‘Rust’ armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Hutchins was fatally shot on the set of the Western movie in 2021.
After three hours of deliberation, the 26-year-old was convicted by a jury on Wednesday, March 6. The jury found that Gutierrez-Reed was responsible for the live rounds on set, and one of those killed Hutchins after Alec Baldwin fired a gun during a rehearsal.
Gutierrez-Reed has been taken into custody by police. Her lawyers said she will appeal the conviction. Gutierrez-Reed now faces up to 18 months behind bars.
Prosecutors found that Gutierrez-Reed flouted gun-safety protocols on multiple occasions. Taking safety measures could have detected the live rounds she allegedly unknowingly brought onto the set of the film, at a ranch outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“This was a game of Russian roulette every time an actor had a gun with dummies,” prosecutor Kari Morrissey said during closing arguments, according to New York Post. “Hannah Gutierrez failed to maintain firearms safety, making a fatal accident willful and foreseeable.”
What are Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers saying?
A charge Gutierrez-Reed was found not guilty of was a second charge, tampering with evidence. Her lawyers said there were actually larger safety issues on the set, and she was only being made a scapegoat. “It was not in the script for Mr. Baldwin to point the weapon,” defense attorney Jason Bowles told jurors.“She didn’t know that Mr. Baldwin was going to do what he did.”
{{/usCountry}}A charge Gutierrez-Reed was found not guilty of was a second charge, tampering with evidence. Her lawyers said there were actually larger safety issues on the set, and she was only being made a scapegoat. “It was not in the script for Mr. Baldwin to point the weapon,” defense attorney Jason Bowles told jurors.“She didn’t know that Mr. Baldwin was going to do what he did.”
{{/usCountry}}In January, Baldwin was indicted on a charge of involuntary manslaughter. The gun went off while Baldwin was pointing it at Hutchins during a rehearsal. The weapon had a live bullet loaded in the chamber. While Hutchins died, director Joel Souza was wounded. Baldwin has claimed he did not pull the trigger. His case is expected to go to trial in July.