‘You are now convicted […] it’s criminal negligence, but still a death’

Court in in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Wednesday, convicted movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed in the shooting death of cinematographer

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 26, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 shooting death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, on the set of the movie Rust 

The defendant was however acquitted on a charge of tampering with evidence, that was based on prosecution claim that she got rid of a bag of cocaine to prevent law enforcement from obtaining it

She faces 18 months behind bars at sentencing

The verdict means that attention now turns to July when the movie’s Producer Alec Baldwin, 65, will go on trial – a second time – in the same courthouse for involuntary manslaughter

Also the lead actor, Alec Baldwin fired the fatal shot from what was supposed to be a prop gun loaded with blanks only

Movie set armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, [photo], awaits sentencing after she was was found guilty Wednesday of involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 shooting death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins 

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, 26, negligently allowed a live bullet to get into the gun on the set of the Western which Baldwin used to accidentally shoot dead Halyna Hutchins, the movie’s cinematographer.
The armorer for the Alec Baldwin movie Rust has been found guilty in the shooting death of the film’s cinematographer.
The jury in the Santa Fe , New Mexico courthouse found Gutierrez-Reed guilty on the manslaughter count, after two hours of deliberations.
The panel acquitted the defendant on a second charge of tampering with evidence. The Tampering with Evidence charge was added after the prosecution claimed that she got rid of a bag of cocaine to prevent law enforcement from obtaining it.

Victim: Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, [photo], 42, a mother-of-one, was shot dead by Alec Baldwin on the set of Rust in October 2021 after the movie armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, handed him a gun with a live bullet during rehearsals

Joel Souza, [photo], the director of Rust,was shot in the shoulder in the incident, but survived.

Industry baby Gutierrez-Reed, is the daughter of respected film industry armorer Thell Reed. She now faces up to 18 months in jail. Stoic to the end, Gutierrez-Reed showed little emotion as the verdicts were read, but her mother broke down while sitting behind the newly convicted felon.
Handing down the judgement Judge Mary Sommer decided to remand Gutierrez-Reed in custody telling her the reason is because, ‘you are now convicted […] it’s criminal negligence, but still a death.’

Additional to the manslaughter charge Hannah Gutierrez-Reed [photo], also faced 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

The movie’s producer and lead actor Alec Baldwin, 65, actually pulled the trigger on the handgun that killed Hutchins. The gun was supposed to be loaded with blanks, however the set armorer – Gutierrez-reed – loaded live ammo. He was originally charged with involuntary manslaughter but the allegations were dropped in April last year.
In a later development he was again charged again, for the same case in February. He has entered a not guilty plea in the fresh trial which starts in July.
The ‘accident death’ of the movie’s 42-year-old cinematographer 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, 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.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed [photo], is taken away for remand by deputies after her conviction. Shewas on trial over the Oct 2021 shooting death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins with a prop gun. At the end she was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and also faced a charge of tampering with evidence 

Gutierrez-Reed’s defense strategy was to shift the blame for the debacle on to everyone but herself, especially Baldwin.
Her defense attorney, 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 the set of Rust, where he was a producer, had a tight budget.While Baldwin was not the defendant in this case at times it felt that he was on trial, with one witness stating as much, aloud.
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.
While Baldwin was not the defendant in this case at times it felt that he was on trial, with one witness stating as much, aloud.
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.

While Alec Baldwin [photo], was not the defendant in the the Gutierrez-Reed is case, it felt that he was on trial. Baldwin, lead actor and a producer in the movie, will face a second trial in July for involuntary manslaughter. He’s pled not guilty

For illustration, the jury heard that though Baldwin owned the rights to Rust where he was the lead actor on the movie and was also a producer, he commissioned director Joel Souza to write the script,,
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.
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 was shown images of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ the blood-stained shirt. Blaming Baldwin for the fiasco, Gutierrez-Reed accused the producer of making her the ‘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 

Gutierrez showing signs of agitation put down her head and appeared to cry when photos of the prone Hutchins were shown in the courtroom

The jury were shown crime scene photos which showed the chaotic way in which ammunition and guns were stored on the set of Rust. It showed that contrary to standard practice of guns locked away at all times, a gun capable of firing live rounds, was on top of the cart, while loose rounds of various calibers were scattered everywhere. Gutierrez-Reed kept them in a fanny pack and a bag with a can of Red Bull wedged by the side.
The crime scene photographer testified that she eventually found six live rounds on the se – 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.

The jury were shown footage of Gutierrez-Reed’s interview by the sheriff Santa Fe, New Mexico, hours after the incident in Oct 2021. She claimed she had no idea how live rounds got on set, and raised the idea that somebody could have done it deliberately as an act of sabotage

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.
Asked if she didn’t notice that ‘the rest of them were not the same color?’ by Hancock, she repeated ‘No’.

Production Cast of Rust. The set shutdown abruptly in October 2021 when a prop gun held by Baldwin [second left], fired a live round that killed cinematographer Hutchins [center]

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, chided Gutierrez-Reed for holding a shotgun with its muzzle face up, pointing straight at her own face.
Asked how you could maintain proper gun safety on set when the armorer was handling guns in this way, Carpenter said: ‘It’s a very good question. It would be hard to implement’.
During another scene, a male actor pointed a gun at a 12-year-old boy who was part of the cast, a moment especially chilling given there were live rounds discovered on set.
During cross examination of Carpenter, defense counsel Bowles, Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer tried to pin the blame on Baldwin.
Centering his defense on Baldwin’s alleged failings, Bowles told the court that Baldwin himself made the set unsafe by waving his gun like a ‘pointing stick’ at people.

