Alec Baldwin's trial attracts world attention to Santa Fe

A jury in Santa Fe will begin weighing testimony this week to determine whether actor Alec Baldwin is criminally responsible for a 2021 shooting death on the set of the Western movie “Rust.”

The death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins from a bullet fired by a gun in Baldwin’s hand has been at the center of a legal battle for more than 3½ years.

Baldwin, who faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death, is expected to be sitting at the defense table Monday when jury selection begins in Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer’s courtroom.

Testimony could begin as early as Wednesday in New Mexico’s biggest-ever celebrity trial. The trial is scheduled through July 19.

Some 40 news organizations are expected to descend on the 1st Judicial District Courthouse in Santa Fe for the trial, said Barry Massey, spokesman for the Administrative Office of the Courts.

At least a dozen television news networks will have a conspicuous presence on the east plaza of the Santa Fe Courthouse throughout the trial. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Telemundo, Fox and NewsNation and international networks BBC, Sky News, ITN, Japan-based Fuji and Australia’s Nine Network have registered to cover the trial.

CourtTV will stream the trial at courttv.com.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of the movie, was rehearsing a scene on the set at Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe when the gun he was holding discharged, fatally shooting Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.

Information soon emerged that several members of the camera crew had resigned the night before the shooting, citing safety concerns — among them, that two accidental blank rounds had been discharged on the set in recent days.

The movie’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, 27, who had previously supervised weapons for only one movie, was convicted on March 6 of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death following a closely watched trial in Santa Fe.

On April 14, Marlowe Sommer sentenced Gutierrez Reed, who was 24 at the time of the shootings, to the maximum 18 months in prison. “You alone turned a safe weapon (into) a lethal weapon,” the judge told her at sentencing.

Baldwin also faces a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison if a jury finds him guilty of the same charge.

Gutierrez Reed testimony

Both prosecutors and defense attorneys have identified Gutierrez Reed as a potential witness in Baldwin’s trial.

On Wednesday, Marlowe Sommer ordered the “Rust” armorer transferred from the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants to the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office “to provide testimony” in Baldwin’s trial.

But it remains unclear whether she will agree to answer questions. The “Rust” armorer has repeatedly followed the advice of her attorney, Jason Bowles, to claim her constitutional right to remain silent so as not to incriminate herself.

Marlowe Summer last month denied a request by prosecutors that Gutierrez Reed be given immunity from prosecution to testify at Baldwin’s trial.

In a hearing last month, special prosecutor Kari Morrissey called Gutierrez Reed “an incredibly important witness” and said she may still call Gutierrez Reed as a witness.

In a June 6 pre-trial interview, Gutierrez Reed refused to answer most of the questions Morrissey asked her about Baldwin’s actions on the movie set.

Gutierrez Reed currently faces a felony charge of unlawfully carrying a firearm into a liquor establishment, the Matador bar in Santa Fe, on Oct. 1, 2021.

Dispute over firearm

Baldwin has maintained that he did not pull the trigger of the prop Colt .45 revolver he was holding on Oct. 21, 2021, during a rehearsal on the movie set. The gunshot killed Hutchins and injured Souza.

In December 2021, Baldwin told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he did not pull the trigger of the gun he was holding when it fired.

“I didn’t pull the trigger,” Baldwin said during the interview. “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them.”

Baldwin’s claim, made just weeks after the fatal shooting, put the condition of the firearm at the center of the case, where it remains on the eve of the trial.

Only last month, Marlowe Sommer rejected a motion to dismiss the case filed by Baldwin’s attorneys, who argued that the FBI “destroyed” the firearm during a forensic test.

Baldwin’s attorneys argued in a June 24 hearing that the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office was aware of Baldwin’s claim and asked the FBI to determine whether the gun would fire without pulling the trigger.

“The gun is central,” said Baldwin’s attorney, John Bash. “The state knew that Mr. Baldwin had said he did not pull the trigger at the time they ordered the destructive testing.”

Law enforcement and prosecutors believe Baldwin pulled the trigger, Bash said.

“The police themselves, by their conduct, indicated that the evidence could form a basis for exonerating the defendant before they destroyed it,” Bash said. “And they destroyed it anyway.”

An FBI weapons expert testified in Gutierrez Reed’s trial that the revolver was fully functional when it arrived at the FBI laboratory.

FBI forensic examiner Bryce Ziegler testified that he struck the fully cocked gun with a mallet to determine if it would fire without a trigger pull. The test broke the weapon’s trigger mechanism, causing it to fire, he told jurors.

Prosecutors dismissed an earlier involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in April 2023 after they were told that the gun may have been modified before the shooting.

Prosecutors last year hired Arizona firearms expert Lucien C. Haag to perform additional testing on the prop revolver.

Special prosecutor Erlinda Johnson responded at the June 24 hearing that Baldwin’s attorneys never asked investigators to keep the gun intact during the FBI testing.

Johnson also argued that Baldwin’s attorneys hadn’t shown that the gun had exculpatory value, meaning it could be used to demonstrate Baldwin’s innocence.

Ziegler testified that the gun was in working order when the FBI received it and that he had successfully test-fired the gun 12 times, Johnson told the judge.

“There was nothing apparently wrong with this gun,” she said.

Ziegler and Haag are both identified as witnesses for the prosecution.

Also listed as a witness is Zachariah Sneesby, a “Rust” boom operator standing nearby at the time of the shooting. Morrissey said in a recent court filing that Sneesby said in a pre-trial interview that he saw Baldwin pull the trigger of the prop gun.

Other expected witnesses include Souza, the “Rust” director who survived a gunshot, and David Halls, the movie’s safety coordinator, who pleaded guilty to one count of negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced last year to six months probation.

Gutierrez Reed’s trial also never conclusively answered the question of how live rounds found their way onto the set.

Prosecutors told jurors at Gutierrez Reed’s trial that the armorer brought live rounds on the movie set and loaded one into the prop gun Baldwin was holding when it fired.

Baldwin said in his interview with Stephanopoulos that he had no idea how a live bullet found its way into the prop gun.

“Someone put a live bullet in a gun — a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” he said.