As opening statements unfolded in Alec Baldwin’s Santa Fe, New Mexico, involuntary-manslaughter trial for the fatal Rust shooting, the prosecution and defense presented dueling narratives about the role of fantasy on set. Here’s what happened in opening statements, from the prosecution’s argument to defense attorney Anthony Spiro playing clips of the unreleased film.
The line between fantasy and reality
Prosecutor Erlinda Johnson alleged that Baldwin “played make-believe with a real gun and violated the cardinal rules of firearm safety,†leading to cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’s accidental death. Lead defense attorney Alex Spiro leaned on the fantasy of filmmaking to explain that the actor wasn’t being irresponsible, arguing that performers point guns at others in movies and shows all the time — it was the bullet that shouldn’t have been there, not Baldwin’s behavior, that resulted in death. “Alec Baldwin committed no crime. He was an actor acting, playing the role of Harland Rust,†Spiro told jurors. Baldwin has pleaded not guilty.
In her opening statement, Johnson painted Baldwin, who starred in and produced the film, as cavalier with firearms and suggested that the cast and crew faced constraints, ramping up the risk of someone getting injured on set. “While it was a movie set, it was a real-life workplace for many people, but you will hear this workplace was on a tight budget, and you will learn that some of the people who were hired to work at this workplace were very inexperienced and one of those was the armorer, a young woman named Hannah-Gutierrez Reed,†Johnson said, saying that this was “obvious.â€
Johnson claimed that before Baldwin arrived to set, “He requested to be assigned the biggest gun available.†Baldwin’s behavior suggested a lack of focus. “Defendant had some people filming him while he’s running around shooting this gun,†Johnson alleged. In the days before this fateful incident, Baldwin repeatedly handled the gun, even firing it, and the weapon worked “perfectly fine.â€
“Each time the defendant handled this firearm, he did not do a safety check with that inexperienced armorer, and you’ll hear that the reason he didn’t do a safety check was because he didn’t want to offend her,†Johnson said.
Roll the tape
Johnson described Baldwin’s alleged behavior in the moments leading to Hutchins’s death. Baldwin was told to “just slowly take out that gun and just hold it at an angle.†But footage will show Baldwin taking out the gun “quickly†and pointing it with his finger on the trigger. Then, Baldwin does it again. “The evidence will show that on that third and fatal time he takes it out, once again, fast, hammer’s cocked, points it straight at Ms. Hutchins, and fires that gun, sending that live bullet right into Ms. Hutchins’s body,†she said. “The defendant didn’t do a gun safety check with that inexperienced armorer,†she added. “He pointed that gun at another human being, cocked the hammer, and pulled that trigger in reckless disregard for Ms. Hutchins’s safety.â€
Spiro, in countering Johnson’s arguments in his opening, pointed the finger at Gutierrez-Reed and David Halls. Baldwin’s rehearsal wasn’t deadly — it was the live round that he didn’t know about. “Those people failed in their duties, but Alec Baldwin committed no crime — the most critical issue in this case is how a real bullet got on the movie set,†he said. “Real bullets should never be on movie sets.†Since Baldwin’s job was acting, he deferred to the people charged with handling firearms on the set when they said it was safe. So, when “cold gun†was announced on set — meaning it had been checked multiple times — he had no reason to think twice. “Cold guns can’t hurt people.†Spiro also played video from a church on the Rust set; in the video, Baldwin was directed to remove the gun from its holster.
And let’s end with a quick refresher …
Baldwin stands accused of accidentally killing Hutchins on October 21, 2021, while rehearsing a scene; he is accused of pointing the gun at her and pulling the trigger. Prosecutors have contended that armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed provided the gun to Baldwin, and that it hadn’t been adequately checked to ensure that it didn’t contain live ammunition. Director Joel Souza was also hurt in the shooting. Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the incident on March 6, 2024. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison on April 15. David Halls — who pleaded no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon and was given a six-month suspended sentence — testified at Gutierrez-Reed’s trial and claimed that she had given Baldwin the gun. Baldwin has insisted that Halls, who was in charge of set safety, gave him the weapon. Baldwin could be seen taking notes at various points during opening statements. He looked solemn throughout the proceedings. Witness testimony started after openings, with Santa Fe police officer Nicholas Lefleur taking the stand.