Photograph: Gabriela Campos/POOL/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was discovered responsible of involuntary manslaughter on March 6, 2024 within the deadly Rust set taking pictures. Gutierrez-Reed was discovered not responsible of proof tampering in relation to the 2021 incident that left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins useless. Hutchins died on set after Alec Baldwin allegedly shot a prop gun loaded with dwell ammo in her course. Director Joel Souza was additionally shot, however survived. Santa Fe, New Mexico, prosecutors alleged that Gutierrez-Reed, 26, uncared for to correctly overview the ammunition within the gun, and that she was answerable for letting dwell ammunition onto the set. Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin pleaded not responsible of their circumstances. Baldwin contends that he didn’t pull the set off.
Gutierrez-Reed’s two-week-long trial was gentle on bombshells and largely reiterated what the prosecution and protection had lengthy contended. The state stated that Gutierrez-Reed was using roughshod of common sense gun security on set, whereas the protection argued that she was a powerless “scapegoat.” “By failing to make these important security checks, the defendant acted negligently and with out due warning,” prosecutor Jason Lewis alleged in his opening assertion on February 21. “The choices she made that day finally contributed to Ms. Hutchins’s demise.” Lewis concluded his opening by citing Gutierrez-Reed’s personal phrases in an interview with police after the taking pictures. “She says on the finish: ‘I simply, I don’t know. I want I might have checked it,’” Lewis remarked. “And so can we.”
Jason Bowles, Gutierrez-Reed’s legal professional, argued in his opening that the set was crammed with security issues. “Simply because there was a tragedy doesn’t imply {that a} crime was dedicated. It doesn’t imply that Hannah Gutierrez actually brought about the crimes they’ve charged her with,” Bowles informed jurors, noting that Baldwin had pointed the gun. “What they tried to do, and what you’re seeing on this courtroom at the moment, is attempting responsible all of it on Hannah, the 24-year-old, as a result of, why? As a result of she’s a straightforward goal. She’s the least highly effective particular person on that set.”
The numerous twist throughout Gutierrez-Reed’s trial got here throughout assistant director David Halls’s testimony. Whereas Baldwin initially stated that Gutierrez-Reed had handed him the gun, he later claimed it was Halls. Throughout Halls’s testimony, he claimed that Gutierrez-Reed handed Baldwin the gun. Baldwin will face an involuntary manslaughter trial on July 9, 2024, within the Rust incident.