Alec Baldwin “Pulled The Trigger,” Cop Tells ‘Rust’ Manslaughter Trial A Crew Member Told Him; Lawyers Clash In Opening Statements – Update
UPDATE, 11:15 AM: With opening statements from the prosecution and defense delivered to the jury Wednesday, Alec Baldwin’s nine-day involuntary manslaughter trial for the fatal shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021 went straight to the scene of the crime.
The first witness of the day was Officer Nicholas LeFleur of the Santa Fe County Police Department, and he had a lot to say about whether the Baldwin, the indie Western’s star and producer, actually and literally pulled the trigger.
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Hutchins was killed and Rust director Joel Souza was injured on October 21, 2021 after the Colt .45 Baldwin was pointing at the cinematographer shot off a live round during a rehearsal at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe. Baldwin has always insisted that while he cocked the hammer, he never pulled the trigger — a statement that his lead defense lawyer Alex Spiro reiterated today, with a bit of wiggle room.
Under questioning from Special Prosecutor Kari Morrissey, LeFleur went through his experience as a member of the sheriff’s department at the time, arriving on scene at the Bonanza Creek Ranch location in the immediate aftermath of the shooting as medical aid was being given to Hutchins and Souza.
LeFleur walked the jury and courtroom through his 10 hours at the location, aka crime scene, and in particular described his interactions with Baldwin, who was on his phone initially, and his own attempts to stop crew members and others from discussing the incident among themselves.
In the latter, LeFleur acknowledged he was mostly unsuccessful – as lapel camera footage played during his testimony made clear.
“I believe he told me he was holding the gun,” LeFleur told Morrissey about his conversation with Baldwin upon first speaking with him at the scene. The interaction was captured on LeFleur’s lapel camera — footage the courtroom saw.
“One of the guys told me Baldwin pulled the trigger,” the cop added of a crew member who was supposedly in the church location where the shooting occurred.
Clearly what the prosecution were looking for, LeFluer’s statement was in direct reference to the actor’s ongoing insistence that the 1880s Colt .45 replica went off in his hand. Having lost the ability earlier this week to bring Baldwin’s role as a co-producer on Rust too deeply into the case, the actor’s truthfulness about pulling the trigger or not could be the figurative smoking gun for special prosecutors Morrissey and Erlinda Johnson.
Recharged with involuntary manslaughter in January, exactly a year after he was charged the first time, Baldwin could get up to 18 months in a New Mexico state prison and hefty fines if found guilty.
Under sometimes sharp questioning from defense lawyer Spiro, as Baldwin looked on from just a few feet away, LeFluer was asked if a “pale” Baldwin seemed like “an actor out of character.”
The question, which follows terminology and a tone New York-based Spiro used in his opening statement Wednesday, caused some confusion and actually led to an objection from prosecutors. After consultation with Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, the question was posed again and LeFluer responded in a perplexed voice: “Yes.”
Building his client’s case in an odd fashion, Spiro then asked LeFluer whether he recalled crew members and others coming up to Baldwin and shaking his hand in the hours following the shooting. “Have you ever seen that before?” he asked with a rhetorical flourish about LeFluer’s career in law enforcement and a potential homicide scene. “No,” the officer replied.
LeFluer will continue his testimony once the court returns from lunch in about an hour.
PREVIOUSLY, 9:18 AM: Alec Baldwin “violated … set safety rules,” the prosecution declared this morning in the Rust star’s involuntary manslaughter trial for the 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
“After the shooting the defendant began to claim he did not pull the trigger,” said special prosecutor Erlinda Johnson in opening statements in Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer’s Sante Fe County courtroom. “The evidence will show ladies and gentlemen, that’s not possible,” Johnson added poignantly to the jury, as Baldwin himself sat a few feet away.
Setting the tone and temperament for the trial, the prosecution and the defense went at each other’s cases with harsh accusations of going to “the edge of truth and beyond” and “gaps in the evidence.”
