‘Rust’ movie armorer found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, acquitted of evidence tampering

By CNN Newsource

Published March 6, 2024 12:25 PM

By Cheri Mossburg, Christina Maxouris and Josh Campbell, CNN

(CNN) — Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the “Rust” film armorer, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter Wednesday in a New Mexico trial stemming from the 2021 on-set fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed by a live round of ammunition fired from a prop gun that was held by actor Alec Baldwin.

Gutierrez Reed, who was responsible for firearm safety and storage on the movie’s set, was acquitted of a separate charge of evidence tampering, which was brought after prosecutors alleged she transferred a “small bag of cocaine” to someone else after a police interview on the day of the shooting on October 21, 2021.

Jurors deliberated for nearly three hours Wednesday before reaching a decision. The 26-year-old, who did not take the stand in her defense during the trial in Santa Fe, did not show any emotion while the verdict was read. She was then taken into custody.

The involuntary manslaughter charge carries up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. The judge did not set a sentencing date.

Gutierrez Reed is the first person to stand trial in a case that highlighted the movie industry’s safety standards – and this specific set’s violations of them.

Attorneys representing Hutchins’ parents and sister were satisfied with the jury’s verdict, the attorneys said in a release.

“We look forward to the justice system continuing to make sure that everyone else who is responsible for Halyna’s death is required to face the legal consequences for their actions,” the release reads.

Prosecutors argued Gutierrez Reed repeatedly violated safety protocol on set and acted negligently and without caution in performing her duties as armorer, and that her actions ultimately led to Hutchins’ death.

“This is not a case where Hannah Gutierrez made one mistake and that one mistake was accidentally putting a live round into that gun. That’s not what this case is about,” special prosecutor Kari Morrissey said during closing arguments Wednesday.

“This case is about constant, never-ending safety failures that resulted in the death of a human being and nearly killed another,” she added. The film’s director also was injured in the shooting.

Gutierrez Reed’s defense attorney Jason Bowles, who has called the shooting a tragic accident, said in closing arguments the armorer could not have known Baldwin would point the weapon toward the cinematographer. And film set management was to blame for safety failures, he said.

Bowles’ team plans to appeal the verdict, the attorney told CNN in an email. CNN has also sought comment on the verdict from prosecutors.

Defense argued Gutierrez Reed is scapegoat

Baldwin had been practicing for a scene and was drawing and pointing a revolver with guidance from Hutchins and Joel Souza, the film’s director, according to a probable cause statement filed in January 2023. Souza also was shot but survived.

The prosecution argued Gutierrez Reed’s failures allowed six live rounds to make their way onto the set, and that she did not conduct vital safety checks of the gun and ammunition that would have caught the live rounds.

“She had six, six live rounds on that movie set, the earliest date that I can track them for you is October 10, (2021),” Morrissey said during Wednesday’s closing arguments. “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.”

“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.”

Bowles, Gutierrez Reed’s attorney, instead argued in the trial that the blame lies elsewhere and said his client was being used as a scapegoat.

He questioned how the live ammunition made it on set and alleged the “Rust” production team created a chaotic and unsafe environment that put Gutierrez Reed under “really tough conditions to keep up with.” And Baldwin did not follow common-sense gun safety rules on set when he handled the firearm and acted unpredictably when he pointed the weapon at Hutchins, Bowles said in his closing statements.

“(Gutierrez Reed) could not anticipate what Baldwin would do. It was not in the script, it was not foreseeable,” he said. “Management was responsible for safety failures and not Hannah.”

Bowles also pushed back against the evidence tampering charge, saying a witness had assumed there was cocaine in a small bag Gutierrez Reed handed her on the day of the shooting, but that she quickly threw the bag away and the substance was never tested or confirmed to be the drug.

Baldwin, who has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter, is expected to stand trial in July. He has pleaded not guilty and has maintained he did not pull the trigger.

A government report published roughly six months after the shooting said the movie set “willfully violated” safety rules and “demonstrated plain indifference to employee safety.” Rust Movie Productions, LLC was fined for its actions, CNN has reported.

Jurors heard from more than 30 witnesses during the trial – including movie crew members, law enforcement officials and forensics experts – and watched videos of body camera footage from the day of the shooting.

In one of those clips, Gutierrez Reed told a Santa Fe County sheriff’s corporal there was never live ammunition kept on set and that she had checked the prop guns and the “dummy” rounds the morning before the shooting. Gutierrez Reed told the same officer she checks dummy rounds on set “most of the time.”

“Dummy” rounds refer to ammunition that contains no explosive elements but resemble actual bullets.

Assistant film director David Halls admitted during the trial he was “negligent” in checking the gun and did not properly look through all the rounds in the gun’s chamber when Gutierrez Reed presented it to him.

“She opened up the latch to the revolver, I recall seeing three to four, what I believed to be dummy rounds,” Halls testified. He later added: “I don’t recall her fully rotating the cylinder.”

Halls yelled “cold gun” before the weapon was handed to Baldwin, a remark meant to indicate the firearm did not have live rounds, according to a court document. Halls took a plea deal in 2023 for his role in the shooting, pleading no contest to one count of negligent use of a deadly weapon.

“I was negligent in checking the gun properly,” Halls told the court.

Halls was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, had to participate in a firearms safety class, complete 24 hours of community service and not use drugs or alcohol.

In her closing arguments, Morrissey said there was no evidence someone else was to blame for the shooting, adding Gutierrez Reed was “the autonomous decisionmaker with regard to gun safety” on set.

“Alec Baldwin’s conduct and his lack of gun safety … on that day is something that he’s going to have to answer for. Not with you and not today,” the prosecutor told jurors Wednesday. “That will be with another jury, on another day.”