The Rust Shooting Scandal:The Murder of Halayna Hutchins, Alec Baldwin's Lawsuits, The Armorer's Negligence, and The Aftermath (Part 2)

Welcome back for Part 2 of the tragic shooting on the set of the movie Rust. After the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, we dive deeper into the multiple safety failures and the lack of a proper safety culture that led to a totally preventable tragedy. We break down the ongoing investigation and the ultimate question: where did the live round come from? Authorities are scrutinizing every decision made by the crew, including the armorer, the assistant director, and actor Alec Baldwin. This episode covers the multiple lawsuits filed by crew members and Halyna’s family, the charges of involuntary manslaughter, and the final aftermath of this heartbreaking Hollywood tragedy.

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TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Hey guys, and welcome back to part two of our story on the Tragic Death of Helena Hutchins, who died on the set of the Rust movie. In part one of our story, we introduced the tragic events surrounding her death and in. Part two, we are going to be diving deeper into the failures that led to the fatal shooting.

Helena, who is a talented cinematographer, was struck by a live round that was fired from a revolver held by Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal. Despite there being industry protocols for handling firearms on set, multiple safety violations did occur, including an armorer who failed to conduct the necessary safety checks and a gun that should have been unloaded with no live ammunition on set.

These oversights combined with a rushed atmosphere after some crew members walked out, all contributed to [00:01:00] Helena's preventable death. As investigations continue, the key question remains, and that is where did the live round come from? Of course, scrutiny has fallen on Alec Baldwin, the assistant director, and the armorer.

As the authorities are working to determine responsibility, the search for the origin of the ammo continued, but investigators were also uncovering even more troubling information about the overall safety culture or lack thereof on the set of rest. Through additional interviews and search warrants, they found out that this wasn't just one mistake.

Helena's death was a result of a series of very bad decisions, many of which were tied directly to the production's low budget and aggressive cost cutting. The findings were that the Rust team was operating under an unreasonably rushed schedule that they also hired unqualified or inexperienced staff, even for critical safety roles.

And the fact that they chose Hannah as the. Only armor, despite the fact that the [00:02:00] film involved 13 different guns. I was actually shocked whenever we learned that the film started in, was it August to September? It was like a month. That was it, that they were filming this like. Movie. Movie, right? It seems so quick, right?

So Hannah was just 24 years old at the time, as we said before, and this was only her second movie. She wasn't even formally certified. She had no union affiliation and no professional credentials to prove that she had the necessary experience for such a high risk role. One veteran filmmaker put it bluntly in saying there is no way a 24-year-old woman can be a professional with armory.

Professionals are people who have spent years on sets. People who know this job from A to Z according to a lawsuit that was filed later. The producers of Rust were aware that Hannah was underqualified, but they hired her anyway because she fit their budget. But then in an effort to cut cost even [00:03:00] more, the producers made a decision that would directly compromise the safety of those on set.

This shocked me. I don't remember this at all. Uh. You know, hearing this story, but they required Hannah, who was already underqualified for her role as Armor to serve another role as the assistant to props master Sarah Zachary. Oh my gosh. Wow. Yeah, it's like, I mean, I mean, it's two different worlds. It's not like, you know, assisting somebody that's cleaning the guns.

I don't know, but this doesn't make any sense. She's just in a whole different world. So of course. It makes no sense and it goes against everything the industry knew about firearm safety. The armor is supposed to be with the weapons all the time, period, end of story. That alone is critical responsibility, especially when more than a dozen guns are involved.

Instead, Hannah was pulled away from the armory to assist with props. Sometimes she even needed to go offset. Hannah was told that she'd [00:04:00] only be needed as armor for eight days in total, and the rest of the time she'd be helping with props. So as if all this wasn't risky enough, the production also had Sarah Zachery the prop master, helping Hannah with firearm duties, even though, oh my gosh, she has little to no experience with guns, ammunition, or armor or responsibilities at all.

So now they are just teaming up to do two jobs that. It just doesn't work. No. So Sarah was still allowed to handle load and unload firearms on set, sometimes even in Hannah's absence. And this actually happened multiple times. The production team was fully aware of it, but did nothing to stop it. And as we've been talking about the whole time, this entire setup just violates every single protocol in the book.

Even worse, since Sarah and Hannah were sharing duties, they also shared the same equipment cart, so on that cart. Oh my gosh. Yeah. That really shocks me. Mm-hmm. On that cart was a safe meant to store both the firearms and the [00:05:00] ammunition securely, but oftentimes the ammo just wasn't secured at all, which is a breach of basic weapon safety in itself.

Forcing Hannah to juggle these two jobs created dangerous blind spots in production since she, of course, can't be everywhere at once, and now that there's nobody that's just solely in charge of the guns, it's a recipe for disaster. On October 14th, a week before the shooting, Hannah was actually scolded by producer Gabrielle Pickle for prioritizing her armor or duties over the prop work.

Unreal. Which absolutely unreal. Uh, this woman Gabrielle, wrote in an email, it has been brought to my attention that you are focusing far more on armory and not supporting props as needed. Yet Gabrielle had also criticized Hannah for two incidents where a shotgun had been left unattended on the set. And Hannah, you know, at this point warns that she's being stretched too thin and trying to cover both jobs is creating dangerous situations.

