A New Mexico judge has ruled that actor Alec Baldwin’s indictment will stand in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of his film Rust. In an order on Friday, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer turned down a motion by Baldwin’s attorneys to dismiss the indictment.

Baldwin therefore remains scheduled to go on trial in July for involuntary manslaughter. Nearly three years ago, during a rehearsal for a scene in the Western movie on a ranch outside Santa Fe, Baldwin was holding the prop gun that had been loaded with live ammunition. The Colt .45 revolver went off, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

Baldwin, who was also a producer for the film, pleaded not guilty, and has maintained he was not responsible for Hutchins’ death. Shortly after the shooting, he told ABC News he had “no idea” how a live bullet got onto the set of his film, but that he “didn’t pull the trigger.”

In March, a jury found the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, guilty of involuntary manslaughter and negligent use of a firearm. She’s now serving an 18-month prison sentence.

The New Mexico Environment Department’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau issued a citation against Rust Movie Productions and fined them for failures that led to Hutchins’ “avoidable death.”

The criminal case against Alec Baldwin

The high-profile criminal case against Alec Baldwin has had many twists and turns. Baldwin was first charged in 2023, but New Mexico’s case against him faced a number of setbacks: Baldwin’s attorneys fought to remove special prosecutor Andrea Reeb, a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives. She stepped down from the case. So did the district attorney who brought the case, after downgrading the charges against the actor. (Baldwin initially faced charges for a minimum of five years in prison under a “firearm enhancement” statute, but his legal team noted that such a law didn’t take effect in New Mexico until after the fatal Rust shooting.)

In April of 2023, the charges against Baldwin were dropped as two new special prosecutors were assigned. In October, they presented their case to a grand jury to determine whether he should be criminally charged. By January, the jury agreed to indict him.

But last week, Baldwin’s attorneys Alex Spiro and Luke Nikas asked Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to dismiss his charges. They argued that during the grand jury hearing, the state’s special prosecutor unfairly stacked the deck against Baldwin, leaving out key testimony and interrupting witnesses multiple times.

“She doesn’t cut off anybody saying ‘I don’t like Alec Baldwin,’ that’s for sure. It’s always in one direction,” said Spiro.

Spiro argued that the “overzealous” special prosecutor engaged in “bad faith” by failing to make defense witnesses available to testify, and for presenting contradictory testimony.

Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey, meanwhile, was on the defensive with Judge Sommer. She denied that she had done anything nefarious before the grand jury.

“Everything he’s saying to you right now is a complete misrepresentation,” Morrissey said of Spiro. “I didn’t hide any information from the grand jury.”

She said she had planned to present several defense witnesses if the grand jurors asked for their testimony, and she denied that the testimony was contradictory.

“I want the court to understand that all I was trying to do was get the most accurate information before the grand jury,” Morrissey explained. She defended the testimony of witnesses, including that of veteran movie armorer Bryan Carpenter, who spoke about industry weapons practices during the grand jury trial: “Everything that Mr. Carpenter said is absolutely accurate about the way that safety protocols on movie sets are supposed to work.” She said Carpenter testified in the Gutierrez-Reed trial that the armorer is in charge of gun safety, and he testified before the grand jury “that the actor has a responsibility for the firearm once it is in his hand.”

Morrissey said according to safety protocols on movie sets, “The person who’s holding the gun isn’t supposed to point at anyone. The person who’s holding the gun is supposed to keep their finger off the trigger. The person who’s pointing, who’s holding the gun, is supposed to know what their intended target is. All of those are things that Mr. Baldwin failed to do. And that information was appropriately presented to the grand jury in this case.”

On Friday, Judge Sommer allowed the grand jury’s decision to stand.

A web of lawsuits

Since the fatal shooting in October 2021, a complex web of lawsuits has grown.

The Rust crew has filed a number of suits against each other. Serge Svetnoy, the film’s gaffer, or lighting lead, sued Baldwin, Guttierez-Reed, and a number of others involved in production. Then script supervisor Mamie Mitchell sued Baldwin and other producers and crew members, too. In 2022, Baldwin filed a lawsuit against the film’s first assistant director, the armorer, prop master and ammunition supplier, alleging negligence.

