A New Mexico judge approved last Thursday a search warrant requested by state authorities to seize Alec Baldwin’s phone, in order to obtain more information about what happened before and after the incident in which Halyna Hutchins was shot dead.
According to the warrant, officials want to access his messages, emails, call logs, web browsing history and social media activity to have more details on the shoot and its working conditions. Apart from starring in Rust, Baldwin was one of the producers of the film.
The warrant, which the media has had access to, explains that the actor’s phone was already requested on another occasion but his attorney required a search warrant. Likewise, in the court documents, previously unknown data are revealed, such as that Baldwin allegedly asked the production armourer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, for a larger gun and opted, along with her, for a “.45 Colt” revolver. Baldwin, Gutierrez-Reed and assistant director Dave Halls, are three people of particular interest in the investigation as they were allegedly the last to touch the gun before the fatal incident on October 21.
In early December, Baldwin offered a primetime interview in which he assured he wasn’t aware that he had shot Hutchins until minutes after the incident. “I thought to myself, ‘Did she faint?’ The notion that there was a live round in that gun did not dawn on me till probably 45 minutes to an hour later.”
“Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” he stated. And he settled the issue by claiming: “I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.”
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said in November that he had allegedly found about 500 rounds of ammunition on the set, including a mix of “suspected live rounds, blanks, and dummy bullets.”
Meanwhile, the film’s script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell, and the chief electrician, Serge Svetnoy, have filed lawsuits against Baldwin and other members of the production for putting the safety of their employees at risk. Statements from crew members working on the set of Rust describe a precarious work environment in which complaints allegedly piled up and half a dozen employees resigned on the same day of the incident.
However, a few days ago, a group of 25 professionals who worked on the same shoot defended its working conditions and safety measures in a letter published by Baldwin himself on his Instagram profile.
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