‘Rust’ Jurors Break Silence On Alec Baldwin’s Trial After Its Abrupt End

Two jurors involved in the “Rust” trial involving Alec Baldwin are speaking out following the trial’s abrupt end last week.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case with prejudice earlier this month after special prosecutor Kari Morrissey and the Santa Fe County Police Office did not turn over information to the defense – a violation of the Brady rule.

The misconduct, which prompted special prosecutor Erlinda Johnson to resign earlier in the day, might prove favorable in the appeal of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who is currently serving 18 months behind bars after she was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

On October 21, 2021, a gun that Alec Baldwin was holding went off on the set of a Western film. The bullet struck and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and hospitalized director Joel Souza. How live ammunition ended up on the movie set is still up for debate, with some blaming armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and others pointing the finger at the props supplier, Seth Kenney, who was never criminally charged in the matter.

Alec Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed were both charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2023; however, the charges against Baldwin were dropped in April 2023 pending further investigation into the gun. Baldwin insisted that he never pulled the trigger and that it went off on its own. After a FBI forensics examination – that also broke the gun – found that the gun’s trigger had to be pulled, Baldwin was charged again in January 2024.

Jurors Gabriela Picayo and Johanna Haag expressed doubt that the 66-year-old actor should be held criminally responsible in the death of Halyna Hutchins in a conversation with The New York Times. All twelve jurors would have had to come to a unanimous verdict to find Baldwin guilty of involuntary manslaughter, but Haag, who was identified as Juror No. 7, did not feel that the prosecution had a “strong case” against the “30 Rock” actor.

“As the week went by, it just didn’t, it didn’t seem like a very strong case,” Haag told the publication. Haag recalled the prosecution presenting video clips from law enforcement officials showing the moments following the shooting from their body cameras. Haag said that Baldwin “looked shocked and stunned and so sad.”

Haag went on to say that Halyna Hutchins’ death was “clearly an accident” and went on to say that the “idea that there’s anything purposeful, or the idea that there was this grave carelessness that caused this, didn’t seem realistic to me.”

Picayo, who was identified as Juror No. 9, also didn’t buy into the fact that Baldwin, as an actor, should have been responsible for gun safety on set. “I think he would have trusted the people, you know, on the set to do their job," she said.

Picayo also did not find out that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was already convicted until she was a juror. “I’m still here, I’m still open to hearing and obviously trying to stay unbiased, but I was starting to move towards the direction of thinking that this was very silly and he should not be on trial,” she recalled.

Although Picayo felt that Baldwin should not have been on trial, she does admit that the trial only lasted two days and she did not get a chance to see all of the evidence. Picayo noted that she “wasn’t presented with all of the evidence, so I don’t know what could have swayed me."

On July 12, the jury was left waiting for hours as Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer and defense attorney Alex Spiro tried to determine how much evidence was not disclosed to them. “At that point, I really started to feel sorry for Mr. Baldwin,” Haag said. “I thought, you know, ‘What’s going on here? What is happening?’” The judge ultimately sent them home with instructions not to look at any information related to the case and orders to return on Monday.

Jurors told The Times that they only found out that they wouldn’t have to come back in on Monday when they received a text message from the court system with the words “Trial CANCELLED” – with the word “trial” misspelled.