Several members of the ‘Rust’ cast and crew may be called to testify against Alec Baldwin as he faces involuntary manslaughter charges.
Baldwin and Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed were formally charged last week for the death of Halyna Hutchins on the low-budget Western’s New Mexico set in October 2021.
Prosecutors allege Baldwin shot the gun that killed Hutchins while Gutierrez-Reed didn’t check the gun given to the hot shot actor before it was handed to him.
Now, 44 witnesses, including director Joel Souza, who was wounded by the bullet that passed through Hutchins, will testify at the preliminary hearing on February 24, according to court documents.
The extensive list also extends to armor and prop worker Seth Kenney, camera assistant Lane Luper, line producer Gabrielle Pickle and script supervisor Maime Mitchell.
About 44 people, including Rust cast and crew, may testify against Alec Baldwin as a judge sets the preliminary hearing to February 24
Baldwin and Guitierrez-Reed(above) have denied the involuntary manslaughter charges with the armorer claiming she was ‘stretched too thin’ on the set of the low-budget film
The group may appear in the Santa Fe, New Mexico court room later this month along with other government forensic examiners and investigators to shed light on Hutchin’s death.
Mitchell was the first to call 911 after Hutchins was shot. The script supervisor was standing the closest to Hutchins when the bullet fired from Baldwin’s gun.
She previously filed her own lawsuit in 2021 against Baldwin and others on the western movie set. The suit claims assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and deliberate infliction of harm. It also states that the scene being shot did not require a gun to be fired.
‘I will never forget what happened on the set of Rust that day,’ Mitchell said in 2021. ‘I relive the shooting and the sound of the explosion from the gun over and over again.’
Meanwhile, Baldwin and Guitierrez-Reed have denied the involuntary manslaughter charges with the armorer claiming she was ‘stretched too thin’ on the set of the low-budget film.
Halyna Hutchins (pictured) died on the set of Rust in October after Baldwin allegedly fired the gun in a scene
Rust script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, the first person to call 911 after Halyna Hutchins was accidentally shot by Alec Baldwin on the film’s set last month, broke down in tears in 2021 as she announced she is filing a lawsuit against Baldwin and other producers of the low-budget Western movie. She will likely be a witness in court
Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer, Jason Bowles, told TMZ last week that his client was ‘stretched too thin’ and had asked for more time to focus on her armorer duties, but was ‘denied’ it and never called back into the church by the assistant director David Halls to properly instruct Baldwin on how to handle the weapon.
‘Hannah was not called back into that church. She asked David Halls specifically: “If Baldwin is going to use that gun, then call me back into that church, so I can instruct him on the usage of the gun, I can reinspect that gun, and I can tell him where to point it, and work with him on it.”
‘She was never called back in,’ Bowles lamented. ‘So when the [District Attorney] talks about the armorer’s responsibility, this and that, she wanted to do her job, but she was prevented from doing her job. That’s the big distinction.’
Bowles also informed TMZ that Gutierrez-Reed had asked Halls to use a ‘plastic gun’ and was told no, they wanted a ‘real gun.’
‘So Halls took the gun, said he would [call her back in], [and] never called her back in,’ Bowles said. ‘Halls had the real gun. The idea that he’s saying he didn’t have it, he didn’t hand it Baldwin, [is] completely false.’
Gutierrez-Reed also went to Gabrielle Pickle, her boss, and asked for more time to do her job, as it was a ‘gun-heavy set,’ Bowles said.
‘They denied her that,’ he said. ‘They said: “No, we get a certain amount of days for armor duties and that’s it,” because this was a lower budget production and that’s how they were going to run it.’
Assistant director David Hall allegedly told Baldwin that the gun was cold. He will also testify in court against Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed
The lawyer also reiterated that that Hutchins’ death was a ‘tragic accident’ and cited the decades of movie making where no one was killed due to a gun on set as proof.
‘In a 100 years of movies, this has not happened. I think nobody could foresee that live round. It’s a tragic accident.’
He went on to say that brunt weight of the accident falls on ‘production’ and Halls for ‘not calling Hannah back in.’
Halls is himself expected to testify against Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed – but wasn’t listed as one of the 44 people on the released list.
The assistant director has signed a plea agreement for the negligent use of a deadly weapon in the case that included six months of probation.