However, Gabrielle [00:06:00] tells Hannah to simply come up with a weapons check-in checkout system. That will solve all the problems. But did she follow up to make sure that any such system was implemented? No, she did not. Uh, and more importantly, she still didn't address the root problem, which is that Hannah can't properly perform her duties as the set's only armorer, especially not when she is tasked with helping the props master.

By the way, props master seems to be the more important job. So she's right also being scolded for not doing the job she wasn't actually hired for, but also for doing the job that literally will save people's life on set, like totally just bizarre. So to make matters even worse, since Hannah was so pressed for time, she.

Able to provide the required firearm instruction for the cast and crew members. Hannah later testified that she had requested more firearm training specifically for Alec Baldwin, but he never received it. They were supposed to do a full length training session that lasted an hour or more, but according to [00:07:00] Hannah, it was cut down to just 30 minutes, and in that short window, Alec was distracted and spent a lot of the time talking on the phone with his family.

Hannah said Alec received minimal training on how to inspect a firearm himself, which was a skill that was it critically important for someone in a lead role handling a real revolver. It wasn't just Alec, though, the other cast and crew didn't fare much better either. Hannah had been scheduled to train the stunt crew on firearm safety, but was later told by production that the stunt coordinator would handle that instead.

On October 16th, five days before the fatal shooting, there were two. Separate, negligent discharges on set, both on the same day. One of those incidents involved Sarah Zachery, who was handling a revolver intended for use in a scene while she was walking in. She manipulated the weapon and accidentally discharged a blank cartridge into the ground next to her foot.

That same day, Hannah loaded blinks into [00:08:00] a lever action rifle and allowed a stunt performer to take the weapon. Totally unsupervised. He later returned to the holding tent where he accidentally discharged the weapon. This was another direct violation of standard safety protocol. Under industry standards, negligent discharges are considered reckless and dangerous and typically require immediate corrective actions like additional training, reassignment, or even termination.

But on the set of rest, no one did a thing. Hannah didn't formally report or address either of these incidents, and neither did any of the producers. In fact, the very next day, Gabrielle Pickle sent Hannah a message that said there would be a. No more training days for Alec. That's right. Despite two serious firearm related accidents, they shut down further training, which you would just think if you were in the room with that, when it happens, you would think, oh, we we're messing up here.

Something is gonna go wrong two in one day. Yes. That's. [00:09:00] Wild. So daily safety meetings also weren't taking place, and investigators learned that by day 13 of filming only three or four safety meetings have been held, which meant that for most of the production, the crew was just left to figure things out as they went along, which is not a great idea when the film involves guns, stunts, and high risk scenes.

After these two unsafe gun discharges, several members of the crew formally complained to production leadership and voiced their concerns about weapon handling and the general lack of safety on set. Those complaints were reportedly made to supervisors, executive producers, producers, and line producers, but nobody took action.

There were still no safety meetings, no investigation into these accidental discharges. No pause in production, nothing. The producers just kept filming as quickly as possible and tried to stay within budget. Even when the crew members specifically warned that things were unsafe, they were just dismissed.

Like when a camera operator named Lane made another attempt to raise the alarm by telling a unit [00:10:00] production manager that weapons were being handled unsafely, and that the set was what he thought was quote, super unsafe. The manager actually responded with sarcasm and kind of brushed it off and said that these accidental discharges were awesome and they sounded good, but nobody was ever disciplined for any of this.

Investigators seemed to have their attention turned to two key individuals though, and those two people were Hannah, the Armorer and Dave Halls. It turned out that both of them had reputations for concerning safety practices before they ever even worked on the set of rust. So let's start with Dave. Back in 2019, he was fired from the film Freedom's path after a prop gun unexpectedly discharged, causing minor injury to a crew member.

That same year, he was brought in as a replacement on another film called The Pale Door. Interestingly, the original assistant director on that film, Courtney Theron, was let go because she had raised concerns about there [00:11:00] not being enough safety protocol in place. Specifically in that case, they didn't have a plan in place for tornadoes even though they were filming in a tornado zone.

She later said that they brought Dave on to replace her because he was known for being more lax with safety protocols. He was known for being the guy that you call when your first assistant director walks off the project. Great. Right? I mean, if you're gonna be someone, I, I don't know why you'd wanna be that.

Your reputation precedes you not, that's not the way, not a great way Right to be done. So, of course, the producer of the Pale Door disputed this claim that Dave was hired because he didn't care about safety. But he did admit that Dave did have safety complaints during production, specifically about his attitude towards weather delays.

And he would often push to resume filming even if there was lightning nearby or conditions weren't safe. Dave had other instances of making risky and dangerous calls on film sets, and the producers of Rust had been warned about him before they hired him. One person even said that man is a liability. He is going to kill someone someday, and you're [00:12:00] gonna be responsible.

I mean, unreal like crazy, truly. And Dave wasn't the only one with preexisting red flags. We've already talked about some of the reasons why Hannah wasn't a great choice for Lead Armor, but there was actually even more in her history that should have been considered. In the days leading up to the shooting, there had been multiple safety failures under her supervision and even before being hired to work on rest, she had demonstrated a pattern of reckless behavior on set.

This one blew my mind. Her first job as Lead Armor was on a Western called the Old Way, starring Nicholas Cage and. It was a disaster from the start. A crew member said that Hannah handled weapons unsafely and without proper communication, and that her actions raised immediate concern to the point that he personally urged the film's assistant director to fire her.

