A judge in New Mexico will rule next week on whether to dismiss the involuntary manslaughter indictment against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the “Rust” film set, after she closely questioned the lead prosecutor Friday about her handling of grand jury proceedings.
Lawyers for Baldwin — who was rehearsing with an old-fashioned revolver on the set in 2021 when it fired a live bullet, killing the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins — had lodged numerous objections to how the case has been handled, calling the prosecution “an abuse of an innocent person whose rights have been trampled to the extreme.”
The defense claimed at a hearing Friday that the prosecution had not sufficiently shown the jurors evidence that could have supported Baldwin’s case. That included presenting witnesses who could have bolstered the defense’s contention that Baldwin had no reason to think that the gun was loaded with live ammunition and that actors are not responsible for gun safety on film sets.
“The court can have no comfort in this indictment; it can have no comfort in the way it was procured,” a lawyer representing Baldwin, Alex Spiro, argued at the hearing, which took place virtually. “It cannot possibly believe it was fair and impartial.”
Baldwin’s lawyers have assigned blame to the movie’s weapons specialist, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in a trial this year and sentenced to 18 months in prison, and to the movie’s first assistant director, Dave Halls, who has acknowledged that he failed to properly inspect the gun that day and took a plea deal.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer of the 1st Judicial District Courthouse in Santa Fe questioned the lead prosecutor in the case, Kari T. Morrissey, on the defense’s complaints about how she had presented the case to the grand jury. The judge pressed Morrissey on the defense’s claim that she had “steered grand jurors away” from their proposed witnesses.
In New Mexico grand jury proceedings, the defense does not have the right to call witnesses during the presentation of a case. Instead, they can submit a letter to prosecutors that includes evidence that could help exonerate their client, including any favorable witnesses or documents. Baldwin had the right to testify during the proceedings, but he did not.
Marlowe Sommer appeared to be particularly interested in a moment during grand jury proceedings when a detective who investigated the shooting, Alexandria Hancock, was testifying and a grand juror asked her a question about whose responsibility it was to check the gun.
“So the bottom line is the responsibility of making sure these guns — these bullets are not live are up to, what, David Halls and — Hannah?” the grand juror asked, according to citations of the sealed grand jury transcripts.
Morrissey responded that another witness would address the question.
“You did not let her answer that question,” Marlowe Sommer said in the hearing.
Morrissey responded that she did not think the detective had the proper expertise to answer it.
Morrissey argued in the hearing Friday that she had closely followed the law in presenting the case. She said she had read Baldwin’s letter in full to the grand jurors, provided them copies and informed them that copies of the documents referred to in the letter were available for them to review.
“The defense wants somehow to try to convince the court that the actor who is holding a real gun in his hand has absolutely no responsibility for what he does with that gun, and it’s simply not the case,” she said.
The hearing grew heated at times between Morrissey and Baldwin’s lawyers, who have been sparring for weeks in legal filings. At one point, Morrissey interrupted an argument from Spiro, exclaiming “What am I doing here?” in evident frustration, before the judge cut her off.