A jury has been sworn in to hear the case against Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on the set of the Western movie “Rust” who has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the death of the film’s cinematographer during a rehearsal.
No “homicide” charges have been filed in the case.
Gutierrez-Reed, 24 at the time, set up the gun actor and producer Alec Baldwin, who has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Halyna Hutchins, was handling during that rehearsal in 2021, the Associated Press reported. Baldwin has said that he pulled back the hammer on the gun — but not the trigger — and that it fired, striking Hutchins and director Joel Souza, who was wounded.
But the question, particularly at Gutierrez-Reed’s trial, is how live ammunition got onto the set and into the gun. A lengthy investigation into that matter failed to definitively answer the question, but prosecutors say Gutierrez-Reed, as the film’s armorer, missed multiple opportunities to ensure safety on set.
Interestingly, prosecutors tried to keep an investigation by safety regulators out of the trial since it could be used to argue that managers and not Gutierrez-Reed were responsible for the safety violations that led to the shooting. A judge last week sided with the armorer on that question.
She faces up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine if convicted on the involuntary manslaughter charge. The tampering with evidence charge comes from an accusation that she gave a bag that may have contained narcotics to another crew member after the shooting. The bag was thrown away without testing.
Both Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin have pleaded not guilty in their respective cases. Prosecutors initially charged and then dismissed the charges against Baldwin, but recharged him in January. No trial date has been set for Baldwin.
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[Featured image: A film set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch appears in Santa Fe, N.M., Monday, Oct. 25, 2021. A camera operator told authorities that Alec Baldwin had been careful with weapons on the set of the film “Rust” before the actor shot and killed a cinematographer with a gun he’d been told was safe to use. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)]