One of the most serious incidents happened when Hannah fired a weapon near Nicholas Cage. Without warning. Nicholas Cage yelled at Hannah to make an [00:13:00] announcement next time and said, you just blew my effing eardrum out, and then Nicholas Cage. Stormed Offset. I'm actually very shocked. She did not get fired for that.

Like Me too. I feel like maybe Nicholas ca in the nineties, that kind of a blowup would've gotten somebody fired. And maybe not so much now, but I would think like if the lead actor is like freaked out by that, they would say, get outta there. You gotta go. Yeah. Yeah. And so another crew member said, Hannah walked onto the set carrying loaded firearms with no announcement to the cast or crew.

Again, why are you carrying, why are loaded firearms a part of any of this? So the weapons had blanks in them, but she didn't let anyone know she was coming, and she just casually walked up with pistols, tucked under her armpits while carrying rifles in each hand, all of which were to be used in the scene.

At one point, Hannah turned around and the pistols under her arm ended up being pointed directly at the people behind her, which is like. [00:14:00] It's gun safety 1 0 1, right? Especially for the person that's in charge of this. And of course, not only is it sloppy, it's directly in violation of the fundamental rules of firearm safety.

So later in an interview, Hannah said that she almost didn't take the job on the old way because she wasn't sure if she was ready, but she said it all went smoothly. Of course, her coworkers did not agree at all, and the fact that Hannah was hired on the set of rust despite these incidents is truly appalling.

By the morning of October 20th, just one day before the fatal shooting, the situation on the set of rust had reached a breaking point. The local camera crew decided to go on strike and protest of the mounting safety concerns and the complete disregard for safety, including firearm safety. Instead of taking those concerns seriously.

Gabrielle Pickle told those with concerns to pack it up and leave immediately. She was just upset that the strike might impact the film schedule and budget. So on the morning of October 21st, the original camera crew packed up their gear and left the set, [00:15:00] and a replacement crew was brought in almost immediately, but with no time to properly get brought up to speed.

And these abrupt changes affected how the day scenes, including the one inside the church, were gonna be rehearsed and filmed. Normally, the director of photography would watch the rehearsal from a nearby tented area called Video Village, so they could view the shot on a large monitor outside the filming space.

But since the crew and equipment were limited that day, Joel Souza and Helena stayed inside the church behind the camera, just a few feet away from Alec Baldwin. Dave Halls later admitted that he only saw three of the rounds in the revolver that was handed to Alec, but he did not check them all and he said that it wasn't a deliberate mistake, but he did acknowledge that he failed to follow procedure there.

Meanwhile, Hannah stood by her claim that she had checked all the dummy rounds and made sure none of them were live, but that just wasn't true. The shot that killed Helena had come from a real live bullet. Once this news came out, the focus quickly shifted to [00:16:00] accountability. Who was ultimately responsible for this?

A little more than a week after the shooting. Hannah hired former assistant US attorney Jason Bowles, as her legal representation, and through her legal team, she released a statement that began with condolences to Helena's family and friends, and well wishes to Joel Souza. But then the tone shifted, and Hannah's legal team claimed that there were these false narratives being circulated, and that Hannah's number one priority on set is always safety.

They said that ultimately this wouldn't have happened if live ammunition wasn't brought onto the set and their client, Hannah didn't know where it came from. The statement denied any knowledge of other crew members using the guns offset, and claimed that the weapons were locked up at night and during lunch.

Her attorneys also claim that she had never had an accidental discharge, so we know that that's not true. Take that for what you will, that her attorneys made that claim in her statement. I remember during all this time, there was like, uh, and I Googled this earlier just to make sure I wasn't making it [00:17:00] up in my head, that there were these like rumors that some of the crew were taking these guns that were, you know, available and they were like shooting cans and stuff so that some people could have been bringing live, uh, live ammo and stuff.

So it's just wild to be like, we have no idea how somebody could have done that when there was so much chatter about ways it could have gotten there. Yeah. So meanwhile, Dave Halls also released a statement through his attorney like Hannah. He opened with paying respects to Helena in calling the shooting a tragedy, and said that the industry should reevaluate its values and practices to ensure no one is harmed through the creative process Again.

The irony was that the industry. Did have safety practices in place. Dave just didn't bother to follow them. His lawyer boldly claimed that it wasn't Dave's job to check any weapons, but of course that wasn't true. It was his job to ensure the safety of the entire set. And that included verifying with the armor that the gun was [00:18:00] either empty or contained dummy rounds, and he was then supposed to relay that information to the actor and the crew.

He did neither of those things. On October 30th, Alec Baldwin made his first public comments when he was approached by paparazzi. He said the incident was a quote, one in a trillion episode. He went on to say, quote, there are incidental accidents on film set from time to time, but nothing like this. We were a very, very well-oiled crew shooting a film together, and then this horrible event happened, which just always makes me think like.

Of of people sugarcoating things like when we know the day of right people walked off the set, like this is not, it's just not true. And of course the statement raised some eyebrows like we were just saying because there were plenty of issues that were on the set of rust. But Alec maintained that he was told the gun was cold and that he did not pull the trigger, though that claim would later come to be heavily scrutinized.

As far as the production itself, rust Movie [00:19:00] Productions issued a statement claiming that the safety of its cast and crew was the top priority, and that they were not aware of any official complaints raised about weapon safety. But again, we're in the 2020s. There's emails, there's texts, there's police interviews, like everything is out there.

