Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on the film set of Rust, has been convicted for her role in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in New Mexico.
Alec Baldwin accidentally shot Hutchins while he was rehearsing a scene for the western. Baldwin, who was also a co-producer on the movie, had been pointing a prop gun at Hutchins during the rehearsal in October 2021 when the weapon discharged, striking the 42-year-old mom of one and injuring the movie's director, Joel Souza.
It was Gutierrez-Reed's responsibility to make sure all the firearms on the set were safe. She was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in New Mexico.
The prosecuting team claimed that she loaded a fully functioning .45 revolver used by Baldwin with dummy rounds and at least one live round.
“She was negligent, she was careless, she was thoughtless,” prosecutor Kari Morrissey remarked during the trial’s closing statements, per the Associated Press.
She referred to the “constant, never-ending safety failures” on the film set and said Gutierrez-Reed showed an “astonishing lack of diligence” with firearm safety.
Gutierrez-Reed had been charged with tampering with evidence, but on that count she was found not guilty by the jury. Following the verdict, Gutierrez-Reed's lawyer said her client would appeal the decision.
She faces up to 18 months behind bars and a $5,000 fine. She had pleaded not guilty and her legal team argued that she was essentially a scapegoat for the deadly incident, which Baldwin was responsible for.
Baldwin is charged with involuntary manslaughter, with prosecutors claiming he was responsible for Hutchins’ death due to negligence or “total disregard or indifference” for safety. He has pleaded not guilty, with his trial set for a date in July.
David Halls, the movie's assistant director, was sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence with unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, 24 hours of community service and a firearms safety class on a charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.
Halls testified on behalf of Gutierrez-Reed, describing her competence as an armorer and stating that he took responsibility for the fatal incident.
“I let a safety check pass,” an emotional Halls stated at Gutierrez-Reed's trial.
The prosecution argued that Gutierrez-Reed did not follow basic safety procedures and that her work on the set was “sloppy”. She was accused of leaving firearms and ammunition unattended and disorganized.
Live rounds of ammunition that Gutierrez-Reed is said to have brought from home were found on set, the prosecution argued.
