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The actor Alec Baldwin is scheduled to go on trial next month for involuntary manslaughter in Santa Fe, N.M.<\/p>\n
Baldwin\u2019s long journey to the courtroom started on Oct. 21, 2021, on the set of the western movie \u201cRust,\u201d when the gun he was holding while blocking out a shot discharged, firing a live round that injured the movie\u2019s director, Joel Souza, and killed its cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.<\/p>\n
It was an almost unimaginable tragedy, <\/span>but Baldwin soon found himself in legal jeopardy, too. The subsequent saga has amounted <\/span>to a high-stakes version of a familiar Baldwin ritual: He does or says something controversial; then, in an attempt to be understood, he doubles down on whatever he said or did, inviting further scrutiny; finally, feeling victimized and aggrieved, he vows to stop engaging with the media. <\/p>\n He was in this third stage by the time I started reporting a few months ago. To trace the improbable arc of his prosecution, I interviewed more than 30 people in New York and Santa Fe, reviewed numerous public court filings, police records and videos, and obtained additional documents under New Mexico\u2019s freedom-of-information act.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s been a challenge to follow the case through all of its many twists and turns. Here\u2019s what you need to know as the trial approaches.<\/p>\n The shooting occurred at 1:46 p.m. at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, a family-owned Old West movie set about 20 miles southeast of Santa Fe. <\/p>\n Almost immediately, troubling details began to emerge about the film\u2019s set. There were two accidental firings of blank rounds before the accidental discharge that killed Hutchins, and several members of the camera crew had resigned the night before the incident, citing, among other things, safety concerns. The armorer, who maintains control of all of the film\u2019s firearms \u2014 and there were a lot, as this was a western \u2014 was just 24 years old and inexperienced.<\/p>\n The local district attorney in Santa Fe, Mary Carmack-Altwies, did not rule out the possibility of criminal prosecutions. \u201cAll options are on the table at this point,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Baldwin was worried about his criminal exposure from the beginning: Not only was he the actor holding the gun that killed Hutchins, but he was also a producer of \u201cRust.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In a series of phone calls and text messages, later released by the Sheriff\u2019s Department, he tried to explain to the detective leading the case that all film productions seek to save money and that it\u2019s not an actor\u2019s responsibility to check his firearm.<\/p>\n Baldwin\u2019s enemies on the political right, meanwhile, pounced. Donald Trump, whom Baldwin <\/span>impersonated on \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d went so far as to suggest that the shooting might not have been accidental.<\/p>\n Baldwin tried to clear his name in an interview on ABC with George Stephanopoulos. But the effort backfired when he said that he only pointed the gun at Hutchins because she had guided it in her direction and when he denied having ever pulled the trigger.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n To Carmack-Altwies, he seemed unrepentant. And she didn\u2019t believe his claim about the trigger. \u201cDid he just waltz himself into charges?\u201d she asked her deputy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n District attorneys are elected officials, and charging decisions don\u2019t take place in a vacuum. They are specific to a time and place. And New Mexico is a place with a fraught relationship with outsiders. The state\u2019s official nickname is the Land of Enchantment, but among some Santa Fe locals, it\u2019s known as the Land of Resentment, an allusion to its long history of occupation and exploitation.<\/p>\n New Mexico is also a rural hunting state with a strong gun culture, and it takes gun safety seriously.<\/p>\n As the investigation continued and the possibility of criminal charges loomed, Baldwin was growing resentful himself. \u201cThis was something that was to the delight of people who hate my guts politically,\u201d he told Chris Cuomo in an interview during the summer of 2022. <\/p>\n On Jan. 19, 2023, Carmack-Altwies announced her intention to charge Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter, and she followed up the news conference with a slew of national media interviews. <\/p>\n Almost as soon as the charges were filed, the case began to unravel, thanks to a series of legal challenges from Baldwin\u2019s lawyers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Carmack-Altwies stepped down from the case and tapped <\/span>an Albuquerque lawyer, Kari Morrissey, to lead the prosecution. Weeks after taking over, Morrissey withdrew the charges.<\/p>\n It looked to Baldwin as though he might be in the clear. He thanked his lawyer in an Instagram post and began cooperating with a documentary film about him and \u201cRust\u201d that he hoped would be sympathetic. <\/p>\n He was not in the clear. Months later, in the fall of 2023, Morrissey told Baldwin\u2019s lawyers that she intended to refile the charges. She offered Baldwin a plea deal but withdrew it after learning that he had been pressuring potential witnesses to sit for interviews for the documentary.<\/p>\n In many ways, the story of Baldwin\u2019s prosecution has come to resemble a western movie itself, testing the line between justice and vengeance. <\/p>\n Baldwin has been at the center of the media maelstrom surrounding \u201cRust\u201d for nearly three years now. During that time, his wife, Hilaria, has given birth to their seventh child, even as he has lost work and been party to several potentially costly civil suits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But Baldwin has rebounded from other controversies in the past, and the half-life of a scandal has maybe never been shorter \u2014 even, as may be the case, when it ends in a felony conviction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nTroubling details quickly emerged about the film\u2019s set.<\/h2>\n
The case against Baldwin was about more than just the shooting.<\/h2>\n
The prosecution took place in a tense political context. <\/span><\/h2>\n
The case unraveled before it got back on track.<\/h2>\n
Justice <\/span>. . . <\/span>or vengeance?<\/h2>\n