The proceedings have begun at the trial of Alec Baldwin, who is being prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter following the death, on set, of a director of photography in October 2021.
The trial of Alec Baldwin has begun in the United States. The 66-year-old American actor is being prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter and risks up to 18 months in prison following the tragedy that took place in October 2021 on the set of Rust in New Mexico. The actor had brandished a gun that was supposed to be loaded with blanks, but a real projectile was fired and killed a director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, and injured the director, Joel Souza.
Since Wednesday, July 10, the debates have opened to determine the responsibility of Alec Baldwin. The prosecution has accused him in particular of having “violated the fundamental rules” of security, depicting him as a capricious star who would have “played pretend with a real gun and violated the fundamental rules of securing firearms”. He would have demanded “to be given the biggest gun available” and regularly armed it and pointed it at the members of the team, assures the prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson.
Defense pleads “tragedy”
Conversely, the defense insisted that “there will be no witness or piece of evidence in this trial to say that Alec knew or should have known that the gun contained a live round.” His attorney, Alex Spiro, blamed the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was sentenced in April to 18 months in prison. The first assistant, also blamed by the defense, had pleaded guilty to negligence.
Alec Baldwin’s lawyer argued “an unspeakable tragedy” that was “anything but predictable.” The actor denies having pulled the trigger and has always maintained that he was told that there was no danger with this weapon. “Even if he voluntarily pulled the trigger, that does not make him guilty of homicide,” argues the defense, which says that “on a film set, you have the right to pull the trigger.” For its part, the prosecution considers the hypothesis of an accidental shooting “absurd,” assuring that the actor had “shamelessly lied” by changing his version of events after the first interrogation, reports AFP. The hearings are scheduled to last until July 19.