Testimony in the courtroom fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin took an emotional turn Thursday when the assistant director of the western film “Rust” broke down in tears as he recounted the moments after the fatal shooting. David Halls’ new testimony conflicts with other accounts of a final revolver safety check and who exactly gave it to the actor during a rehearsal for the film.
Halls, the safety coordinator on the set, told jurors that the weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reid, who is on trial on charges of manslaughter and tampering with evidence, twice handed the revolver to Baldwin. It was first emptied of bullets, Halls testified, and then reloaded with several dummy rounds and a live round.
Baldwin was pointing the gun at Hutchins when it went off at the set’s ranch outside Santa Fe on October 20, 2021, killing the cameraman Halina Hutchins and the wounding of director Joel Souza.
Souza took the stand Friday, describing the pain and shock he felt moments after the bullet that killed Hutchins lodged in his shoulder.
“I remember initially thinking she was startled by it,” Souza said. “And then I saw the blood on her back.”
Souza told the court it was a “chaotic scene”.
“I still didn’t know what happened,” Souza said. “Nothing made sense.”
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of “Rust,” was separately indicted by a grand jury last month. The case against him is scheduled for July.
Gabriela Campos/AP
“I didn’t see Ms. Gutierrez take the gun from Mr. Baldwin,” Halls said during questioning by the prosecution, “but she appeared on my left side and said she put dummy rounds in the revolver.”
His testimony included a gut-wrenching description of standing just 3 feet away from Hutchins when the single fired a shot. While Hutchins was on the ground, he asked her if she was okay.
“She said, ‘I can’t feel my legs,'” Halls said, wiping away tears, according to a video released by Court TV.
Halls said he left a makeshift church on the set to make sure someone called 911. He added that he struggled to understand how a live round could be fired, returning to the church to retrieve the gun from the bench before taking it outside to be unloaded by a crew member and inspect the ammunition.
“The idea that it was a fired munition was not a calculation,” he said.
The testimony of Halls, who pleaded no contest last year to negligent use of a firearm and served six months of unsupervised parole, could weigh heavily as prosecutors reconstruct the chain of events and ammunition storage that led to the shooting.
He described a rudimentary safety check in which Gutierrez-Reid opened the bolt on the revolver and saw three or four dummies inside that he recognized.
“She took a few steps to Mr. Baldwin and gave … Baldwin the gun,” Halls testified.
Gutierrez-Reid did not testify, but told investigators after the shooting that she left the loaded gun in Halls’ hands and left the church beforehand. She pleaded not guilty.
Gabriela Campos/AP
Baldwin, who has pleaded not guilty on a manslaughter charge in his case, initially told investigators that Gutierrez-Reed handed him the gun, but later said it was Halls. The actor said he pulled back the hammer but not the trigger.
Halls admitted on the stand that he was “negligent in inspecting the gun properly” because he did not inspect all the cartridges inside.
Asked by the prosecutor why he agreed to testify, Halls said he wanted “the truth to be known.”
“That Halina’s husband and son, her family, know the truth about what happened,” Halls said. “It’s important that the cast and crew, the producers of Rust, know what happened. And it’s important that the industry, the film and television industry, know what happened so that it never happens again.”
Defense attorneys say the problems on set were beyond Gutierrez-Reid’s control and have pointed to lapses in evidence gathering and interviews. They also say the main ammunition supplier was not properly investigated.
Prosecutors say Gutierrez-Reed is guilty of bringing live ammunition onto the set and of treating basic gun safety protocols as optional. They say six cartridges have identical characteristics and do not match those seized from the film’s supplier in Albuquerque.
In other court testimony Thursday, a film props supervisor who helped run the guns on the set said she discharged fake rounds from two guns immediately after the shooting while in a state of shock and panic.
Sarah Zachry said she emptied the ammunition into a dumpster of guns used by actors other than Baldwin. She called it a “reactive decision” and said she eventually told law enforcement.