Completely contradicting what they're putting out there. And of course, public opinion was divided and the media frenzy was only growing state and federal investigators were working hard behind the scenes preparing to reveal their official findings. On November 3rd, Hannah's attorney went on TV and suggested something outlandish that the shooting may have been the result of sabotage.

What I, I mean that's like, that's really pushing it here, Hannah, and this attorney doesn't name anyone directly, but he cites the walkout of the camera crew on the morning of the shooting and called them disgruntled as he implied that someone may have tampered with Alex Revolver and slipped a live round in during the chaos on set, during the crew [00:20:00] swap.

The DA though, quickly shut that down and said there was no proof of that. But Hannah's lawyers again insisted that she was being framed by who and for what. That's what I, I know. But like, even up until that, like, okay, say somebody is framing the, the buck stops with you. Like you, you should have stopped it before they didn't take a gun and shoot Helena.

Right. What she's saying is true. Like there's reasons there are these protocols, so you're still wrong. Right. So Hannah's stepfather also said he believed there was a lot of motive for sabotage. I don't think anybody wanted her job. No. I get it. Like, you know, I don't, don't think it was to take over. I, I don't get it.

Yeah. Yeah. On November 9th, Hannah sat down with detectives again, and this time it was for three hours that she talked to them and her attorney was present. She explained that she was overwhelmed from day one and told the investigators that she was being pulled in two directions and had been expected to do two jobs on set, which was dangerous on a set that used real firearms.

Hannah [00:21:00] explained that she and props master Sarah Zachery went to the PDQ weapon supplier to pick up guns and dummy rounds for the film, but she also admitted to bringing additional dummy rounds with her from a previous production, and she says that she was actually told to do this. Hannah said she had to fight for training days for the crew and actors to learn how to handle the weapons and that Alec was distracted throughout his session to the point that she wanted him to do another one, but he didn't.

On the morning of the shooting, Hannah said that she loaded five dummy rounds into Alex Revolver, but she couldn't fit a six one due to an obstruction, which also is concerning because why is he using a gun that has something wrong with it? Yeah, like you just said it right there, right? Like there was a problem right in that instance.

Yeah. So after lunch though, she did clean out the chamber and loaded more dummy rounds. Some came from a box in the prop truck and some came from. Her pants pocket where she just has loose, I don't know, uh, loose bullets. Okay. But what I don't get it. Some came from a box, [00:22:00] some came from her pocket. Just doesn't seem very organized, professional, or safe to be doing things this way.

It sounds like they're on the set of Joe Dirt. Right. And Joe Dirt's the one doing armor. Right. This, these random bullets are just in my pocket. It just, I don't, I don't understand this. Mm-hmm. So when Hannah was told that they had actually found multiple live rounds on the set in different places. Where dummy rounds are stored.

It seemed like she was really in disbelief, just couldn't believe it, didn't know how that could have possibly have happened. They also explained to her that they had investigated and that the supplier of this ammunition didn't even make live rounds. And at this point Hannah appears to be even more shocked because now it's like, I'm sure she was truly armorer.

How did these live rounds get onto this set? So the mystery soon was put to rest when investigators compared the packaging of the rounds that were used on set with the boxes that Hannah admitted to bringing from a previous film, and they were a match. It was ultimately determined that the live rounds, including the one that killed Helena, [00:23:00] came from Hannah's personal stash.

And just to be clear, the investigators didn't believe that Hannah had intentionally brought live rounds onto the set, but because of the lack of safety protocols, these missed checks and these rust conditions, the mistake went unnoticed and unfortunately did end up being fatal. And we're gonna get into the rest of the story after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors.

And now back to the episode. So before the break, we're going over. All the ways in which, uh, the protocols had really been broken on the set of rust, and really what investigators ended up finding out that while they don't think Hannah intentionally brought live rounds to the set, it seems like she may have done just that.

And so on December 2nd, 2021, just six weeks after the fatal shooting, Alec Baldwin sat down for his first formal interview. I remember this coming up and thinking, what are you doing, man? This seems like a very, very bad idea. It wasn't a great idea, but this was a primetime exclusive with George Stephanopoulos on a B, C, [00:24:00] and this interview ends up playing a crucial role in the case, as prosecutors would later reference Alex's comments in court documents, making note of how his statements shifted over time, and that his account of events didn't always match the evidence.

In this interview, Alec began distancing himself from any personal responsibility and he denied ever being aware of any problems or safety concerns on set. He also said that the crew walkout had nothing to do with weapons or safety concerns, but rather it was hotel issues that led to their departure.

He claimed that he'd be willing to give up part of his salary to help pay for better crew accommodations, but according to him, the next day, the crew just didn't show up. Of course, Alex's characterization of the interview contradicted what many others had already told the police. When the conversation turned to Hannah, Alex said that when he first arrived on set, Hannah gave him a 90 minute gun safety demonstration, which of course directly contradicts [00:25:00] Hannah's own account, which was that Alex.

Was there, but he was distracted and on the phone during a 30 minute training session and that he skipped his follow-up sessions entirely. And even though he was credited as a co-producer on Rust, Alec claimed he was a purely creative producer, and he was only involved in the artistic side of the production, not in hiring or budgeting.

Alec also said, I don't hire anybody in the crew. And George Stephanopoulos says. Regarding Hannah, do you think she was up for the job? Alec responded. I assumed because she was there and she was hired. She was up for the job. I mean, I'm not a producer that hires the crew. Of course, this answer raises eyebrows because as a co-producer, Alec might not have personally sat there and signed off on all the crew hires.

