Alec Baldwin manslaughter trial: Experts testify on live bullets found on 'Rust' movie set

July 11 (UPI) -- The second day of often emotional and gripping testimony in the manslaughter trial of actor Alec Baldwin has come to a close and is scheduled to resume in a New Mexico courtroom Friday.

It has been nearly three years since cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed by a bullet fired by Baldwin on the set of the movie 'Rust.' Baldwin had assumed the handgun contained a blank, but instead there was a live round in the chamber.

The actor faces 18 months in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

According to testimony in Alec Baldwin's manslaughter trial Thursday from crime scene technician Marissa Poppell, a live bullet was discovered in another Rust actor's bandolier and elsewhere on the movie set.

Poppell said the prop cart for the film had live rounds, as did an ammo box and two gun holsters, including one of Baldwin's.

When asked about how the FBI handled the gun that fired the shot that killed Hutchins, she testified it was intact when she sent the gun to the FBI but not when it came back after it had been tested.

Under cross-examination by the defense, Poppell said the gun came back not destroyed, "but broken."

Prosecutor Erlinda Johnson asserts that Baldwin allegedly handled the gun in a way that violated "cardinal rules" of firearm safety and he didn't do a safety check on the firearm before using it in a rehearsed scene.

Defense lawyer Alex Spiro maintained other people on the movie set were responsible for allowing a real bullet onto the set and into the gun.

"Those people failed in their duties, but Alec Baldwin committed no crime," Spiro said.

As she was questioned by Spiro, Poppell agreed that the presence of live ammunition alongside the dummy ammo made it easy to commingle them, mistaking one for the other.

Former Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will be called to testify Friday, according to her attorney Jason Bowles.

He told NBC News she has already been transferred to Santa Fe from Western New Mexico Correctional facility, where she is serving an 18-month sentence for her role in the shooting death on the Rust set.

The defense entered a document into evidence Thursday that contained instructions for Baldwin to "thumb cock" the handgun. Baldwin said the gun misfired when he did that and insisted he never pulled the trigger.

Prosecutors claim there is no misfire evidence.

On Wednesday, the jury saw body camera video from Santa Fe Police officer Nicholas Lefleur that showed first responders wheeling Hutchins out of the Rust set on a stretcher.

Director Joel Souza also was wounded in the shooting.

Baldwin is seen on the video telling Lefleur, "I was holding the gun, yeah."

Armorer Gutierrez-Reed is seen crying on the video.

During defense cross-examination Wednesday, 911 audio was played and a script supervisor is heard saying, "We've had two people accidentally shot on a movie set by a prop gun."

Baldwin's wife, brother and sister were in the courtroom in support of the actor during Thursday's testimony.