“That gun the defendant had asked to be assigned, worked perfectly fine, as it was designed,” special prosecutor Johnson said near the end of her relatively brief but pointed remarks Wednesday. “One of the main problems that afternoon of October 21 was that the defendant didn’t do a gun safety check with that inexperienced armorer,” Johnson went on to say, in reference to the now-incarcerated Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.
“He pointed the gun at another human being, cocked the hammer and pulled that trigger with reckless disregard for Ms. Hutchins’ safety,” Johnson steely stated of Baldwin.
Hutchins was killed and Rust director Joel Souza was injured on October 21, 2021 after the Colt .45 Baldwin was pointing at the cinematographer shot off a live round during a rehearsal at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe. Recharged with involuntary manslaughter in January, exactly a year after he was charged the first time, Baldwin entered a not guilty plea in the weeks afterwards.
Set to be in court every day for the week and half trial, Baldwin faces up to 18 months behind bars himself and hefty fines if found guilty
Taking to the court podium after Johnson, Baldwin’s lead lawyer Alex Spiro wasted no time seeking to flip the script, even on his own client’s insistence he didn’t pull the trigger on the gun “Even if he did intentionally pull the trigger …that doesn’t make him guilty of homicide.”
“The most critical issue in this case is how a real bullet got on a movie set,” Spiro exclaimed with a mention of Gutierrez-Reed and slagging the prosecution in advance for likely showing “emotionally charged” video in the aftermath of Hutchins’ death “The evidence will show that real bullets are never supposed to be on movie sets,’ he added, showing footage of Baldwin on set.
“They were try to get Alec,” Spiro claimed of the police and prosecutors in a clear plea hoping for a distrust of authority among the jury. “How far they would go for the shiny object.”
“This was an unspeakable tragedy …Alec Baldwin committed no crime,” the Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan partner told the jury as his client looked on with a stare. “None of it had anything to do with Alec Baldwin,” Spiro said, going on to detail to the court the “magic” of movies, how actors concentrate on their roles not what’s going on around them, and how guns are part of the culture of cinema.
Oddly, neither the prosecution nor the defense made much mention of the troubles on the Rust set like several previous unintended firearm discharges and most of the camera crew resigning just before the fatal shooting because of safety and financial concerns.
Spiro took the first of many swipes at the Santa Fe Sheriff’s department for making “lot of mistakes” like “no securing the prop cart” which contained the Colt .45 in question. After the court was given a glimpse of some police lapel footage of the Rust scene, the prosecutors demanded a quick chat with the judge, clearly upset. “People point guns on movie set …no one saw him pull the trigger,” Spiro went on. “It as an actor handling a prop.”
“The SAG guidelines don’t tell actors to check the gun,” the New York attorney said bringing up support the guild has offered longtime member Baldwin early on in this case. “
Found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in her own trial, Gutierrez-Reed was sentence to 18 months behind bars in April. She is appealing the verdict that another jury reached in less than three hours in March.
“You will hear that this workplace was on a tight budget,” prosecutor Johnson noted earlier of the $7 million indie Western that Baldwin was a producer on as well as the star and story co-author. “There are people who act in a reckless manner and place other individuals in danger. That, you will hear, was the defendant Alexander Baldwin.”
The condemnations of the very opposing opening statements aside, the day actually started a little late Wednesday with WIFI difficulties, and once again the heat and faulty A/C in the Land of Enchantment courtroom.
Once things got settled, Judge Sommer began things by giving the jurors and alternates an overview of court protocol and procedures – which included telling them no Googling but it was okay to say “hello” to officials and lawyers in the hallway. Throughout the judge’s instructions, Baldwin was writing away at the defense table, seemingly striking out something on a yellow legal pad. The 30 Rock star’s wife Hilaria, plus his brother Stephen Baldwin were just behind him in the court room Wednesday, along with other supporters.
Now that the opening statements are over, the trial is on a break. The first witnesses are scheduled to testify later today in what is already looking like a brisk moving case.
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