But his name carries weight and the defense that he was just an actor was really not likely to hold up under such close scrutiny. Yeah. You are an [00:26:00] actor. Yeah. You're a producer. You want that producer credit. You have to take the producer like the bad with it. Right. You know? Right. So Alex goes on to describe the final moments before Helena was shot, and in his version, Alex said he had the revolver in hand as he and Helena blocked out the scene inside the church.

Alex said she guided him through every movement and instructed him on how to position and angle the gun for a closeup shot. Alex said that in order to get the shot, he had to cock the gun but not fire it. So he said he did not pull the trigger, but when he let go of the hammer, the gun fired, Alex said he did not pull the trigger at any point, but that claim became one of the most heavily scrutinized parts of the interview and the investigation.

Alex said that at first he had no idea what happened and he thought Helena had fainted. The idea that a live round could have been in the revolver didn't even occur to him until 45 minutes to an hour later. But up to that point, he thought Helena had been injured by some malfunctioning piece of the [00:27:00] gun, or he wondered maybe if she even had a heart attack.

He said nobody could really understand exactly what was going on. Alec also pointed out that accidental discharge of dummy rounds happened sometimes, and there had even already been such an incident on the set of rust just days earlier. So he said that when Dave announced that the gun was a cold gun, Alec assumed that was the truth.

He insisted that the shooting was not his fault and that he had trusted those who were in charge of making sure the gun was safe. And he said he would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger under any circumstances. Then Alec addressed the so-called sabotage theory that was being pushed by Hannah's legal team.

He said, it's hard for me to imagine that being the case. I believe it was overwhelmingly likely that it was an accident. Alec didn't seem concerned about the possibility of any criminal charges, and when he was asked if he felt any guilt, he immediately responded with a very controversial response. He said, no, [00:28:00] but he said the tragedy.

Yeah, he did say the tragedy continued to haunt him and that he even had nightmares about it, and he said he wasn't even sure if he wanted to continue acting after Helena's death, especially in films involving guns. He did say that his career could be over. Prosecutors didn't think Alec's interview was that great.

In fact, they later told a judge that Alec had changed his story during this interview, and he appeared to be placing the blame now on Helena herself. They said that in trying to defend himself, he had gone so far as to blame the woman who died. Prosecutors weren't the only ones who were upset about it.

Helena's husband, Matt came forward and said he was deeply frustrated with Alec's refusal to take any responsibility. It wasn't just the denial, it was how publicly and detailed Alec was in describing what had happened. I mean, he literally graphically described how the gun he was holding accidentally discharged and killed Helena.

But he stopped short of actually taking any responsibility for it at all, which, uh, everything [00:29:00] about this case is just so. Heartbreaking because you can fully understand Helena's husband being like, come on, like the least you can do. Right? Is it you can understand your role in how my wife was shot to death?

Like I mean that it is kind of Absolutely. Yeah. It's almost like you just need to hear that to be like, okay, well I know he didn't do it on purpose. Right? But to hear somebody say, yeah, I'm so sorry. Like this was a complete accident. I'm sorry for my part in it. Um, because he did have a part in it. Right.

This is obviously his attorneys being like, you don't accept any responsibility. Right. You cannot say that. So I understand that part of it, but I, I wish should It's frustrating better people. Yeah. Yeah. So behind the scenes investigators were working to prove one way or another whether Alec had pulled the trigger of the gun or not.

So the first breakthrough came from photo and video evidence taken inside the church that day, while the actual moment the gun discharged wasn't captured. The footage instills from moments before the incident told [00:30:00] investigators what they needed to know. The footage showed Alec rehearsing the scene, practicing the cross draw, pointing the revolver, and interacting with Helena and the camera crew.

In that footage, Alec was seen repeatedly placing his finger inside the trigger guard and even resting it. On the trigger itself, as he manipulated the hammer and pointed the gun, police compiled a list of over 40 productions in which Alec had either handled a gun or appeared in scenes involving firearms.

And sure enough, across many of these films and behind the scenes clips, Alec can be seen with his finger on the trigger when it shouldn't have been there. And so of course this isn't just like a casual bad habit. It's reckless behavior that violated basic safety protocols. The FBI forensic testing of the revolver itself found that the gun was fully functional and without any mechanical failures.

Most importantly, it was found that the gun could not have been fired unless the [00:31:00] trigger was pulled, whether it was quarter cocked, half cocked, or fully cocked. And we've heard that before where people have, um, in episodes we've done where people have said, I, I, I never pulled the trigger. I had no idea. It just went off and like Right.

Some guns. It literally cannot do that, and this is one of those. So other footage from the set of rest showed many instances of crew members mishandling firearms or pointing the muzzle in unsafe directions. By early 2022, the evidence was clear. The set of rust wasn't just unsafe. It was a disaster waiting to happen in February of that year.

Helena's husband Matt, filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of himself and their son, naming Alec Baldwin and others responsible for the safety on set as defendants. The lawsuit cited, negligent, intentional, willful, or reckless misconduct. The defendants included the producers Hannah, Sarah Zachary, Dave Halls, and a few others.

The Hutchins family attorney Brian Panish said that if protocol [00:32:00] had been followed, this never would've happened. Many people were culpable, but Brian said that Alex role was particularly greater because he was the one holding the weapon. In April of 2022, the OHSB released the results of their investigation, and they concluded that the production team had committed multiple serious violations of established firearm safety protocols, including the introduction of live ammunition onto the set, a failure to provide proper firearm safety training to crew members, and a routine disregard for the safety procedures that were already outlined in their own safety documents.

