Opening statements were made Wednesday in the involuntary manslaughter trial for actor Alec Baldwin, with prosecutors showing body cam videos of first-responders at the scene and painting Baldwin as a reckless person with little care for safe gun handling.
“The defendant takes [the gun] out quickly the first time pointed—and you will hear witness testimony who will tell you the first time he does it his finger is on or around the trigger,” Special Prosecutor Erlinda Johnson told the jury. “He does it again. Takes it out very fast, points it, and once again you will hear testimony that his finger was on or around the trigger. And the evidence will show that that third and fatal time, he takes it out once again, fast, cocks the hammer, pointed straight at Mrs. Hutchins and fires that gun.”
Johnson further told jurors: “It’s simple, straightforward. The evidence will show that someone who played make believe with a real gun and violated the cardinal rules of firearm safety is the defendant, Alexander Baldwin.”
Defense attorneys, on the other hand, blamed the shooting on the armorer on the set, saying Baldwin should be found innocent. In fact, they said he had no idea there was live ammunition anywhere around.
“This was an unspeakable tragedy,” attorney Alex Spiro told the jury. “But Alec Baldwin committed no crime. He was an actor. Actor playing the role of Harlan Rust. An actor playing a character can act in ways that are lethal, that just aren’t lethal on a movie set. These cardinal rules, they’re not cardinal rules on a movie set.
Spiro focused much of his argument on a number of questions that have yet been answered, including why the live bullet was even on the set, why the armorer placed it in the gun and why the head of safety didn’t notice it.
“None of it speaks to whether Alec knew or should have known those things,” Spiro said. “He didn’t. No one on that set did. It was not foreseeable.”
Baldwin is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting of Hutchins, a charge the movie’s armorer, Hanna Guiterrez-Reed, was found guilty of back in March and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Hutchins was killed in October 2021 when Baldwin pointed a “prop gun” at Hutchins and pulled the trigger. The shot also injured the film’s director, Joel Souza.
Baldwin has said the gun fired accidentally after he followed instructions to point it toward Hutchins, who was behind the camera. Baldwin said he was unaware the gun contained a live round and that he pulled back the hammer—not the trigger—and the gun fired.
Also on Wednesday, Baldwin’s attorney questioned the first witness in the case, Nicholas LeFleur, a former Santa Fe County Sheriff who arrived on the scene shortly after the shooting. Answering the attorney’s questions about whether he perceived the shooting had been intentional, LeFleur said, “I wouldn’t say there was no intention. I don’t know the individual’s intentions, but his demeanor was sad. Upset.”
The trial will continue on Thursday with more witnesses set to be called to the stand. If convicted of the charge, Baldwin could face up to 18 months in prison, the same sentence handed to Guiterrez-Reed.
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