Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer in charge of supervising weapons on the set of the film Rust, has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal on-set shooting that left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead in 2021.
Jurors in Santa Fe, New Mexico, reached the guilty verdict late Wednesday afternoon, as shown in video streamed live by Law & Crime network. The jury found Gutierrez-Reed not guilty of tampering with evidence in the case.
Once the verdict was read, the judge in the case ordered her remanded into custody. She faces up to 18 months in prison, a $5,000 fine, and will be sentenced “at the court’s convenience.”
Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys said they plan to appeal the verdict, the Associated Press reported.
Related Story: Alec Baldwin Faces New Charge in Fatal ‘Rust’ Movie Set Shooting
Actor Alec Baldwin was rehearsing with a Colt .45 prop gun on the set of the Western on Oct. 21, 2021, when the revolver fired a live round and struck Hutchins and director Joel Souza, who suffered a non-life-threatening injury.
Hutchins, 42, left behind a husband and young son.
Attorneys for Gutierrez-Reed suggested others on set were to blame, instead of the rookie armorer, who was 24 at the time of the shooting.
During court testimony in the two-week trial, prosecutors accused Gutierrez-Reed of “never-ending” mistakes. They said she was responsible for bringing six live rounds onto the set and failed to follow routine safety protocols that are standard for film and TV productions.
“This is not a case where Hannah Gutierrez made one mistake, and that one mistake was accidental — putting a live round into that gun,” prosecutor Kari Morrissey told jurors during her closing argument. “This case is about constant, never-ending safety failures that resulted in the death of a human being and nearly killed another.”
Baldwin, 65, was a producer on the film. He has maintained that he was told the gun was “cold,” meaning it had no live rounds inside.
[Director Halyna Hutchins is shown below]
In a news conference after the shooting, the sheriff said investigators found “a total of 500 rounds of ammunition — that is a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and what we are suspecting [are] live rounds,” as previously reported.
IATSE Local 44, which represents prop workers, sent an email to its members shortly after the shooting saying the props, set decoration, special effects and construction departments were staffed by non-union workers. “There were no Local 44 members on the call sheet,” the union said.
Baldwin was indicted in January 2024, and charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter. He has pleaded not guilty and maintained he did not pull the trigger. His trial is expected to start in July.
Previous charges against the actor were dropped in April 2023, after his lawyers raised concerns about the handling of the case.
Special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis presented new evidence to the grand jury, following additional forensic testing on the gun involved in the shootimg, and a case against Baldwin was re-opened.
Assistant director David Halls pleaded no contest to a charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon in exchange for a suspended sentence and six months probation in the case.
Filming on Rust was halted following the shooting, but later resumed.
Deadline reports the completed film is being shopped around, but after several months no studios, networks, or streaming services have expressed interest.
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