The agency concluded that this was just plain indifference to human life. They issued the highest level citation along with the maximum fine allowable by law, which was $136,793, but. And this is wild to me. The producers didn't take kindly to this ruling, and they pushed back claiming that they had enforced all applicable safety, unreal safety protocols.

Unreal. Yeah. They filed an appeal [00:33:00] and eventually did come to a settlement. In the end, uh, the Rust Movie productions agreed to pay a hundred thousand dollars and the citation was downgraded from willful serious to just serious. Okay, so exactly one year after Helena's death, her family announced that they had settled the wrongful death lawsuit with Rust Movie Productions.

This wasn't just a financial settlement as part of the deal. The plan was to resume filming the movie in January of 2023, but with a twist, Helena's husband, Matthew would come on board as an executive producer. I did not realize this at all, and I can't imagine how. How this went about and how this would've felt for anyone involved.

I mean, especially Matthew. This would ensure that Matt and Helena's son would receive financial compensation tied to the film's completion and success, and would honor Helena's legacy by allowing the world to see her final work. The movie would be completed with all the original principal players on board, meaning Alec Baldwin [00:34:00] and other key cast and crew would return to finish what had become one of the most.

Infamous Film productions in recent history, but while the settlement closed one chapter of the story, it didn't end the controversy. By the fall of 2022, the Sheriff's Office had wrapped up their investigation and determined that Helena's death was entirely. Avoidable. They found that Alec, Hannah and Dave had recklessly deviated from known industry safety standards and firearm protocols, and that those failures led directly to the death of an innocent woman in January of 2023.

It was announced that both Alec Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez Reed would be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. I was very shocked when this came down 'cause it's like kind of like you don't really know what's gonna happen. And to hear he was being charged with involuntary manslaughter.

It's a big deal. Yeah. The charges were filed, quote, in the alternative, which meant that the jury wouldn't just decide if they were guilty, but under which legal theory of [00:35:00] involuntary manslaughter they might be guilty. That's a new one for me. One charge required proving ordinary negligence and handling a firearm that resulted in death, and the other required proving reckless disregard for safety while committing a lawful act, in this case, filming a movie.

Under New Mexico law, involuntary manslaughter is a fourth degree felony and punishable by up to 18 months in jail and a $5,000 fine. The DA's office also revealed that Dave Halls had taken a plea deal and agreed to plead guilty to negligent use of a deadly weapon in exchange for a suspended sentence and six months of probation.

No criminal charges were ever filed in connection to Joel Sosa's injury. While both Alec and Hannah's attorneys fought back and claimed the investigation was flawed, prosecutors made it clear that someone had to be held criminally responsible for what happened. By April, 2023, things took an unexpected turn.

When the charges against Alec Baldwin were dropped, though prosecutors made it clear they could [00:36:00] refile those charges at any time. Pending further review, new evidence had emerged that the gun Alec was using may have been modified in a way that could allow it to discharge without the trigger being pulled, which was a critical detail because Alex entire defense really hinged on that very thing.

The original prosecutor, Andrea Reeb, who had helped bring the charges, was also forced to step down due to a conflict of interest. She was actually also serving in the New Mexico House of Representatives, and that raised some questions about the legalities of holding both positions at the same time, which, yeah, I would, I'm surprised that, yeah.

You would've even tried that. Yeah. Yeah, me too. But then the DA who had actually appointed Andrea Reeb and spearheaded the early stages of the case, recused herself entirely. So basically all the important people who really put the case together are now no longer in it. So that's kind of throwing a wrench in everything.

Robert Shilling, who was a respected [00:37:00] former chief of the New Mexico State Police and lead investigator for the DA's office, was also suddenly removed from the case as well. But he had signed an NDA, so the reason for his removal wasn't really known, but he did send a scathing email on his way out the door that read quote, the conduct of the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office during and after the initial investigation is reprehensible and unprofessional to a degree.

I still have no words for not I or 200 more. Efficient investigators than I can or could clean up the mess. Delivered to your office in October of 2022. Inexcusable. Did you say he had an NDA? 'cause I feel like he da that he definitely did. I mean, he didn't say what happened, but he definitely said what happened.

He said, read between the lines. Yeah, right. Not only was Alec Baldwin off the hook, but the credibility of the entire investigation was being called into question. Just days after the charges against him were dropped, Alec returned to the set of rust to finish filming. [00:38:00] This time the production was relocated to Yellowstone Film Ranch in Montana, which is far from the original Bonanza Creek location where the tragedy occurred.

The scene that Helena had been helping block out when she was shot was actually rewritten, and this time there were no working weapons or any form of ammo allowed on set. Wow. What an idea. The primary goal was to salvage as much of Helena's original footage as possible. Both to honor her memory and to fulfill the agreement that would provide financial support to her husband and son.

Filmmakers used a mix of clever editing, special effects and reshoots to stitch together the rest of the film around the work that Helena had already done. Meanwhile, Alex legal team held their breath as a new round of testing on the revolver. Got underway. A second analysis was conducted to determine once and for all whether the gun could have fired without a trigger pull.

