What Does the Rust Trial Mean for Alec Baldwin?

Photo: ZUMA Press/Alamy

One day before Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed goes on trial for involuntary manslaughter in the fatal Rust shooting, a New Mexico judge indicated that Alec Baldwin’s case related to this incident would be tried in early summer. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer’s suggestion that the trial would happen as early as June marks a win for Baldwin’s defense team, which wants to proceed to trial quickly. Baldwin’s team also stands to benefit from proceedings against Gutierrez, as they could provide a guide to prosecutors’ strategy.

Sommer’s scheduling comment came after Baldwin’s defense, led by high-profile attorney Alex Spiro, and prosecutors sparred over the trial date. Spiro, citing other commitments, pushed for Baldwin to be tried in June. Prosecutors said June wouldn’t work because of possible commitments, but they could proceed anytime in July, August, or October.

“Your honor that, most respectfully, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me,” Spiro said, given that it’s been several years since the Rust tragedy and prosecutors received special funding for the case.  “Of course, they can be ready in June. They brought this case. They decided to bring this case back.” Sommer said she wanted to come up with a “compromise” that would get proceedings to be “between the July trial dates and June trial dates.”

Prosecutors allege that on October 21, 2021, Baldwin “discharged” a prop gun on the Bonanza Creek ranch film set, killing cinematographer Halnya Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. The prosecution claims that assistant director David Halls gave the gun — which, it claims, was not adequately checked by Gutierrez-Reed and contained live ammunition — to Baldwin. As Baldwin practiced for a scene “drawing and pointing the weapon,” he pulled out the gun and fired, hitting Hutchins and Souza, the prosecution claims.

Neama Rahmani, the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers who worked as a federal prosecutor, said that the trial against Gutierrez-Reed could be a boon to Baldwin’s defense. “All that evidence, it’s part of the record. All the witness testimony, that’s all fair game in Baldwin case,” Rahmani said. “You know what all the key witnesses are going to say, you know what the prosecution’s theory is.”

Jeffrey Lichtman, a veteran New York City attorney whose roster of high-profile clients has included El Chapo, voiced similar sentiments. “Obviously, it’s a huge advantage for him to go second. He’s going to see the prosecution’s case, he’s going to see a preview of exactly what he’s up against,” Lichtman said. “I’m not saying all the evidence against the armorer is going to be the same against him, but a lot of it would be.”

“If I were defending Baldwin, it would be a gift from God,” Lichtman said.

Baldwin was first charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2023 over Hutchins’s death. Less than two months later, Spiro said that the gun had been “destroyed by the state.” The prosecution wound up dropping the case shortly thereafter.

On January 19 2024, however, a grand jury indicted  Baldwin on an involuntary-manslaughter charge with the indictment accusing him of causing “the death of Halyna Hutchins by an act committed with the total disregard or indifference for the safety of others,” saying “the act was such that an ordinary person would anticipate that death might occur under the circumstances.” But this indictment doesn’t mean that the prosecutors have a winning case. (“It’s very easy to get a grand-jury indictment,” Rahmani said. “The defendant isn’t there. They hear a one-sided account of the evidence.”)

Tre Lovell, a longtime entertainment attorney, said that a negative outcome for Gutierrez-Reed wouldn’t bode poorly for Baldwin. They’re two separate defendants, and prosecutors are probing different types of behavior in their respective trials. “Will a conviction of Gutierrez mean there’s a greater likelihood they’re going to get Baldwin? No,” Lovell said. But if jurors decide that Gutierrez-Reed is not guilty, then how could they convict the person who’s not directly responsible for weapons safety? “If she’s acquitted, then the case against him got impossibly more difficult for prosecutors,” Lovell said.