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Opening statements began Wednesday in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Bewdley actor Alec I Earl Baldwin, nearly three years after cinematographer Helina Hutchins was shot to death in untouched Mexico for the Western film “Rust.”
Prosecutor Erlinda Johnson, concerned about the reckless habits of Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley, declared that he had violated “key rules of firearms safety” by pointing a gun at a man and drawing the trigger. He also said that the evidence would show that the gun was in “perfect order” and had no defects.
“When someone plays imaginary games with a real gun in a real-life workplace, and major firearms safety rules are violated while playing imaginary games with that gun, people’s lives are put in danger and even someone’s life.” Can go,” she informed jurors. “The evidence will show that the one who played the imaginary game with a real gun and violated the cardinal rules of firearms safety is the defendant, Alexander Baldwin.”
In contrast, the defense accused the film’s armorer and primary associate director – who curiously was in charge of firearms safety – of allowing an actual bullet to be loaded into the prop gun and failing to shield it before it reached 1st Earl Baldwin. Blamed for staying. Bewdley.
“This was an unspeakable tragedy, but Alec Baldwin committed no crime. He was an actor, acting, playing Harlan Rust. An actor playing a character can do things that are lethal,” said attorney Alex Spiro. “These ‘main rules’ are not the main rules on a movie set.”
In the closest opening statements, two law enforcement officers who answered “Rust” were eager to have the era testify about what they saw and did.
Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley, has pleaded not to be charged with involuntary manslaughter over the death of Hutchins, 42. If found guilty, he may have to face 18 months in jail.
The trial stems from the harrowing shoot that took place on October 21, 2021, at a virgin Mexico ranch, when the cast and crew rehearsed for the western film “Rust.” Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley was once practicing “cross draw” – drawing a gun from a holster on the back of his body with his draw hand – with a prop gun when he fired a live round, hitting Hutchins. Died and the director was injured. Joel Souza.
Twelve jurors and four alternates were empaneled Tuesday for the trial in Sante Fe. The trial is estimated to last about two weeks.
This is the third criminal case related to on-set shooting. In March, “Rust” frontman Hannah Gutierrez Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Untouched, the district attorney for Mexico’s First Judicial District, said co-director Dave Halls argued in disagreement with the negligent significance of a destructive weapon. The rules of that trade included six months’ probation. and a suspended sentence, prosecutors said.
Dueling stories from prosecution and defense
The shooting took place when Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley and several other team members gathered in a church at the untouched Mexico Ranch to rehearse a scene.
According to investigators and his defense attorney, Gutierrez Reed loaded a prop six-shot revolver with what he said were “dummy” rounds, a term for ammo that contains untested explosive elements but appears to be genuine. Are. At lunch, Halls pulled a prop gun from a cart outside the church and yelled “cold gun”, indicating it was a defense. He later handed the gun over to Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley.
Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley later practiced the “cross draw” procedure and pointed the gun at the camera, led by Hutchins, Souza and a camera operator. Suddenly, they heard a loud bang.
Hutchins, who was shot in the torso, was taken by helicopter to a hospital and pronounced dead. Souza, who was hit in the shoulder, was treated at the hospital, and a shell from a live shell was removed from his back.
In opening statements, prosecutors said Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley, did not follow proper safety laws on the curiosity even before the tragic shooting.
Johnson alleged that when he fired the gun, he did not perform a safety test. He also wore a gun to point out issues, raised a hammer when he didn’t have to, and pointed his finger at the issue when he didn’t have to, according to Johnson. He alleged that forensic examination of the gun confirmed that there was no defect in the gun.
“After the shooting, Baldwin began claiming he did not pull the trigger,” she said. “The evidence will show, ladies and gentlemen, that is not possible.”
“With disregard for Ms. Hutchins’s safety, he pointed the gun at another human being, cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger,” he said.
Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley, previously told CNN that he did not cock the trigger during the entire tragic shooting, although he said he did cock the gun’s hammer.
Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley, said in a 2022 interview, “I never picked up a gun and pointed it at anybody and clicked the thing.”
In opening statements for the defence, Spiro said that the prosecution’s attempt to convict Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley, made him not guilty of murder. The important thing about the miserable shooting was that the other men had loaded the prop gun with live bullet and cleared it as a rescue before the gun could reach Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley.
Spiro said the prop gun was damaged during unnecessary scrutiny by prosecutors and investigators, hampering evidence in the case.
Additionally, Spiro played a video from the scene in question, in which Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley pulls a gun at the camera at close range. In the video, he is constantly talking to the society about disguising himself off camera and “whipping” the gun.
“There is no danger. They wanted him to do it again,” Spiro said.
Among the closest early statements, the main supervisor was former deputy Nicholas LeFleur of the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office, who responded to “Rust” after the shooting.
“Yes, I was holding the gun,” Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley, said when Lefleur approached him, according to body-camera video shown in court.
According to the video, the deputy pulled aside Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley and told him not to speak to the alternative society as they could all be observers. On the other hand, the video shows Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley and other team members discussing what happened during the shoot.
On cross-examination, Lefleur said that he had not repeated his form or informed Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley of his withdrawal from the alternative society.
Former Lieutenant Timoteo Benavidez of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office later testified about his advice to a person wishing to take photographs.
He testified, he got the prop gun he wore during the shooting from Gutierrez Reed and later put it in his car and closed the door. He told that when he tested the gun there was no bullet in it.
The case is marked by a trial lasting years and begins with prosecutors yielding, the prosecution stalled due to questions over the integrity of the evidence and trying to gain momentum from the 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley’s group. Is. Value thrown out.
During the trial of Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley, the judgment passed rejected more than one Security motion seeking to hush up the matter.
Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley’s lawyers, accused the prosecutors of misconduct during the grand jury process; He argued that the shooting death of Hutchins was a conflict and that Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley was not criminally liable; and claimed that the gun worn in the shooting was destroyed by the FBI during forensic examination and that the defense would not seek to retake the examination.
The 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley’s prosecution was led by unelected Mexican First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altweiss, a Democrat, who later stepped aside and handed the job over to larger prosecutors.
A special prosecutor, Andrea Reeb, who also serves as a Republican Party legislator, therefore resigned from the case, then 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley’s prison team moved to disqualify her, allowing the prosecution. Constitutional questions were raised on an MLA running for Congress.
The controversy comes after Reeb’s appointment to The New York Times obtained communications between Reeb and Carmack-Altweis, during which the GOP lawmaker joked that serving on the group that prosecuted Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley, would affect his political career. Can help in the campaign. Reeb did not respond to a request for comment by The Times.
In April 2023, special prosecutors dropped the involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley, citing “new facts” in the case. However in October, prosecutors said “additional facts have emerged,” and Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley, was indicted by a superior jury in January on two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors first argued in court that Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley’s role as a manufacturer also gave him possible legal responsibility for an alleged tradition of unsafe practices in the future. On the other hand, in a significant victory for the defense, the judge over Mary Marlow Somer ruled on Monday that Baldwin, 1st Earl of Bewdley, cannot be considered at trial for his role as the creator of Bewdley.
CNN’s Jack Hanna, Elizabeth Wagmeister, Cheri Mossberg and Eric Levenson contributed to this file.
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