Long-reputed ‘rage monster’ Alec Baldwin jeopardized safety on ‘Rust’ set, prosecutors allege

New court documents in Alec Baldwin’s upcoming trial in the “Rust” shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins show that prosecutors plan to lean into the actor’s reputation as an arrogant, bullying “rage monster,” as the New York tabloids have occasionally labeled him.

The Baldwin portrayed in the scathing 32-page court filing may be be familiar to many who have read stories over the years about the film and TV veteran’s public displays of anger, his scuffles with paparazzi and the scandal in 2007 when he was caught in a voicemail recording, calling his 11-year-old daughter a “rude, thoughtless little pig.”

As Baldwin faces trial for involuntary manslaughter in Santa Fe, New Mexico in July, prosecutor Kari Morrissey has detailed how she intends to argue that Baldwin’s inability to control his emotions on the set of “Rust” — screaming and cursing at himself and others “for no apparent reason” — contributed to safety failures. Baldwin was both the star of the low-budget Western and one of its producers. He also was a seasoned veteran of many action films, who was nonetheless inattentive during firearms training and otherwise flouted proper firearms protocols, the filing says.

“To watch Mr. Baldwin’s conduct on the set of ‘Rust’ is to witness a man who has absolutely no control of his own emotions and absolutely no concern for how his conduct affects those around him,” Morrissey wrote. “Witnesses have testified that it was this exact conduct that contributed to safety compromises on set.”

After the shooting, Morrissey argued, Baldwin worked to construct a false narrative about what happened when Hutchins was shot, in order to deflect responsibility onto others. Morrissey alleged that Baldwin’s story changed from his initial police interview, and he “lied with impunity” during a December 2021 televised interview with George Stephanopoulos. That’s when the actor, “with the aid of his attorneys,” first claimed that he did not pull the trigger of the gun, which the prosecution maintains is “absurd on its face.”

“Every time Mr. Baldwin spoke, a different version of events emerged from his mouth, and his later statements contradicted his previous statements,” the prosecutor said, adding that Baldwin effectively blamed Hutchins for her own death in the Stephanopoulos interview.

Morrissey also explained how a proposed plea deal with Baldwin fell apart In October because of the alleged efforts by Baldwin and his attorneys “to use the media to escape the consequences of his actions.” Prosecutors learned that Baldwin had commissioned a documentary “about the death of the woman he killed” and was “pressuring material witnesses in the case against him to submit to interviews for his documentary.”

The prosecutors’ filing comes after Baldwin’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against him. His attorneys said that the “30 Rock” star has suffered a litany of prosecutorial abuses, while Morrissey countered by saying that the defense has engaged in “countless lies and manipulation.”

The trial is set to begin July 9 in Santa Fe, and Baldwin faces up to 18 months in prison if found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Hutchins. The cinematographer was killed while she, director Joel Souza and Baldwin were rehearsing a gunfight scene in a church on the film’s New Mexico set.

“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed had inadvertently loaded a live round into the Colt .45 that Baldwin was using during the rehearsal, and both Hutchins and Souza were shot when the gun discharged. Hutchins died that same day. Soon after the shooting, news reports portrayed a troubled and safety-compromised indie film set, with multiple unintended weapons discharges and most of the camera crew walking off the set due to safety and financial concerns, as Deadline reported.

Last month, prosecutors scored a victory in the case when a jury found Gutierrez-Reed guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

In the new filing, Morrissey acknowledged that Gutierrez-Reed was young, inexperienced and overwhelmed by the responsibility of managing all the weapons on the gun-heavy movie set. But Baldwin, “the most experienced member of all the cast and crew,” seemed to have missed what most everyone else noticed: Gutierrez-Reed “was not up to the job,” Morrissey said.

In fact, Baldwin arrived one week late to the set and missed an initial firearms training offered to the actors, Morrissey said. When Gutierrez-Reed arranged a special training session for him, he was “inattentive,” spending time on his phone talking to his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, and making videos of himself shooting the gun for his children, Morrissey also said.

When Baldwin began filming scenes, he demanded that the crew and Gutierrez-Reed work faster, the prosecutor said. Baldwin’s “relentless rushing of the crew on the movie set routinely compromised safety because ‘Rust’ is not a romantic comedy, it is an action-
filled western with dangerous stunts and real guns being used as props,” the prosecutor also said. In addition to rushing the cast and crew, Baldwin “was frequently screaming and cursing at himself, at crew members or at no one and not for any particular reason.”

“The combination of (Gutierrez-Reed’s) negligence and inexperience and Alec Baldwin’s complete lack of concern for the safety of those around him would prove deadly for Halyna Hutchins, a young cinematographer and rising star in the film industry,” Morrissey said.

Baldwin’s alleged “lack of concern” for others also was evident in the moments when the actor was first brought to the sheriff’s department for his initial interview, according to Morrissey. At the time, Baldwin knew that Hutchins had been critically injured, but he was recorded on a phone call with his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, and with an employee, talking about how he didn’t want the tragedy to wouldn’t interfere with his family’s planned trip to New Mexico. There also had been plans for his then-8-year-old daughter, the oldest of his seven children with Hilaria, to appear in a small part in the film.

During these calls, Baldwin asked that his family not cancel the trip to New Mexico, the court filing shows. He said, “I won’t work and we’ll go and enjoy ourselves. It’s all paid for. They’re not going to give us the money back.”

Morrissey and her co-counsel Jason Lewis were appointed to the case in March 2023, after a series of stumbles by District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and the original special prosecutor, who first charged Baldwin in January 2023, Variety reported.

In the filing, Morrissey explained her reasons for dropping the felony charges against Baldwin last year, but opting to indict him on a felony charge in January.

During a meeting with Baldwin’s attorneys last year, they argued that Baldwin was merely a creative producer, without management authority over the set. They also claimed that they would call A-list actors, such as Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, to testify on Baldwin’s behalf, along with Jensen Ackles, Baldwin’s co-star on “Rust.” They ultimately persuaded prosecutors to drop the charge, pending further testing on the gun, when they said that the gun had been modified to make it more susceptible to firing.

Subsequent forensic testing concluded that the trigger of the gun had to be pulled for it to discharge, Morrissey wrote. New video evidence also showed that the gun was in “perfect” working condition when Baldwin fired it previously on the set and confirm statements regarding Baldwin’s “bullyish” behavior on the set. Morrissey also noted that the deadline for submitting the defense witness list has passed, and the names of Ackles and A-listers Ford and Mirren don’t appear.