The armorer for the upcoming film Rust, Hannah Gutierrez Reed has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter at the trial in New Mexico surrounding the shooting and death of Halyna Hutchins, who was the cinematographer for the movie.
Hutchins was the killed by a live round of ammunition that was fired from a prop gun used by Alec Baldwin in the film. The Armorer, Gutierrez Reed’s role on the film set, is responsible for the supervision of all weapons on set, and instructs the actors on how to use them.
Gutierrez Reed was charged with involuntary manslaughter, but was acquitted on the charge of evidence tampering. The prosecution alleged that Gutierrez Reed passed on a “small bag of cocaine” to another person after a police interview on October 21, 2021.
Jurors came to a decision about the verdict after three hours of deliberation. The charge carries a prison sentence of up to 18 months and a $5,000 fine. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Prosecutor Kari Morrissey alleged said the trial in her closing argument, “She had six, six live rounds on that movie set, the earliest date that I can track them for you is October 10. Six, and she failed to ferret them out for 12 days. What that means is that she wasn’t shaking any dummy rounds, she wasn’t testing anything.”
The prosecutor continued saying, “If she’s not checking the dummy ammunition during the pendency of the filming to make sure that those rounds that are designed to look like live rounds are in fact dummy rounds, this was a game of Russian roulette every time an actor had a gun with dummies.”
Gutierrez Reed’s attorney argued that the blame for the fatal shooting lay with the production team and the unsafe atmosphere on set. The defense went on to say in the closing argument, “(Gutierrez Reed) could not anticipate what Baldwin would do. It was not in the script, it was not foreseeable. Management was responsible for safety failures and not Hannah.”
The defense also alleged that the evidence tampering charge was unfounded, as the bag of substance was never tested and confirmed to be cocaine.
During the trial, assistant director David Hall took the stand, and said about Gutierrez and the ammunition on set “She (Gutierrez Reed) opened up the latch to the revolver, I recall seeing three to four, what I believed to be dummy rounds. I don’t recall her fully rotating the cylinder.”
According to court documents, Hall allegedly yelled “cold gun” while on set indicating that the firearm did not contain any live rounds. Hall said during the trial, “I was negligent in checking the gun properly.”
Hall was charged and sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation, and is required to partake in a firearms safety class. Hall was also pay a $500 fine and complete 24 hours of community service.
Alec Baldwin is also set to stand trial in July for the death of Halyna Hutchins. Baldwin has pleaded not guilty and maintains that he never pulled the trigger.
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