Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ Trial Live: Opening Statements Begin in Actor’s Manslaughter Case

Special Prosecutor Erlinda Johnson began her opening statement.

“When someone plays pretend, with a real gun.

And this person is not following the cardinal rule of firearm safety… People are dying.

Johnson says the budget for “Rust” was tight and the team lacked experience.

Stephen Baldwin, Alec Baldwin’s actor brother, sits behind him in court Wednesday.

Opening statements are expected to begin shortly.

Alec Baldwin’s trial resumed for a second day in Santa Fe, with a jury selected Tuesday.

Baldwin is in court and his opening statements will begin shortly.

The debates can be streamed live here:

Prosecutors say they will present evidence that Baldwin “deviated from the script” and failed to follow basic industry standards for gun safety when he pointed the firearm at Hutchins on Oct. 21, 2021.

“Ultimately, the prosecutor’s main theory is that it was a gun, and Baldwin had a gun in his hand, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a movie set or a hunting safety class, you’re responsible for what comes out of the barrel,” said John Day, a defense attorney and former prosecutor based in Santa Fe.

Testimony at the trial will focus on the flaws in the gun’s final safety check before Baldwin began training with it, as well as the gun’s mechanism and the ability to fire without pulling the trigger. The live round that killed Hutchins also wounded director Joel Souza.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys on Tuesday selected 16 jurors — 11 women and five men — from a region with strong gun ownership and security interests, informed by backcountry hunting.

Four of the jurors will be considered alternates while the other 12 will deliberate once they receive the case.

The shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, a 42-year-old rising star in her profession, nearly three years ago sent shockwaves through the film industry and led to a felony charge against Baldwin that could carry up to 18 months in prison.

Baldwin’s attorney, Alex Spiro, questioned potential jurors Tuesday about strong opinions about gun safety and asked whether a person should take full responsibility for loading a gun or can “rely on the experts, does anybody have a problem with that?”

Most respondents said they always treat a gun as if it were loaded.

Opening statements in Alec Baldwin’s manslaughter trial are expected to begin today.

A jury was selected Tuesday. The Hollywood actor arrived at the Santa Fe courthouse Tuesday morning with his wife Hilaria and their youngest child.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said the trial is expected to last only nine days.

Movie gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has been sentenced to the maximum 18-month prison term for involuntary manslaughter in the killing of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of a Western film.

A New Mexico judge found that Gutierrez-Reed’s recklessness amounted to a serious violent offense, while noting little indication of sincere remorse from the defendant since her conviction in March.

Prosecutors accuse Gutierrez-Reed of unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust,” where it was expressly prohibited, and of failing to follow basic firearm safety protocols.

Baldwin will bring with him an elite legal team comprised primarily of New York-based attorneys, many of them Harvard Law graduates, from the firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Alex Spiro, a 41-year-old defense attorney who has represented Elon Musk, Megan Thee Stallion and other prominent figures and become one of the most sought-after lawyers in the country, will aggressively cross-examine the state’s witnesses.

The defense will try to argue that it is not an actor’s job to ensure that real bullets are not in his 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 has suggested in interviews with authorities, that he never pulled the trigger of the gun.

His lawyers will also attack evidence relating to the weapon, as well as the severe damage done to the revolver during an FBI test that they say amounted to destruction of evidence and left the defense no chance to examine it.

Prosecution firearms experts who testified at Gutierrez-Reed’s trial returned to the stand, over Baldwin’s objections, to testify about his handling of the revolver and whether the weapon functioned properly.

They could also ask witnesses whether Hutchins received proper medical care between the shooting and when he was pronounced dead at the hospital.

On the day of the shooting in 2021, Alec Baldwin was rehearsing a scene in which he was supposed to draw his gun and point it at the camera.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed had prepared a trio of firearms to use on stage, including two weapons that could not fire bullets and a fully operational replica of a Colt .45 revolver.

According to court documents, the gunsmith checked the weapons before placing them on a cart and making them available to Baldwin.

As they discussed the scene, Baldwin showed Hutchins, cameraman Reid Russell and the film’s director, Joel Souza, how he intended to draw the gun.

“So I guess I’ll take it out, pull it out and go, ‘Bang!'” Baldwin reportedly said, according to an LA Times report.

At some point, as he was shooting and giving his explanations, the shot was fired. The bullet hit Halyna Hutchins in the chest, exited her body, and then hit Souza, who was behind her.

First responders rushed Hutchins to a hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, near where the film was shot. She was pronounced dead later that day. Souza survived.

It was later discovered that a live round had been loaded into the gun Baldwin used on set that day.