Hidden True Crime - The Controversial Case Against Alec Baldwin: Full Story & Timeline Explained

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial is officially underway in New Mexico, over two years after the gun he was rehearsing with on the “Rust” film set fired a live bullet, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. In this episode, we go over the entire backstory and chronological timeline of everything that's happened so far. Sources: Santa Fe County Court New Mexico vs. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed Court TV https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/rust-timeline-key-events-alec-baldwin-set-shooting/story?id=96537610 https://www.nytimes.com/article/alec-baldwin-shooting-investigation.html About Hidden True Crime: Lauren Matthias was a television reporter for a decade. She and her husband, Dr. John Matthias, a forensic criminal psychologist, started Hidden True Crime in 2020 with their Season, 'Beyond the Veil,' a psychological deep dive into the doomsday murders of Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow. What started as a simple conversation at their dinner table became a captivating podcast. Join the dynamic duo of Dr. John Matthias, a forensic criminal psychologist, and Lauren Matthias, an investigative journalist, as they delve into the psychological facets of unthinkable crimes every week. Their unique perspectives and in-depth analysis offer a fresh take on true crime storytelling. Thank you for your support through sponsorships, subscribing, listening, and becoming a Patreon member at Patreon.com/HiddenTrueCrime Our Sponsors:* Check out Acorns: https://acorns.com/HIDDENTRUECRIME* Check out Acorns: https://acorns.com/HIDDENTRUECRIME* Check out Armoire and use my code HIDDENTRUECRIME for a great deal: https://www.armoire.style* Check out Effecty and use my code HIDDENTRUECRIME for a great deal: https://www.effecty.com* Check out Happy Mammoth and use my code HIDDENTRUECRIME for a great deal: https://happymammoth.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/hidden-a-true-crime-podcast1836/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Achieve new levels of success by joining the James Hardy Alliance today. The 800-pound gorilla in the room is that Alec is not exactly known worldwide for his even temperament. That has got to play in this investigation. Hidden gems, I am recording this episode here in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Alec Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter trial is officially underway here. Over two years after the gun he was rehearsing with on the Rust film set, fired a live bullet killing cinematographer Helena Hutchins. Helena's death has led to numerous civil lawsuits,

a hefty fine on the production and a broader reckoning in Hollywood regarding the use of real guns on film and on television sets. I spoke with the Santa Fe local today, my Uber driver just this morning, who only wants me to use his first name Joe, but Joe was willing to go public. He was passionate about sharing his opinion and said it's how many Santa Fe locals feel. First name.

Joe. Joe. This is Joe. He is my Uber driver and local in Santa Fe. What are your thoughts? Oh yeah, pull over so you feel safe. They're telling you to leave, aren't they? Yeah.

So most of the locals here in Santa Fe are really upset that a man could shoot and kill a woman and not spend an hour in jail. Any of the local people that would have shot and killed somebody would have been handcuffed, put in jail for several days. He didn't have to do anything but go down to the police department and cry like a baby about what happened. Placing the blame on the ammo lady, the young lady,

he seems to have placed all the blame on her. She didn't pull the trigger. He did. He still denies it, and he'll deny it till the end. So understandably, people in Santa Fe here that killed somebody, they go to jail for a while. He didn't go to jail at all. So this is really important to the people of Santa Fe

to be sure that justice is equal across the board, no matter who you are. So to better understand this case against Alec Baldwin, he was both a lead actor and producer in Rust, let's go back to the beginning. On October 21st, 2021, Alec Baldwin was practicing a scene for the Western movie Rust in New Mexico. The crew was setting up a close-up shot of Alec cross-drawing his revolver inside a church,

which basically means bringing the gun from his holster on one side and crossing it to the other side of his body. But when he did this, gun, quote, went off, end quote. And I'm saying went off and quotes on purpose, because depending on who you ask, some people believe just that, that the gun somehow just went off. While others argue that there is no way a gun just goes off, the bullet from the gun passed through cinematographer Helena Hutchins's upper body and struck the director of Russ Joel Sousa. Joel Sousa's director, he was injured, but he survived. Helena was airlifted to a hospital in Albuquerque, where she died.

Helena was a beloved wife and mother to a young son, only 42 years old at the time of her death. She's been described by numerous colleagues as a talented cinematographer with a strong artistic vision and deep dedication to her work. She grew up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle and initially studied economics in Ukraine before switching to journalism. She later attended the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles. Helena's tragic death was deeply felt in the film industry, still is. with many questioning how this could ever happen. Why were live bullets even on set?

