Halyna Hutchins (Rust trial)

Case background and investigation

Halyna Hutchins, a 42-year-old cinematographer, was fatally shot on October 21, 2021, on the set of the Western film Rust at Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Actor and producer Alec Baldwin was holding a replica Colt .45 revolver during a rehearsal when it fired a live round. The shot struck Hutchins and wounded the film's director, Joel Souza. According to Wikipedia's summary of the case, Hutchins was flown to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, where she was pronounced dead, and Souza was treated and released.

Investigators focused on how live ammunition had reached a film set. Prosecutors alleged that the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was responsible for live rounds being present, Deadline reported. Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed were each charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2023. According to Wikipedia, assistant director David Halls pleaded no contest in March 2023 to negligent use of a deadly weapon and received six months of unsupervised probation. The charge against Baldwin was dropped in April 2023, and a grand jury indicted him again in January 2024.

Gutierrez-Reed was tried in Santa Fe in early 2024. NBC News reported that a jury found her guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March 2024 and not guilty of tampering with evidence. On April 15, 2024, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison, the maximum term for the offense.

Baldwin's trial began in July 2024. On July 12, the third day of trial, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case with prejudice, which means the charge cannot be brought again. The judge found that the state had failed to give the defense a set of bullets that had been handed to the sheriff's office months earlier by a man who said they were connected to the case. TheWrap reported that she called the withholding intentional and deliberate and said it had affected the fundamental fairness of the proceedings. Baldwin had pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers argued that, as an actor, he was not responsible for firearm safety on the set.

Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey filed a notice of appeal but withdrew it in December 2024. According to Variety, the New Mexico attorney general's office had indicated that it would not fully pursue the appeal, citing the procedural problems the judge had identified. That ended the criminal case against Baldwin without a conviction.

Gutierrez-Reed was released on parole on May 23, 2025, after serving her sentence less credit for good behavior, Deadline reported, citing the New Mexico Corrections Department. Her parole conditions barred contact with the Hutchins family. Wikipedia reports that a wrongful-death claim by the Hutchins family against the production was settled in October 2022, and that Baldwin sued New Mexico officials in January 2025 over his prosecution. Rust was completed and released in May 2025.