Fatal shooting on Rust set | Alec Baldwin accused of violating safety rules

(Santa Fe) The prosecution in the trial of American actor Alec Baldwin accused him Wednesday of having “violated fundamental rules” of security, while the defense described the fatal shooting that hit the director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, as an unforeseeable “tragedy.”

The 66-year-old actor, who is being prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter, faces up to 18 months in prison.

At a ranch in New Mexico where the western was being filmed Rust In October 2021, the star brandished a weapon that was supposedly loaded with blanks, but which fired a very real projectile, killing the director of photography and injuring the director, Joel Souza.

In court in Santa Fe, the state capital, prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson presented the defendant at the opening of the proceedings on Wednesday as a capricious star who neglected basic safety rules on handling weapons.

The actor played “pretend with a real gun and violated basic gun safety rules,” she told the jury.

He had “demanded to be given the biggest gun available” and regularly cocked it or pointed it at team members, she added.

“Tragedy”

Alec Baldwin, dressed in a dark suit and tie, attended the hearing with his wife Hilaria and one of his brothers, Stephen, also an actor.

“There will be no witness or piece of evidence in this trial to say that Alec knew or should have known that the gun contained a live round,” his lawyer Alex Spiro insisted, pointing to the responsibility of the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, and the first assistant, David Halls.

The first, who had placed the bullet in the reproduction of the period pistol used by Alec Baldwin, was sentenced in April by the same court to 18 months in prison and the second pleaded guilty to negligence in order to avoid a prison sentence.

The lawyer deplored “an unspeakable tragedy.” “This was anything but predictable,” he said, stressing that the prosecution would have the difficult task of proving otherwise.

Last moments filmed

The first witnesses called by the prosecution were police officers who arrived at the scene of the tragedy. Images from their body cameras were shown in court, showing poignant scenes of Halyna Hutchins’ final moments.

The death of the talented 42-year-old Ukrainian cinematographer, who had worked on investigative documentaries, has deeply shocked the film industry.

The battle between the two parties in the trial promises to be particularly fierce, as the investigation has been marked by numerous weaknesses and twists and turns.

The actor has always explained that he was assured that the weapon was harmless and denies having pulled the trigger. His lawyers have filed numerous appeals to try to drop the charges, to no avail.

Their tenacity sowed doubt in the ranks of the prosecution for many months. They first obtained a change of prosecutor, then a dropping of the charges in 2023, before the actor was finally charged again in January.

The defense says prosecutors are trying to make a name for themselves at the expense of a Hollywood star in a case followed by the world’s media.

The investigation never established how live ammunition – which is in principle prohibited – ended up on the plateau.

The prosecution also believes that the actor “lied shamelessly” by changing his version of events after his first interrogation. It considers the hypothesis of an accidental shooting, at the heart of its line of defense, “absurd.”

An expert report by the American federal police, the FBI, concluded that the pistol could not have fired without the trigger being pressed.

But the defense disputes this, because the police damaged parts of the weapon while carrying out tests to explore the possibility of an accidental shot.

The verdict will also be closely scrutinized: a conviction would set a precedent that could deter other actors from using real weapons in filming.

The hearings are expected to last until July 19, before jurors deliberate.