How did they get there? Why was the gun pointed at Helena? And what was going on on the set of Rust? What we now know from numerous reports and witnesses is that the set of Rust is alleged to have been a nightmare for safety standards across the board. After the shooting, law enforcement found additional live rounds on the set. Some were even in Alec Baldwin's gun belt and others on the

the prop cart. The day before the shooting, several members of the camera crew quit the production over working conditions. In an email sent to the production leaders on October 20th, 2021, Lane Looper, a camera crew member, cited safety concerns as one reason for his resignation.

He mentioned that during the filming of gunfights, quote, things are often played very fast and loose, end quote, and he noted a lack of safety meetings and an additional two accidental discharges of weapons, loaded with blank rounds. The email also included complaints about paychecks and housing. In response, so after the shooting, about two dozen cast and crew members signed a letter together, which Alec Baldwin actually shared on his Instagram, stating that, quote,

the descriptions of rust as a chaotic, dangerous, and exploitative workplace are false, end quote. New Mexico's Occupational Health and Safety Bureau issued the movie production on 136,7709. $93 penalty, stating the company showed, quote, plain indifference to the recognized safety hazards associated with the use of firearms on set, end quote. The production objected to the fine and settled for a reduced penalty of $100,000. Nearly one month after the shooting, on November 17, 2021, the script supervisor for Rust filed a lawsuit against Alec Baldwin and the film's producers, accusing them of failing to ensure a safe set. The lawsuit claimed that in an effort to cut costs, the producers repeatedly compromised the safety of the casting crew. The suit claimed that there were two previous instances

of guns misfiring on set before the fatal shooting, and that the gun Alec used was, quote, regularly left unintended, end quote, during filming, along with the cart storing ammunition, violating industry standards. Alec has constantly and consistently denied responsibility for Helena's death, saying that he was told the gun did not contain live rounds and that the live rounds aren't supposed to be on set to begin with. He is also denied pulling the trigger. And he even said so in an on-camera interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos in December of 2021. I'm handed a gun and someone declares. They said, this is a cold gun. Dave Halls?

The first AD. In my years on the sets of film, Hot Gun meant that there was a charge in there. And cold gun meant there was nothing in there. When he's saying this is a cold gun, cold gun, what he's saying to everybody on the set is you can relax. The gun is empty. That's what cold gun means. Well, cold gun means there's no charge in there. There could be dummy rounds. A dummy round looks like a real bullet, but it's completely inert.

It contains no explosive charge. And you were rehearsing that scene. Was it an actual rehearsal? There's some disagreement about that, whether it was a formal rehearsal at that time. This is a marking rehearsal where I'm going to show her. She's standing next to the camera. She's like this, you're me. She's got a monitor here.

The camera is here filming that way. She takes a monitor that is his monitor, the operator, and turns it toward her. It swivels. And she says to me, hold the gun lower. Go to your right, okay, right there. All right, do that. Now, show it a little bit lower.

And she's kidding me to position the gun. Everything is in her direction. She's guiding me through how she wants me to hold the gun for this angle. And I draw the gun out and I find a mark. I draw the gun out. I find a cut. And what's really urgent is, The gun wasn't meant to be fired in that angle.

So if you're shooting directly into the camera lens, you're not aiming... I'm not shooting into the camera lens. I'm shooting just off. Just off. Right. In her direction. I'm holding the gun where she told me to hold it, which ended up being aimed right below her armpit. It was what I was told. I don't know.

This was a completely incidental shot, an angle that may not have ended up in the film at all. But we kept doing this news. So then I said to her, now in this scene, I'm going to cock the gun. And I said, do you want to see that? She said, yes. So I take the gun and I start to cock the gun. I'm not going to pull the trigger. I said, do you see that?

She was, well, just cheat it down and tilt it down a little bit like that. And I cocked the gun. I go, can you see that? Can you see that? Can you see that? And she says, and then I let go with the hammer of the gun and the gun goes off. I let go of the hammer of the gun and the gun goes off. At the moment, the decisive moment.

That was the moment the gun went off. Yeah, that was the moment the gun went off. It wasn't in the script for the trigger to be pulled. Well, the trigger wasn't pulled. I didn't pull the trigger. So you never pulled the trigger. No, no, no, no, no. I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them.

Never. That was the training that I had. You don't point a gun at me and pull the trigger. On day one of my instruction in this business, people said to me, never take a gun and go click, click, click, click, click. Because even though it's incremental, you damage the firing pin on the gun if you do that. Don't do that. And Hall's attorney told ABC News that he was watching and agrees that Alec did not pull the trigger

and that his finger was outside the trigger guard. So you have this cold 45, you just pulled The hammer as far back as I go without cocking the actual. And you're holding on to the hammer. I'm holding that. I'm just showing. How about that? Does that work?

Do you see that? She goes, yeah, that's good. I let go on the hammer. Bang, the gun goes. Everyone is horrified. They're shocked. It's loud. They don't have their earplugs in.

