Key players: Who's who at Alec Baldwin's trial for cinematographer's murder

About a dozen people were inside a church where a movie was being filmed the day Alec Baldwin shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza during a rehearsal for the Western film Rust.

Today, nearly three years later and after countless hearings and much legal wrangling, Baldwin is on trial for involuntary manslaughter. inside the church that fateful day in 2021 should testify.

The witness list also includes numerous investigators, firearms experts and possibly the film's gunsmith who is appealing a conviction for his role in the shooting.

Baldwin, the film's lead actor and co-producer, claimed the shot was fired accidentally after he followed instructions from the man who pointed it at Hutchins, who was behind the camera. Unaware that the gun was loaded with a live round, he said he pulled the hammer, not the trigger, and the shot was fired.

Prosecutors plan to present evidence that the gun's trigger must have been pulled. They said Baldwin shared responsibility for what happened that day.

Here's a look at the key players in the criminal trial of an actor who has been a mainstay of television and film for decades:

THE DEFENDANT

ALEC BALDWIN Known for his roles in the blockbuster The Hunt for Red October, Martin Scorsese's The Departed and the sitcom 30 Rock, Baldwin has a career that spans more than four decades and includes other gun-toting roles. Baldwin has been charged twice in Hutchins' death. Prosecutors dismissed an earlier charge, then revived it through a grand jury after receiving new analysis of the gun he pointed at Hutchins. According to the indictment, Baldwin caused Hutchins' death through negligence or reckless disregard for safety. He has pleaded not guilty.

WITNESSES

HANNAH GUTIERREZ-REED The stepdaughter of famed sniper and gun consultant Thell Reed, Gutierrez-Reed was 24 at the time of the deadly rehearsal. Rust was her second assignment as a gunsmith in a feature film. Her lawyers argued she was the scapegoat, pointing to safety concerns that were beyond their client’s control. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter, which she is attractiveAt sentencing, Gutierrez-Reed said she tried to do her best on set despite a lack of time, resources and staff.

DAVID HALLS Halls, who has worked on dozens of films over the course of his 30-year career, has starred in The Matrix Reloaded. The assistant director and security coordinator pleaded not guilty He was sentenced to six months of suspended probation for negligent use of a deadly weapon and charged with misdemeanor battery. It was learned after Rust producers halted work on the film in 2021 that Halls had been fired from a previous job after a gun went off on set and injured a crew member.

JOEL SOUZA Director and screenwriter, Souza wrote the screenplay for Rust. Although he has worked on smaller projects over the years, he made his feature film debut in 2019 with Crown Vic. Baldwin was also a producer on that project and had said he was looking forward to working with Souza on the Western. Souza was wounded by the same bullet that killed Hutchins. Souza previously testified He stood behind Hutchins to get a closer look at the camera angle and never saw the gun that shot him.

ROSS ADDIEGO He was hired by Rust Productions as a frontline crew member He built and operated systems to guide the film's camera. He was among those present in the church the day Hutchins was killed. He and other crew members are suing the producers, claiming their failure to follow industry safety rules caused emotional distress.

ZAC SNEESBY A sound engineer and boom operator, Sneesby has worked on a number of projects, including Stranger Things , among his most recent work. He also mixed sound for the collaborative art project Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. He said in a recent pretrial interview that he was standing very close to Baldwin when the actor shot and killed Hutchins. He told prosecutors that he saw Baldwin pull the trigger.

LUCIEN HAAG A firearms expert working for an Arizona-based consulting firm, Haag has been called to testify in numerous criminal cases on topics such as firearm identification and shooting reconstruction. Prosecutors have identified Haag and his son, Michael, as two of the nation’s leading experts on firearms forensics. The pair examined the gun Baldwin used during the rehearsal.

PROSECUTORS

KARI MORRISSEY A seasoned attorney with experience spanning hundreds of trials, Morrissey began her role as special prosecutor in March 2023. She has practiced law in New Mexico for more than 20 years, after graduating from the University of New Mexico School of Law. Accused of being overzealous by Baldwin’s legal team, Morrissey was not one to back down during the many hearings leading up to the trial. Throughout her career, she has focused on criminal defense and civil rights cases.

ERLINDA JOHNSON Joining the team less than three months ago, Johnson has had to learn quickly. Her specialty is criminal defense and personal injury. She was called into a high-profile public corruption case to defend former New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran, who resigned in 2015 following revelations that she used campaign funds to fuel a gambling addiction. Johnson also previously worked as a federal prosecutor investigating drug and organized crime after serving as an assistant district attorney in the Albuquerque area.

BALDWIN'S LAWYERS

LUKE NIKAS With a resume that places him at the top of many legal MVP lists, Nikas is a Harvard Law School graduate and a partner in the New York office of one of the world’s largest law firms. When the charges against Baldwin were first announced, Nikas called it a miscarriage of justice, vowing that his team would fight the charges and win. He is best known for his work in the art world, having represented museums, galleries, auction houses, and collectors. He has also recovered art by Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso and led the defense in a counterfeiting case that shook the New York art world.

ALEX SPIRO A Harvard graduate and partner at Nikas at Quinn, Emanual, Urquhart & Sullivan, Spiro practices white collar criminal law and government enforcement matters, as well as sports and entertainment litigation. He previously served as a prosecutor in Manhattan, helping to convict two notorious killers. His private practice client list includes: Elon MuskJay-Z and Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots.

THE JUDGE

MARY MARLOWE SOMMER During her decades-long career, she worked as a paralegal, defense attorney, and hearing officer who handled thousands of domestic violence and family matters cases. In 2010, Marlowe Sommer was appointed to the First Judicial District Court by then-New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Gutierrez-Reed's conviction in AprilThe judge told the defendant that anything less than the maximum sentence would not be appropriate, citing what she called recklessness. If Gutierrez-Reed's trial is any indication, Marlowe Sommer will keep attorneys on track and on schedule in what will be a high-profile proceeding.

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