(10 Jul 2024)
POOL
Santa Fe, New Mexico – 10 July 2024
++AUDIO MUTE FOR SHOTS 1-7++
1. Various of Baldwin entering courtroom and sitting down
2. Medium of Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer
3. Tight of Baldwin with arms crossed; Stephen Baldwin and Hilaria Baldwin behind him
4. Medium of Baldwin talking with lawyers
5. Tight of Baldwin with glasses on
6. Close-up Stephen Baldwin
7. Close-up Hilaria Baldwin
8. Medium of Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer talking
9. Various excerpts from Special Prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson’s opening statement
STORYLINE:
A prosecutor told jurors that Alec Baldwin “violated the cardinal rules of firearm safety” in opening statements Wednesday at his trial for involuntary manslaughter.
“The evidence will show that someone who played make believe with a real gun and violated the cardinal rules of firearm safety is the defendant, Alexander Baldwin,” special prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson said.
She emphasized that the set of the film “Rust,” where cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, “a vibrant 42-year-old rising star,” was shot and killed, was a workplace.
“The evidence will show that like in many workplaces, there are people who act in a reckless manner and place other people in danger,” Johnson said. “That, you will hear, is the defendant.”
Johnson walked the jurors through the events leading up to the Oct. 21, 2021, shooting. She said on that day, Baldwin declined multiple opportunities for standard safety checks before the rehearsal and instead “did his own thing” with the revolver at the rehearsal where Hutchins was killed.
“He cocks the hammer, points it straight at Miss Hutchins, and fires that gun, sending that live bullet right into Miss Hutchins body,” Johnson said.
Johnson is a relative newcomer to the case, appointed in late April by the Santa Fe district attorney’s office.
The trial will delve into the confluence of gun safety, high-wattage celebrity and a low-budget Western movie on the remote ranch set.
The 16 jurors — 11 women and five men — come 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 Hutchins 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. He entered the courtroom with a disposable coffee cup in his hand. His wife Hilaria Baldwin and brother, Stephen Baldwin, were seated close by in the audience, among relatives and friends of the defendant.
He sat surrounded by his lawyers, wearing a dark blue suit in the downtown Santa Fe courthouse 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 have said 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.
Baldwin, the star of “Beetlejuice,” “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “30 Rock,” has been a household name as an actor and public personality for more than three decades.
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