The gun was supposed to be empty. I was told I was handed an empty gun. If there were cosmetic rounds, nothing with a charge at all, a flash round, nothing. She goes down. I thought to myself, Did she faint? The notion that there was a live round in that gun did not dawn on me to probably 45 minutes to an hour later.

45 minutes to an hour? Well, she's laying there and I go, did she hit it by wadding? Was there a blank, sometimes those blank rounds have a wadding inside that packs, like a cloth that packs the gunpowder. And sometimes wadding comes out and can hit people and it could feel like a little bit of a poke. But no one could understand, did she have a heart attack? have a heart attack? Because remember, the idea that someone put a live bullet in the gun was

not even in reality. Did you go up to her? Did you back away? I went up to her and then we were immediately told to get out of the building. We were forced to get out of the building. The medics came in. I mean, I stood over her for 60 seconds and she just laid there kind of in shock. Was she conscious? Most people don't realize how much their personal information is being bought and sold every day. Data brokers are making billions, pulling details about you from public records and the internet, and then packaging and selling it, usually without your consent. That's how your information lands in the hands of scammers, spammers, even stalkers. It's why you get endless robocalls and why ads seem to follow you everywhere. That's where ORA comes in. Ora actively

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Assistant Director David Halls, quote, failed to check the gun carefully and yet announced the gun was safe before handing it to Baldwin, end quote. And prop master Sarah Zachary, quote, failed to disclose that Gutierrez-Reed had been acting recklessly offset and was a safety risk to those around her, end quote. Alec insists that he, quote, did not know and had no reason to know any of these facts, and quote, even though he was one of the producers for Rust.

Helena's husband Matthew and their son filed a wrongful death lawsuit against crew members and producers, including Alec Baldwin, accusing them of reckless conduct and cock custing measures that endangered the crew. As part of the settlement, Matthew Hutchins was made an executive producer on the film, which completed filming in Montana in 2020. And then in January of 2023, Alec Baldwin and the armor for rust, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, were both charged with involuntary manslaughter. According to the probable cause affidavit, quote, the evidence clearly indicates that Baldwin recklessly ignored these rules on multiple occasions

resulting in a fatal shooting, end quote. The charges also include a gun enhancement charge, which was later dropped for both Alec and Hannah. Apart from Alec Baldwin and Hannah, Tiers Reed, one other person did face criminal prosecution. That was Dave Halls, the movie's first assistant director. Dave Halls admitted that he failed to properly check the gun on the day of the shooting and accepted a plea deal, avoiding prison time. However, three months after Alec Baldwin was charged, his charges were dropped as the investigation continued, but not so fast, because then in January of 2020, Ford's the beginning of this year, Alec was charged again with involuntary manslaughter after a new prosecution team reviewed new evidence and presented that to a grand jury

who ultimately indicted him. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's trial took place in March of 2024. Prosecutors accused her of repeatedly ignoring gun safety standards on set and failing to recognize that one of the rounds she loaded into the gun was live. However, her defense said that Hannah was not responsible due to the working conditions, chaotic set, constant rushing, and the overall treatment of the film crew from Alec Baldwin. In many of the videos presented at the trial for Hannah, it certainly appears to be a chaotic set. In one video that was shown at Hannah's trial,

Alec is seen on camera, going off script while shooting a gun after the director said cut, using some guns as a pointer-like extension of his hands, rushing the crew and cursing at them. However, this didn't matter to the jury, as Hannah was found guilty of involuntary manner, but not guilty of tampering with evidence. She was sentenced to the maximum prison time for involuntary manslaughter, 18 months. Dr. John and I took a deep look at Hannah and what was hidden

during her trial and police interviews. We recommend taking a listen to that podcast episode titled The Truth About Rust, What Hannah knew. So what can we expect from Alec Baldwin's trial? Well, for one, the prosecution plans to argue that Alec absolutely pulled the trigger, something Alec has adamantly denied. The prosecution plans to show that the gun that was used in the shooting was examined and tested by the FBI to get the gun to fire without pulling the trigger. After vigorous and thorough testing, the FBI essentially said that the gun worked as intended and implied that someone, yes, would need to pull the trigger.

In the test firing in the lab, the FBI examiners did what's called a drop test and they broke the gun. and then they had to reassemble it to get it working again. So this goes to the issue of operability. The firearm is no longer in its original condition. This is something we can expect the defense team to make a big deal about at trial. However, some gun experts disagree with that assessment and say it's a lot more complicated than that, particularly because of the fact that the gun was an older weapon to begin with. Remember, this was an old Western film set and older guns were being used.

