First Rust shooting conviction arrives as assistant director pleads to gun charge
David Halls will do no jail time after entering a "no contest" plea on charges of negligent use of a deadly weapon
Aux News Law
One and a half years after the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the low-budget Western Rust, the first conviction has been handed down in the criminal investigations into the incident. Specifically, Variety reports that David Halls, 1st assistant director on the film, has formalized a plea deal to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon. Halls will do no jail time, instead receiving a six month sentence of unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, 24 hours of community service, and a requirement to take a gun safety class.
Of the various Rust personnel currently facing legal action—notably armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who loaded the firearm that killed Hutchins, and star Alec Baldwin, who was holding it when it discharged—Halls is the only one to have taken a plea deal, saying that he did so to “make things easier for the family.” Even so, his attorney pushed back on certain assertions about the case, including allegations that he was the one who handed the gun to Baldwin, and that he declared it a “cold gun”—i.e., one containing no blank rounds—while doing so. Gutierrez-Reed has said she handed the gun to Halls, while Baldwin said the assistant director handed it to him and made the “cold gun” statement.
The prosecutor in the case, Kari Morrissey, read a statement as the trial was wrapping up, laying out Halls’ culpability (citing a statement Halls made to police early into the investigation about failing to check each round in the gun): “He is the last line of defense. He needed to check and confirm that the rounds in the gun were actually dummy rounds. Mr. Halls did not check every round in the gun to confirm that it was a dummy round.”
Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin are both facing a maximum of 18 months in jail on charges of involuntary manslaughter. Morrissey and Jason Lewis have just been appointed as special prosecutors in the case, after multiple prosecutors have already stepped down from the case amidst complaints from Baldwin’s legal team. Halls is expected to testify in a preliminary hearing ahead of the trials.
12 Comments
a “cold gun”—i.e., one containing no blank roundsI think you probably mean “no live rounds”?
Well it’s in the middle. There should never be live rounds on set, only blanks for pyro, or dummy rounds so the gun looks loaded. So in this context, a hot gun would have blanks, while a cold gun would either be empty, or chambered with dummy rounds.
Hopefully he testifies and brings down Baldwin.
I don’t necessarily think he deserves jail time, but this is a really light sentence, even for a plea deal. You could multiply the fine and community service hours by ten and come a lot closer to something reasonable. This one looks like someone who has run a few red lights. Weird to think that this might very well be the worst punishment anyone faces out of this whole mess, unless they’re just using him to roll on Gutierrez-Reed or Baldwin. But I still don’t understand how they can effectively argue a case against Baldwin, and I wouldn’t think they’d need Halls’s testimony to nail Gutierrez-Reed.ETA: Thinking about it, I’ll bet there’s some sort of state maximum for negligent use of a deadly weapon, and in New Mexico that sort of thing is not likely to be overly harsh. I’m not sure what other charge might have been negotiated, since there’s a whole lot of potential space between “negligent use” and “involuntary manslaughter”, but probably not a lot of actual crimes.
I mean what even is “unsupervised probation?” Because it sounds a lot like nothing. Except probably if he gets arrested for something else during that period he could also face consequences for violating his probation.
I think supervised probation is like parole, where you’re required to check in with a probation officer, subject to impromptu visits, warrantless searches, and drug tests, that sort of thing. Unsupervised probation doesn’t have the monitoring, but you can still get in trouble if you violate probation terms (don’t take a required class, don’t do the community service, get arrested for something else). In Halls’s case, there might be some provision in there that recanting a sworn statement violates his probation, to keep him from changing his story at Baldwin’s trial.
It seems very likely that they’re using him to roll on Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed—the news that he pleaded out was announced right around the same time that charges were announced, IIRC. The one thing I’ve speculated was if Halls knew of Baldwin ever taking the gun out to fire with live ammo, it would wreck Baldwin’s “Why would there ever be bullets in that gun?” defense. Heck, even if he could testify that Baldwin knew of other crew or cast members taking the guns off-set for target practice, it changes the narrative significantly.
This seems really arbitrary and pretty fucking stupid.
I’ve said it before, Baldwin should not be charged for this. The DA clearly thinks this case is their big ticket to notoriety, but everyone else can see what a farce it is. There are two people who should be charged, the AD and the armorer.
I agree. I always worry people are going to think I’m some crazed apologist fan or something, but the likelihood of proving any sort of liability on the part of Baldwin is so miniscule, that “judge seeing their name in lights” is honestly the most plausible reason it’s come this far.
The problem of course is that Baldwin is such a nutter that the longer he’s in the spotlight for this, the more his conduct, behaviour etc gives the impression of being… well, of being a nutter.
Now he has to take a gun safety course? Sorry, but everyone on a movie set with guns, real or replicas, should have mandatory gun safety training that they renew every year or two. Kinda like some security guards are required to have First Aid and CPR certifications when working certain posts, like schools.
“…after multiple prosecutors have already stepped down from the case amidst complaints from Baldwin’s legal team…”Well, yes – because the various complaints have been found to be *completely valid* by the presiding judge and/or embarrassingly inarguable by the overreaching & inept prosecution team itself.