Halyna Hutchins’ family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him and his co-producers, alleging their cost-cutting and reckless behavior on set led to her death. As part of the settlement, Hutchins’ widower Matthew was named as executive producer of the film, which resumed and finished filming last year. There is still no release date.

From their home in Ukraine, Hutchins’s sister and parents also filed a civil suit against Baldwin, his co-producers and some crew members.

This week, we girded ourselves for the possibility of bidding “Cheddar, Bye!” to Cheddar Bay. A famous travel destination for poor boys and pilgrims with families enjoyed a moment of grace. And when we asked ourselves: If you can’t antitrust Ticketmaster, who can you antitrust?

Here’s what NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend.

Books by Megan Abbott

Megan Abbott writes domestic-meets-horror-thriller novels. I started with her short story “The Little Men” — it was exceptional and creepy and very vividly rendered. So I moved on to her other books, You Will Know Me, which is about a teen gymnast and some drama that happens to her family. And Give Me Your Hand, which is about two rival post-doc researchers and their shared history. These books are really immersive. They have creepy touches that I did not expect. There’s become sort of a formula to women’s thriller writing, and everything I’ve read so far from Megan Abbott just takes that formula and knocks it on it’s you-know-what. — Roxana Hadadi

“Bouncy (K-Hot Chilli Peppers)” by ATEEZ

ATEEZ became the first K-pop boy group to perform at Coachella earlier this year. Aside from the fact that I find them all very pretty, their music is really fun and they’re very electric performers. They have this cyberpunk Western aesthetic that relates to the dystopian storyline that they’re unspooling — involving a world government that suppresses people’s emotions. But honestly, I think you should enjoy their music without knowing any of this. In the song “Bouncy (K-Hot Chilli Peppers),” cheongyang gochu is a type of Korean chili pepper that’s known for being way spicier — so basically they’re saying their vibe is a different level of spicy. It’s so silly and bombastic and catchy. I love it. — Mallory Yu

“Bird of a Feather” from Billie Eilish’s new album, Hit Me Hard and Soft

Hit Me Hard and Soft is the new album by Billie Eilish. It is nice to hear an inventive, creative, ethereal pop record. It does synth pop really well — you can hear the woozy effervescence of it all. But this record goes a little harder and deeper and gets a little stranger. Songs take hairpin turns partway through and explore different sides of her sound. Billie Eilish is at such an interesting point in her career. She and her brother Finneas are coming off their second Oscar win for “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie. This album uses that song as a jumping off point. It’s still exploring that torch-ier side of her voice, but it’s taking it in some pop-ier directions at the same time. I’m going to keep coming back to this record all summer. — Stephen Thompson

Valley Heat podcast

Valley Heat is a scripted comedy podcast that pretends it is neither one of those things. Do not jump in to the most recent episodes. Start at the beginning because this thing builds. The less you know about it going in, the better. (The premise, a middle-aged white guy making a podcast about his neighborhood initially made me think: meh, maybe not for me.) Just know that it is bone dry, that it builds and builds and builds, that the cast of characters keeps growing and getting weirder. If you know the comedy team of Scharpling & Wurster think of this as a very West Coast version of that. — Glen Weldon

More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter

by Glen Weldon

Hazbin Hotel is an adult animated series about a demon who’s trying to reform the souls in Hell because … well, to go into that would take more time than I have in this blurb. There’s plenty of lore underpinning this show, is my point. Other things underpinning it: Showtunes! Queer characters! Stylish design! A great voice cast! And plenty of solid, well-earned, bounce-a-quarter-off ‘em jokes!

The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin is a very, very British historical comedy series about an infamous (in the U.K., at least) highwayman who’s something of a folk hero. Noel Fielding essentially plays himself as Turpin, and as you might imagine, the whole thing lives in that well-carved out liminal English-comedy space where the jokes are very silly but the delivery is very dry.

Brokeback Mountain. The Power of the Dog. Almodovar’s Strange Way of Life. The upcoming National Anthem. Queer cowboys have been around since the very first cowman made … “friends” with a farmer. It’s easy to forget that, so it’s nice that Orville Peck and Willie Nelson teamed up to remind us.

Beth Novey adapted the Pop Culture Happy Hour segment “What’s Making Us Happy” for the Web. If you like these suggestions, consider signing up for our newsletter to get recommendations every week. And listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.