Rust shooting case: Trial gets dramatic as Alec Baldwin's lawyers say checking gun wasn't his job

As the trial beganin the Rust shooting case with the jury listening to both sides, Alec Baldwin and his family saw drama unfold. In the Alec Baldwin involuntary manslaughter trial in Santa Fe, Mexico, special prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson and Baldwin’s defence attorney Alex Spiro called it the “cardinal rule” of gun safety and “shiny object” respectively.

As Alec watched, Erlinda Johnson said that the actor should be held criminally liable in the death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Alec had accidentally fired a live shot at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who died on the set of Rust.

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Rust shooting trial underway

Johnson told the court that Alec Baldwin “played make believe with a real gun and violated the cardinal rule of firearm safety. He pointed the gun at another human being, cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger in reckless disregard for Ms. Hutchins’ safety.” The prosecutor called the actor a reckless man with a gun.

Meanwhile, Alec’s defence said that the jury should consider him something else. Spiro said the jury should consider him as “Harland Rust”. Harland is the name of the character from Alec Baldwin’s indie Western film Rust. Spiro said, “He’s an outlaw running for his life. His mind is somewhere else, in the being of another, a century away, an outlaw.”

Spiro then made references to films like King Kong, Superman, Platoon and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. “Movies and magic have always been closely associated,” Spiro said. “The evidence will show that guns are in movies because guns are in peoples’ lives.”

Spiro then pointed out that it wasn’t Alec Baldwin’s job to check the gun, that that responsibility belonged to assistant director Dave Halls and armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. The defence attorney narrated footage of the scene the Rust crew were filming when Hutchins was shot.