Alec Baldwin’s manslaughter trial set to begin in New Mexico

Nearly three years after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico film set of “Rust,” actor Alec Baldwin is set to stand trial.

Baldwin is charged with involuntary manslaughter for his role in the deadly incident that also injured the film’s director, Joel Souza.

Jury selection for Baldwin’s criminal trial begins Tuesday. It’s unclear if the actor will take the stand to testify.

How did we get here?

Baldwin was rehearsing with a prop gun for a scene on Oct. 21, 2021, at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

Baldwin has maintained in multiple interviews that he did not pull the trigger and that the gun misfired a bullet. Baldwin told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he was taking direction from Hutchins and pulled the hammer back as far as he could without cocking it. But in 2022, results from FBI testing of the .45-caliber Colt prop revolver stated that the gun would not have gone off without the trigger having been pulled.

Just last month, Baldwin’s attorneys asked the judge to throw out the case, saying the firearm was badly damaged during forensic testing at the FBI lab, but the motion was denied.

Twists and turns

Baldwin was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter and a firearm enhancement charge. But the firearm enhancement charge was eventually dropped. It reduced his potential prison sentence by five years.

In March 2023, special prosecutor Andrea Reed stepped down after it was determined that she could not oversee the case because, as a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, she was disqualified under state law. But it didn’t stop there. Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies resigned from the case and appointed special prosecutors Kari T. Morrissey and Jason Lewis.

The following month, the charges against Baldwin were dismissed, with the prosecutors citing “new facts in the case.” “We therefore will be dismissing the involuntary manslaughter charges against Mr. Baldwin to conduct further investigation,” prosecutors said in a statement at the time. “This decision does not absolve Mr. Baldwin of criminal culpability and charges may be refiled.”

Over the course of the next several months, Morrissey and Lewis continued to examine evidence and interview witnesses. In October 2023, two sources told NBC News that Baldwin and the special prosecutors had discussed taking a plea deal but that it was rescinded, and that the prosecutors intended to bring Baldwin’s case before a grand jury. Three months later, Baldwin was indicted by a New Mexico grand jury on one count of involuntary manslaughter.

Baldwin’s attorneys Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro said in response: “We look forward to our day in court.”

Following the actor’s indictment in January, SAG-AFTRA, the union representing over 150,000 actors, issued a statement slamming the prosecutors’ decision to re-charge him.

The armorer sentenced to jail

At the time of Baldwin’s initial charges, the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for overseeing the weapons on set, was also charged with involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence. She was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in April and is currently serving an 18-month jail sentence.

Gutierrez-Reed was called upon to testify in Baldwin’s upcoming trial but she asserted her Fifth Amendment right not to answer any questions pertaining to Baldwin during her pretrial interview in May. It is unclear if she will testify if called to the stand.

Meanwhile, Dave Halls, the assistant director on set who pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation, is expected to take the stand. In interviews, Baldwin maintained that Halls declared the gun “cold,” meaning it had no live ammunition before it was handed to Baldwin.

But the prosecutors accused Baldwin of offering contradictory versions of events to law enforcement and in the media about whether he pulled the trigger and whether he was taking direction from Hutchins.

“In sum, every time Mr. Baldwin spoke, a different version of events emerged from his mouth,” said a court filing this spring from the special prosecutors.

Baldwin’s trial is expected to last about two weeks.