The conclusion was that no, the gun could not be fired [00:39:00] without pulling the trigger. So at this point, prosecutors decided to take the case to a grand jury. After review, Alec was formally indicted on involuntary manslaughter charges based on the results of the new forensic testing, which confirmed yet again that the revolver could have only been fired by pulling the trigger and Alec pleaded not guilty in this case, but if convicted, he would face up to 18 months in prison.

Meanwhile, in March of 2024, Hannah's trial began. Prosecutors painted a picture of consistent negligence and argued that Hannah was directly responsible for the live rounds getting onto set in the first place. Her defense pushed back hard arguing that the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hannah was the one who brought live ammo to the set, and they pointed the finger back at Alec Baldwin.

They said that Alec went off script and pointed the weapon where it didn't belong, and that's what led to Helena's death. The jury [00:40:00] though wasn't convinced. After less than three hours of deliberating, they returned with a guilty verdict, and Hannah was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence of 18 months in prison, citing her refusal to take responsibility.

They also brought up some recorded jail calls in which Hannah, who apparently didn't know jail calls were recorded, showed no remorse and blamed others for Elena's death. She also mocked the jury and called them idiots and complained about. This part broke my heart how the case had even hurt her modeling career, which I don't know if the case was what hurt her modeling career or maybe just the fact that she didn't look like a model out of Mandy's mouth to God's ears.

She also went so far as to ask her legal team to contact Helena's husband and ask him to speak on her behalf at sentencing. Unreal Audacity was on. Yes. Well, [00:41:00] 24. I feel like you have audacity at 24, so that makes sense. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. So Hannah was ultimately sentenced to 18 months and Alec Baldwin's day in court still loomed ahead.

After nearly three years of investigation, conflicting narratives and legal delays, Alec Baldwin's criminal trial officially began in July of 2024. On July 10th, opening statements began and prosecutors got right to the point. They told the jury that the gun assigned to Alec worked perfectly fine, and that he did not perform a gun safety check with the armorer, who they emphasized was also inexperienced.

Most importantly, they claimed that Alec did pull the trigger in reckless disregard for Helena's safety. Prosecutors also pointed out a key inconsistency in Alec's story. When he first talked to the police, he did not say that he hadn't pulled the trigger. That was something that came later, and prosecutors said that was just part of a shifting narrative designed to deflect the blame away from himself.

Alec's defense argued that he had no reason [00:42:00] to suspect the gun had live ammunition in it and that other people were responsible for the gun safety, not Alec. He was just an actor following directions. He was no weapons expert, especially 'cause he didn't go to any of the training sessions for sure. On day two of the trial, the defense was questioning a crime scene technician when a new development came to light.

This also blew my mind that something like this could happen in this case. Yeah. So the technician who was a retired police officer named Troy, and a longtime friend of Hannah's stepfather fell Reed had gone to the sheriff's office around the time of Hannah's trial and handed over a batch of ammo that he believed might be connected to the case.

However, the technician made a serious error when she saved the bullets under a completely different case number, not the rust case. Oh my gosh. So the defense never even knew these bullets existed, and when the court finds out, when they find out about this in open court during a trial, alarm bells start going off.

Alex legal team starts freaking out. They're flagging this as what they call a Brady [00:43:00] violation, which is when the prosecution doesn't turn over. Evidence that could potentially help the defense. Because of this, the trial came to a screeching halt and the jury was dismissed for the day while the judge ordered a special hearing to figure out what was going on and what they were gonna do about it, you know, how this happened, how these bullets were handled, and why the defense was never made aware of it.

Then even more chaos erupted when one of the special prosecutors suddenly resigned from the case and walked outta the courtroom after speaking privately to the judge. So the prosecution's case at this point is literally crumbling, absolutely falling apart. Everything's in turmoil. And you know, they're wondering if critical evidence has now been mishandled, and if it was, who's at fault and is this gonna blow up everything that they're trying to work towards?

Wow. So the other prosecutor on the case was called to the stand to explain what happened, and she testified that she had received a photo of the ammo from Troy, and based on the photo alone, she made the decision not to inform the [00:44:00] defense. She said quote. It was my impression that they did not match the live rounds on the set of rust, but she had never actually seen the ammo in person and neither had anyone else in the courtroom.

The judge ordered the bullets be brought in and soon they arrived in a manila envelope. The judge put on a pair of latex gloves and cut the envelope open with scissors to carefully examine the contents. What she found changed everything. Three of these rounds. Closely resembled the live rounds found on the rest set.

This confirmed that the key evidence had not only been mishandled but was also being withheld. The judge ruled that the state had willfully withheld evidence that might have helped the defense figure out how the live rounds got onto set in the first place. The judge concluded that the discovery of this evidence had impacted the fairness of the proceedings and that there was no way for the court to right this wrong.

The judge then dismissed the case. With prejudice, meaning Alec Baldwin could never be [00:45:00] retried for Helena's death. Alec broke down in tears and embraced his wife Aria before walking out of court, a free man, and that was shocking. Like I figured he would get off, but I figured this whole thing was going to, it was gonna go through to see something like this was like, it was like a movie.

Really? Yeah. Yeah. In early 2025, Alec and his wife stepped back into the public eye as the stars of A TLC reality series, Melissa. Is this one that you watch? I watch clips. I refuse to watch the whole thing 'cause his wife just. Me crazy makes Baldwins. I don't really know anything about his wife Hillary, so, oh my gosh.

