Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is found guilty of involuntary manslaughter ... trends now
The armorer for the Alec Baldwin movie Rust has been found guilty in the shooting death of the film's cinematographer.
A jury found that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed negligently allowed a live bullet to get into the gun on the set of Western which Baldwin used to accidentally shoot dead Halyna Hutchins, the movie's cinematographer.
After two hours of deliberations at the court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a jury found her guilty on the manslaughter count, but not the tampering with evidence charge.
Gutierrez-Reed, 26, the daughter of respected film industry armorer Thell Reed, faces up to 18 months in jail.
The verdict means that attention now turns to July when Baldwin, 65, will go on trial in the same courthouse for involuntary manslaughter. If found guilty he faces 18 months in jail as well.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 26, was found XXX of involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 shooting death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins
Halyna Hutchins, 42, a mother-of-one, was shot dead by Alec Baldwin on the set of Rust in October 2021. Baldwin is due to go on trial in July
Gutierrez-Reed is also facing a charge of tampering with evidence after prosecutors claimed she gave another person a bag of cocaine after a police interview to prevent law enforcement from obtaining it
Baldwin was originally charged with involuntary manslaughter but the allegations were dropped in April last year.
He was dramatically charged again last month and pleaded not guilty.
The accident happened in October 2021 after two weeks of filming while Baldwin was practicing drawing out his gun from the holster.
He opened fire on Hutchins, 42, a married mother-of-one whose son was nine at the time, and the bullet went through her and lodged in the shoulder of director Joel Souza, who survived and testified in court.
While Baldwin was not the defendant in this case at times it felt that he was, with one witness stating as much out loud.
Across more than two dozen witnesses, prosecutors painted a damning portrait of a film that was in a state of 'rushed chaos'.
The night before the incident, six members of the camera crew quit because of their concerns over safety.
Gutierrez-Reed's defense was to blame everyone but her, but especially Baldwin.
Her lawyer Jason Bowles said that Baldwin was the 'big boss' on set that nobody stood up to even though he rushed people and ignored safety checks because Rust, which he was a producer on, had a tight budget.
The jury heard that Baldwin commissioned Rust director Joel Souza to write the script, which he owned the rights to, was the lead actor on the movie and was also a producer.
Bowles called Gutierrez-Reed, who was just 24 at the time of the incident, a 'scapegoat' for wider failings that led the New Mexico safety regulator to issue a $136,000 fine to the producers for 'willful and serious' safety failings.
Baldwin, 65, who was the lead actor and a producer in the movie, will face a separate trial in July for involuntary manslaughter, which he denies
The jury was shown shocking images of cinematographer's Halyna Hutchins' the blood-stained shirt
THE CASE AGAINST THE ARMORER
Prosecutors painted a different picture and called her 'sloppy' in her handling of guns and ammunition.
In his opening statement, Jason Lewis said she 'routinely left guns and ammunition lying around the set unattended' and her gun safe and ammunition cart were 'constantly disorganized', he said.
Lewis said: 'The prospect of live ammunition landing up on a film set is incomprehensible, it's something that should never happen'.
The jury were shown photos taken by crime scene investigator Marissa Poppell which showed the chaotic way in which ammunition and guns were stored on the set of Rust.
Rather than having guns locked away at all times as was standard practice, the images showed a gun - which could have fired live rounds - sitting on top of the cart.
Loose rounds of various calibers were scattered everywhere and Gutierrez-Reed kept them in a fanny pack and a bag with a can of Red Bull wedged by the side.
Poppell told the court that she eventually found six live rounds on the set: two of them were on the top of the prop cart and two others were in gun belts used by the actors.
Another live round was found in the box of bullets that Gutierrez-Reed said she got the ammunition to put in Baldwin's gun.
That round was visibly different to the other rounds and had a bright silver primer on the back, something the others didn't have.
Ross Addiego, who worked as a dolly grip on Rust, said that Gutierrez-Reed was 'less professional' than other armorers he had worked with.
While others were 'anal retentive' he said that Gutierrez-Reed was more relaxed and stored her ammunition in a fanny pack, something he had never seen before.
In her interview with police, Gutierrez-Reed said that she had no idea how live rounds got on set, and even raised the idea that somebody could have done it deliberately as an act of sabotage.
Gutierrez-Reed said it was 'f****** mind boggling' how live ammo got mixed in with blank rounds and said that a 'wonky' round could have been to blame
But in a damning moment, Cpl Alexandria Hancock from the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office asked Gutierrez-Reed if the silver primer on the live bullet didn't stick out to you when you loaded that gun?'
'No', she replied.
Cpl Hancock asked if Gutierrez-Reed didn't notice that 'the rest of them were not the same color?'
'No', she replied again.
The jury were shown the video of Gutierrez-Reed’s interview by the sheriff Santa Fe, New Mexico, hours after the incident in October 2021
Production of Rust stopped abruptly in October 2021 when a prop gun held by Baldwin fired a live round that killed Hutchins
The new set is pictured in Livingston, Montana. Despite the new set also having a church building, scene 121 - which was the one Baldwin was practicing - has been removed from the movie entirely and will not be reshot
The jury was shown behind the scenes videos from the filming which showed what a firearms expert argued were gross breaches of safety.
Bryan Carpenter, a former police SWAT officer who now works as an armorer and firearms instructor for films and TV,