FBI firearms expert Bryce Ziegler gave evidence that challenged Alec Baldwin’s version of events

Jury watched behind the scenes footage from the set where Baldwin was demanding a second shot immediately after one that just finished.
He was heard saying: ‘Right away! Right away! Let’s reload. Here we go, come on! We should have two guns, both reloading’.
Asked if that kind of conduct was typical, Carpenter said no, adding that it put pressure on the armorer to stand up to him.
Moments later, after the director shouted cut, Baldwin let loose another blank round while standing next to the 12-year-old actor.
Carpenter said that when somebody yells cut, nothing else should be fired and that Baldwin ‘went off script’.
Baldwin could have used a Nerf gun in the scene where he accidentally shot Hutchins dead because it was just a rehearsal known as blocking, the jury heard.
Instead Baldwin insisted on using the real guns, known as his ‘hero props’, because he preferred them, just like he preferred the most powerful dummies possible because they were more realistic, Bowles pointed out.

Initially charged with involuntary manslaughter, allegations against Producer Alec Baldwin [photo], were dropped in April 2023. The charges were reinstated last month. He is facing a re-trial starting in July and has pled not guilty

In his opening statement, defense attorney Bowles accused Baldwin of having ‘violated basic gun safety’ by pointing the gun at Hutchins because he didn’t intend to shoot at her.
‘The primary thing here was rush, get this thing so we can get the money and that’s all on production and Mr Baldwin is one of the primary producers. That’s on them. Miss Gutierrez-Reed had no control over that,’ her attorney told the court.
During his cross examination of Addiego, Bowles asked: ‘Did you ever stand up to Mr Baldwin and say we’re not going to move this fast?’.
Addiego said it was ‘not my job’ and he didn’t recall ‘anybody standing up to Mr Baldwin on the set of Rust’.
‘He’s running the show, he’s the big boss, right?’ Bowles said.
‘He’s number one, so yes,’ Addiego said.
Perhaps the most damning evidence against Baldwin undercut his claim that he never pulled the trigger on the gun. Speaking to ABC News in December 2021 Baldwin said: ‘I didn’t pull the trigger. I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never’.
Prosecution witness and FBI firearms expert who examined the gun, Bryce Ziegler, testified that he had to break that particular prop gun with a mallet to get it to fire without using the trigger.
It could not have happened on the set of Rust because the gun was in working order when it came to him, Ziegler told the court.

Jurors saw footage from the production of Rust in which Baldwin points the gun at the crew and cast members including a 12-year-old boy between scenes 

While claiming she did not know the source of the live ammo in her police interview hours after the shooting, Gutierrez-Reed similarly, had pointed at Baldwin, claiming that he was distracted during the safety briefing she tried to give him.
She said that the actor was ‘on his phone a lot of that entire thing’ and didn’t pay attention when she was showing him how to use the weapon.

Surreptitiously putting Baldwin on trial, the defense told the court that Baldwin himself made the set unsafe by waving his gun like a ‘pointing stick’ at people and firing rounds after the director said cut

Among the emotional moments during the trial, the very first exhibit shown by prosecutors – The body camera footage from Nicholas Lefleur, the first police officer on the scene, was deemed by the judge to be too graphic to be shown on the live stream.
The footage shows Hutchins’ body lying on the floor covered in blood in the moments after the shooting, and Baldwin in the background looking pensive. When the court was shown photos of Hutchins’ body taken by the medical examiner before it was cleaned up for the autopsy, Gutierrez-Reed looked away and appeared to cry.
More footage from the bodycam worn by Cpl Hancock, who responded to the incident, showed Gutierrez-Reed saying: ‘Welcome to the worst day of my life’, as she added, ‘I just want to get the f*** out of here and never show my face in this industry again’.

A teary Dave Halls, first assistant director on Rust, testified that he was the last person apart from Gutierrez-Reed to check the gun before handing it to Baldwin. Pre-trial he’d pled no contest to the negligent use of a deadly weapon, receiving six months probation

A firearms expert tendered into evidence a gun similar to the prop gun Baldwin was handling when he shot Hutchins

There was powerful testimony from Dave Halls, the first assistant director on the film and the last person to handle the gun before giving it to Baldwin.
Before the trial began Halls pled no contest to a charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon, in exchange for six months probation.
Halls who justified his plea saying, ‘I was negligent in checking the gun properly,’ became emotional describing the events of the tragic day on set
In the chapel on the set of Rust, ‘Mr Baldwin was pulling it (the gun) out, getting used to that action,’ Halls recounts.
‘He was in communication with Miss Hutchins about where to point the gun.
‘The gun went off.
‘It was so many thoughts (in my head). The idea it was a live round of ammunition that went off, it wasn’t computing’.
Hutchins was 3 feet away from Halls to his left and he said to her: ‘Are you all right’.
In tears, Halls said that Hutchins replied: ‘I can’t feel my legs’.

Still on the hook. Alec Baldwin [photo], was originally charged with involuntary manslaughter but the allegations were dropped in April 2023. After much clamor about his culpability, the producer was charged again in February. His pleading not guilty

The criminal case is not the only court proceedings resulting from the shooting of Hutchins.
Baldwin who settled a civil lawsuit filed by the victim’s widower Matthew Hutchins, in 2022, similarly faces 18 months in jail when he appears in the same courthouse for involuntary manslaughter in July.

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