In the opening minutes of the trial, Erlinda O. Johnson, one of the prosecutors, accused Alec Baldwin of blatantly failing to follow basic gun safety rules, which she said led to the death of the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.
“The evidence you will see will paint a real-life picture of a real-life workplace where this defendant mishandled this gun,” Ms. Johnson said. “You will see him using this gun as a pointer to point at people, to point at things. You will see him cock the hammer when he’s not supposed to cock the hammer. You will see him put his finger on the trigger when his finger’s not supposed to be on the trigger. You will hear about numerous breaches of firearm safety with this defendant and this use of this firearm.”
Ms. Johnson said that Mr. Baldwin should be held responsible for the death of Ms. Hutchins.
“He pointed the gun at another human being, cocked the hammer and pulled that trigger, in reckless disregard for Ms. Hutchins’s safety,” Ms. Johnson told the jury.
Ms. Johnson also aggressively fought Mr. Baldwin’s contention that he did not pull the trigger before the gun went off. Mr. Baldwin has argued that the gun discharged after he had pulled back the hammer and then, before fully cocking it, let it go. Mr. Baldwin’s lawyers have said that evidence suggests that the gun had been modified before filming, arguing that this could have made it easier to discharge accidentally.
But Ms. Johnson said expert testimony would show that the gun was working perfectly fine and that it could only have discharged by Mr. Baldwin pulling the trigger.
The post The prosecution accused Mr. Baldwin of ‘numerous breaches of firearm safety.’ appeared first on New York Times.
