July trial date set for Alec Baldwin in fatal "Rust" shooting

Actor Alec Baldwin’s trial is scheduled to begin July 10 in a 2021 fatal shooting on the New Mexico set of the movie “Rust,” a Santa Fe judge ordered Monday.

District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer handed down the scheduling order Monday on the third day of testimony in the trial of the movie’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, in connection with the same fatal shooting.

A grand jury indicted Baldwin on Jan. 19 on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of the movie’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.

Baldwin has pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys have said they will fight the charges.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin July 9 and the trial is estimated to last from July 10-19, according to the scheduling order.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of the movie, was pointing a prop gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal when it fired, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. The shooting occurred on the movie set at Bonanza Creek ranch near Santa Fe on Oct. 21, 2021.

Baldwin has maintained that he pulled back the hammer but did not pull the trigger of the prop Colt .45 revolver when it discharged.

An FBI firearms expert testified Monday in Gutierrez Reed’s trial that, in his testing, the gun would not have fired with the hammer fully cocked unless the trigger had been pulled.

Bryce Ziegler said Monday he tested the prop gun in the FBI lab at the request of law enforcement officers in New Mexico.

Ziegler told jurors that the only way he could make the gun fire when the hammer was fully cocked was to strike the hammer with a mallet. The action damaged parts inside the gun and caused it to discharge, he said.

“That’s what I had to do in my lab,” Ziegler testified. “It would not fire without pulling the trigger — in the full-cocked setting — without being broken.”

Ziegler said he knew in advance that the testing could damage the gun, which he did with permission from law enforcement.

Baldwin’s indictment last month came nine months after prosecutors dropped nearly identical charges against him.

Special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis announced their decision in April 2023 to dismiss the felony charge after “new facts were revealed that demand further investigation and forensic analysis.”

The prosecutors also wrote in a June 9 motion that Baldwin could still face criminal charges based on the results of additional firearms testing.

Prosecutors sought the additional testing last year from Arizona firearms expert Lucien C. Haag, who issued a report in August.

Haag concluded in his report that a trigger pull would have been required to fire the Italian-made Pietta .45-caliber revolver that killed Hutchins.

“Although Alec Baldwin repeatedly denies pulling the trigger, given the tests, findings and observations reported here, the trigger had to be pulled or depressed sufficiently to release the fully cocked or retracted hammer of the evidence revolver,” Haag wrote.

Haag also is listed as a potential witness in Gutierrez Reed’s trial.