While the prosecution in Alec Baldwin’s “Rust” trial appeared to begin with a strong case, at least two jurors revealed they already had doubts about the actor’s guilt before the charge was dismissed on July 12.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charge with prejudice following two days of trial testimony from experts called by the prosecution. Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died Oct. 21, 2021 after a gun Baldwin was holding fired on the Bonanza Creek Ranch film set in New Mexico.
“As the week went by, it just didn’t, it didn’t seem like a very strong case,” juror No. 7, Johanna Haag, told The New York Times in a phone interview.
To convict Baldwin, the jury would have had to decide that the “30 Rock” star acted with “willful disregard” on the set of “Rust.” The prosecution’s case hinged on accusations of Baldwin’s reported recklessness on set with firearms along with his lack of attendance at safety meetings.
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However, Haag was not convinced the “grave carelessness” that allegedly led to Hutchins’ death existed on the “Rust” set. During the only two days of testimony, the jury was shown footage of the immediate aftermath as police and paramedics arrived and began to treat the cinematographer.
“Baldwin just looked shocked and stunned and so sad,” Haag explained to the outlet. “It was clearly an accident, and the idea that there’s anything purposeful, or the idea that there was this grave carelessness that caused this, didn’t seem realistic to me.”
While establishing the facts for the jury, the prosecution explained the state’s theory of how the live bullet ended up inside the replica revolver on the movie set. Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey has maintained that “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed unknowingly brought live rounds onto the set and then failed to identify the rounds amid the dummy rounds.
She then loaded the live round into the gun, indicating it was “cold.” Gutierrez Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March.
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For juror No. 9, identified in court documents as Gabriele Picayo, finding out Baldwin did not load the gun began to sway her point of view.
“I’m still here, I’m still open to hearing and obviously trying to stay unbiased, but I was starting to move towards the direction of thinking that this was very silly, and he should not be on trial,” Picayo told The New York Times.
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Picayo seemed to think in line with Baldwin’s legal team’s defense – that as an actor, he did not have a duty to inspect the firearm on set.
“Alec Baldwin is an actor, right?” she asked the outlet. Picayo noted she did not think it was his job to know about gun safety. “I think he would have trusted the people, you know, on the set to do their job.”
“But, I wasn’t presented with all of the evidence, so I don’t know what could have swayed me,” she added.
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Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial came to a halt on Friday, July 12, after his lawyers filed a motion to dismiss mid-trial. Sommer sent the jury home for the day in order to hear arguments along with testimony.
Baldwin’s attorneys, Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, argued the state had withheld evidence from the defense after a box of ammo, possibly relating to the “Rust” case, was brought into the Santa Fe County Sheriffs’ Department during Gutierrez Reed’s trial, two years after the fatal on-set shooting.
The ammo was inventoried by a crime scene technician and then entered into general evidence instead of the “Rust” evidence database. During testimony, Judge Sommer heard lead detective Corporal Alexendria Hancock admit the decision was made by herself, supervisors and special prosecutors.
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Judge Sommer dismissed the case, telling Baldwin and the courtroom there was “no way” for the court to right the prosecution’s “wrong.”
“The state’s willful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate,” the judge said. “If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching prejudice.”
For Haag, Spiro’s questioning of crime scene technician Marissa Poppel was “like a Perry Mason moment.”
“At that point, I really started to feel sorry for Mr. Baldwin,” she admitted to The New York Times. “I thought, you know, ‘What’s going on here? What is happening?’”
