutors say they’ll present evidence that Baldwin went “off script” and failed to follow basic industry standards for firearms safety when he pointed the firearm at Hutchins on Oct. 21, 2021.
“At the end of the day, the prosecutor’s main theory is that this was a gun involved, and Baldwin had a gun in his hand, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a film set or hunting safety class, you’re responsible for what comes out of the end of the barrel,” said John Day, a Santa Fe-based defense attorney and former prosecutor.
Baldwin attorney Alex Spiro probed prospective jurors on Tuesday for strong opinions about gun safety and asked whether a person must entirely take responsibility for whether a gun is loaded or may “rely on experts, does anybody have a problem with that?”
Most who answered said they always treat a gun as if it were loaded.
Baldwin, the star of “Beetlejuice,” “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “30 Rock” who has been a household name as an actor and public personality for more than three decades, also served as co-producer on “Rust,” which had an initial budget of roughly $7.5 million — a low figure by labor union standards. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ruled shortly before trial that his producer status is not relevant to the case.
Workplace safety investigators and prior court testimony confirmed two gun misfires on set before the fatal shooting, while six crew members walked off set on the eve of Hutchins’ death over concerns including hotel accommodations and safety.
Marlowe Sommer put a summary of those findings off-limits at the request of prosecutors, who describe that investigation as unreliable.
In court filings, defense attorneys have highlighted that the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, already has been found responsible for the shooting, along with testimony that the gun had been checked by an assistant director before it was handed to Baldwin — and that the shooting was incomprehensible and shocking to the entire movie crew because of their belief that there was no live ammunition on set.
Day says that Baldwin’s insistence that he never pulled the trigger, first voiced in a December 2021 interview with ABC News, narrows the options for the defense at trial.
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