Alec Baldwin failed on Thursday to prevent jurors on his involuntary manslaughter trial from hearing a possibly damaging private phone conversation he had with his wife Hilaria just hours after the accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the western movie Rust on Oct. 21, 2021. During the FaceTime call that was picked up on a police recording while Baldwin was giving his first sit-down interview to investigators, the actor is heard urging Hilaria to travel with their kids to join him in New Mexico.
The family already had plans to fly out that week so the couple’s eldest daughter could film a cameo in the movie, and Baldwin stressed the plane tickets were non-refundable. With filming on hold due to the accident, Baldwin said they could still go out and “have a good time” while the police probe unfolded in the background. At the time of the call, Baldwin had not yet been informed Hutchins was dead.
“He is at the police station. He does not know Ms. Hutchins has passed, but he knows she is critically injured — so injured she has been taken away in a helicopter.
If the defense hadn’t spent all this time saying how panicked and upset he was, I’m not sure it would be relevant. But he is actually planning, basically, a vacation, and he tells his family, ‘Still come to New Mexico, we’ll have a good time.’ So, this is obviously information that directly contradicts what the defense has argued,” special prosecutor Kari Morrissey told t.