Many believe that Alex's role as not just the actor, but also the producer makes him inherently more responsible for knowing about gun safety and crew safety in general. For example, people wonder why Alec was pointing the gun at anyone, whether loaded with a dummy bullet or empty. Gun experts pointed this fact alone as the number one cardinal rule of guns. Always assume it is loaded with live bullets and never point a gun at anything that you don't intend to destroy. There's also the question of why the safety standards weren't followed leading up to when Alec was handed the gun. During Hannah's trial, it was revealed that Alec went to the gun safety training but was blamed for being on his phone and not paying attention. Additionally, witnesses testified that Alec was rushing and yelling at the crew and wouldn't do a simple gun check any time he was handed a gun, meaning he didn't allow the armorer or anyone to show him that the gun was empty and he didn't check himself.

Actor George Clooney spoke out on this and his experience with guns on other film sets, a stark contrast to what's been said about Alex's behavior on the rest set. Every single time I'm handed a gun on a set. Every time, Martin, they hand me a gun. I look at it, I open it, I show it to the person I'm pointed to, we show it to the crew, every single take. You hand it back to the armor when you're done, you do it again. Maybe Alec did that.

Hopefully he did do that. Now, fast forwarding to where we are today, as the trial is officially underway. Listening to jury selection earlier today while in court, I noticed how biased many of the potential jurors are, admitting in court to having strong opinions about the case and strong opinions about Alec Baldwin. They were then pulled aside and questioned, of course.

But lead prosecutor, Carrie Morrissey, began all of her questioning by sharing the goal of both sides to make sure they have a fair and impartial jury. Alec was in the courtroom wearing a gray suit, white shirt, and dark tie and glasses. his wife, Laria, and Alex's brother Stephen were also in the courtroom during today's jury selection. And we just heard that 16 jurors have been chosen and were sworn in this evening by Judge Mary Marlow Summers. I'll say that Alec Baldwin seems to have a solid defense team as they have successfully won multiple pretrial motions against the state.

The biggest win by far was just before jury selection started. When the judge ruled that Alex's role as co-producer in addition to being an actor cannot be entered as evidence during the trial. Now, this is a major problem for the prosecution. In Alex's indictment, his role as a producer on Rust is one of the central elements of the state's case. The prosecution argued that Alec was likely aware of previous issues with gun discharges and other safety concerns on set. They also claimed Baldwin's position as a producer gave him significant role over the production, sometimes even overriding director Joel Sousa, particularly on matters of firearm safety and his own training by Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.

And now, all of this can no longer be argued during the trial. Hidden True Crime is invested in this case. I am here on location in Santa Fe and will be in the courthouse every day. We will be live streaming the trial on our YouTube channel, including live on location reporting. And I will be bringing you the very latest in updates and trial summaries here on our podcast, Hidden True Crime. make sure you're subscribed.

Locals have been weighing in. You heard from Joe earlier in this episode. It's a case with heavy emotions and strong opinions. And at the core of it is the victim, Helena Hutchins, who should still be with us today, still alive today, enjoying life with her family and creating artistic films. While I continue to bring you the very latest from Santa Fe, what remains hidden within this tragedy and within this tragedy,

and within this trial is our ultimate question and our hope is greater understanding. I think the thing that intrigues me the most is this question of whether human beings are capable of accepting something as simply an accident. And I think the reason why this case is particularly interested in that regard is because you have a guy with a somewhat controversial history of aggression who happens to be a celebrity and a big name. And he's arguing that this is an accident. But many other people are not. Many other people see this as something that was more intentional. So, I mean, even the state of New Mexico is saying this isn't intentional in the sense that it's involuntary manslaughter. But still, it's serious. It's a felony and it's something that could result in him

going to prison for a year and a half or more. Right. And that affects not just him, but his children and his family and many people referring to the reality show that he has planned. I mean, clearly we'll see. It's interesting for those, for those reasons. And, I'm particularly interested to see what a jury of his peers will say, right? Like, what are they going to perceive to be the main issues? Are they going to see that if they believe he pulled the trigger, does that mean he should be held accountable? Is it possible that even if he pulled the trigger this was an accident, right? It's another look at how human needs interpret the world.

I think that's what's especially interesting to me, you know, how, especially when you pull in someone who's, you know, an actor who's famous, right? Like, what, how does that influence people's perceptions? Is the jury more likely to acquit or less likely to acquit? Right. Is the jury capable of seeing this as an accident? Do we have to assign blame no matter what? Especially if it's a celebrity with the history of aggression, right? I don't know.

These are, these are the questions I'm all interested. These are the questions I'm interested in answering. Most people don't realize how much their personal information is being bought and sold every day. Data brokers are making billions, pulling details about you from public records and the internet. and then packaging and selling it, usually without your consent. That's how your information lands in the hands of scammers, spammers, even stalkers. It's why you get endless robocalls and why ads seem to follow you everywhere. That's where ORA comes in.

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