No one expected Alec Baldwin to show up for pretrial hearings Monday morning, but shortly before 8 a.m. he climbed out of a Chevrolet Suburban with tinted windows and headed to New Mexico First Judicial District Court here in downtown Santa Fe.
Baldwin, 66, walked slowly to the courthouse doors. His recent hip surgery had left him with difficulty walking, and his expression was blank. He carried a bulky canvas bag in one hand and could have been a man returning his gardening books to a library rather than a man trying to save his name, his reputation, his career, the rest of his life.
Multiple camera crews filmed his every move, some of them from news organizations around the world, some of them here in connection with various documentary projects about the tragedy — one of them even rumored to be from Baldwin’s upcoming TLC reality series, The Baldwins, featuring his wife Hilaria and their seven young children.
Actor Alec Baldwin appeared for pre-trial hearings in Santa Fe on Monday morning
He is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins
“No, that would be crazy. I don’t think so,” said one local news anchor. It seemed unlikely, but no one knew for sure.
On the third floor, past the District Attorney’s Office and down the polished hallway of the Victim Waiting Office, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer finally opened proceedings in the case of State v. Alexander Rae Baldwin, in which the Emmy Award-winning actor is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer working on the set of his cowboy-themed film, Rust.
She died after being hit by a bullet from a gun held in Baldwin’s hand while he was rehearsing a scene; a tragic moment that has been at the center of a legal battle for more than three years.
Baldwin sat at the defense table on the left side of the courtroom, flanked by his group of high-powered, expensively suited New York lawyers, including Alex Spiro, known as the elite top lawyer.
He leafed through a stack of photographs of the church where the fatal shooting took place, shifted his knee and gave Baldwin a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
For the state, lead prosecutor Kari Morrissey and her team sat on the right, perhaps a little more disheveled than their sleek, well-groomed big-city adversaries.
Ms. Hutchins died after being hit by a bullet from a pistol held in Baldwin’s hand while he was rehearsing a scene.
“Where does this plug into?” he asked to no one in particular, holding up a connecting cable.
After months (years!) of legal wrangling and several failed attempts by the defense to have the case thrown out, there is no good relationship between the two sides. Despite sitting five feet apart throughout the hearing, Spiro and Morrissey did not look at each other once.
Arguments raged on for hours over arcane questions of law, disputes over who could and could not be on the witness list, the “mixing” of live bullets with blanks, and whether autopsy photographs would be admissible.
Much was made of “predicate acts,” Mr. Baldwin’s past behavior on the set of Rust before the Oct. 21 incident. “Mr. Baldwin is not a murderer on the 21st because he swore an oath on the 16th,” argued his attorney, Luke Nikas.
The incident, which has been at the center of a legal battle for more than three years, took place on the set of Baldwin’s cowboy-themed film, Rust.
Both sides frequently accused the other of manipulating the system and trying to gain a “tactical advantage.” At times things even got a little heated. “You know if the state had done this, they would be shouting that we had deceived the defense,” was one confused but plaintive cry. “They just copied and pasted that!” was another.
All the while, Alec Baldwin sat with his fingers interlaced and his head slightly bowed. Sometimes he put on black-framed glasses and took notes on a yellow legal pad. He listened avidly as Judge Sommer laid down… well, the law between the warring teams.
“Any time you want to say something that’s not a question for the witness, you’re going to have to come up here to the stand. You can’t do it from there,” she told Spiro. “I’m the one in charge here.”
On another occasion, she told him: “Could you please answer my question? You’ve had your chance.” He did as he was told. “We’ve come a long way to get here, all we want is a fair trial,” he said.
Pre-trial arguments are now over. The jury will be sworn in today and the trial proper will begin tomorrow.
Here, in this windowless prison room, with its scruffy carpet and faded lemon-colored walls that bear witness to decades of human despair, the fate of Alec Baldwin will finally be decided.
During a court break I saw him in the hallway, hunched over his phone like someone bent over in prayer, typing out a message.