Yeah. Maybe I should watch the Baldwins. Do you remember this from like 2020? Um, how do you say cucumber in English? She like pretended that she didn't know how to speak English, that she had lived in Spain, but she actually grew up in Connecticut. So there was a first thing. I do remember this now. Yes, I do remember this, yes.

Super weird. So the show the Baldwins features their family life with their seven children, which I always forget that Alec Baldwin has seven kids. I don't know why has eight. They never's. I never [00:46:00] pictured Ireland him as like a big, giant family man. So that I, I'm always shocked when I remember that weird.

He has such a large family's weird. Um, so in the first episode, Alec opens up about the emotional toll that this case had taken on him. So in the first episode of this show, Alec opens up about the emotional toll that this case has taken on him. Meanwhile, rust was quietly finished and released. Uh, the movie had its world premiere at a cinematography festival in Poland in November of 2024, but Alec did not attend.

And later he told Variety that he actually had no plans to watch the final cut. He just wants to put the movie behind him. When the film opened in the US on May 2nd, 2025, that was just a few weeks ago. It was a box office failure. I didn't even hear about it being released, which actually I didn't know it was coming out.

Yeah, actually, yeah, it actually kind of makes me sad a little bit, just me too, because you want Helena's work to, uh, be seen. You know, you want as many people to be able to get to see it as as possible. So kind of as a bummer of that, the film. Was a flop, but I guess not surprising with the low [00:47:00] budget that they had that they were working with, you know?

Well, and the controversy because, and the controversy for sure. Yeah. That was a lot. Yeah. But I feel like a lot of people don't know that the proceeds from this movie a are going to my husband and son. So now if you're, if you're listening to this episode and you're like, I wasn't gonna watch it, but like go, yeah.

Now I want it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Um, because it actually does directly help her family. During that first weekend opening weekend, it only estimated $25,000 from 115 theaters, which is just absolutely terrible. Um, the reviews were mixed and largely negative as some people question whether or not it should have ever been released.

Uh, Jesse Hassinger of the Guardian wrote that without Helena's work on the movie, it just wouldn't even be worth watching at all. He praised her work and said that the film was visually worthy of the westerns it tried to emulate, and that it was a testament to Helena's talent. The film's rollout was very subdued.

There was not a lot of buzz and you know, not a lot of hype about it. There was no red carpet premiere. It [00:48:00] was a limited theatrical release, and there were no promotional interviews done, you know, with the lead stars like Alec, but still the release of the movie just felt right to those who loved he, Elena.

Director Joel Souza said a lot of really good people worked really hard on finishing this movie to honor her. Even now, the story is not over as there are still multiple lawsuits ongoing. Alec Baldwin has filed a civil suit against the District attorney and other officials in Santa Fe alleging wrongful prosecution, which.

I get it, but like also I don't get it because like, you literally didn't have to do anything except go to court and like your case got dropped. So if I, I just feel like sometimes you just need to let it lie. Like why are you filing a lawsuit against the district attorney's office? Like you didn't even get prosecuted.

Yeah. You know, like you didn't even get, I get that convicted, I. But he absolutely could have based on what they, that's true. Did against him. And then also it really, like, if it's kind of like the Amanda Knox story, some people surprisingly don't know that [00:49:00] like a whole other person was arrested, right.

That's in jail. And like, we know she's not guilty. So I feel like if people only heard half this case, people that hear Alec Baldwin's case think like, oh yeah, he, he was found guilty because you just kind of hear it. Right. So to hear I can, I can understand, but I know what you s. Say too, because it's kind of like, dude, what's the point?

Right. It's over for you. Exactly. Why are you doing this? Yeah. But um, at the same time, you know that Alec is trying to work on this for himself to clear his own name fully. Uh, Helena's parents and sister have actually filed a lawsuit against him, against Alec Baldwin because of course they're seeking accountability of their own, and they do not feel that Alec Baldwin has really ever taken accountability for his part in it.

So. They are seeking a lawsuit against him. Yeah, so we will keep hearing about the story a little bit more, maybe for the foreseeable future. Of course, if there's any update, um, on any of those lawsuits or if they come to any settlement, we will let you guys know about it. Wow. This is just such a horrible, horrible case of like so many things coming [00:50:00] together to create this one.

Moment like that, just, it changes everything. Like it's just wild to think about how many things had to happen in order for this to even be possible to happen, right? Like it's, it's so. Scary. Really? Yeah. Like really scary. No, I totally agree. And I don't know the whole thing, it's very much like the Spider-Man meme of everyone pointing at somebody else.

You know, all the different ones because nobody wants to take responsibility. 'cause of course you don't. I don't think anyone intentionally, you know, killed this woman. But ultimately it happened and it was a lot of things along the way that could have stopped it. So, and a lot of people who didn't do just a quick.

Safety check that they were supposed to do. Like, yeah, that's the part that's very, very sad is like that there are, there were safety protocols in place, right? It's not like they just didn't even have any idea of what to do. Like they had. Protocols they had. It's not like you and I making a movie and we have no idea what we're doing.

Right. Like that's literally their job, right. Like to do all this and then to laugh it [00:51:00] off and stuff just is unreal to me. Yeah. It's so, it's very sad. Yeah. I'm glad we got to cover it though, because Me too. I have been very, I've had a lot of questions about it and a lot of them were answered. Yeah, me too.

All right guys. Well we have absolutely taken up plenty of your time on this lovely Tuesday. Uh, so thank you guys so much for listening. We will be back next week, same time, same place. New story. Have a great week. Bye.