A jury on Wednesday found “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2021 fatal shooting of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin, but acquitted her on charges of tampering with evidence.
She was immediately remanded to custody pending sentencing. She faces up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine, according to The Associated Press.
Gutierrez-Reed was tasked with ensuring firearm safety and storage on the New Mexico set of the western when she handed Baldwin a prop gun that contained live ammunition. Baldwin fired, striking and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, and wounding director Joel Souza.
In connection with the shooting, Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury in January, also for involuntary manslaughter. He has pleaded not guilty and is slated for trial in July.
Gutierrez-Reed was also charged with evidence tampering for allegedly transferring a small bag of narcotics to someone else on the day of the shooting, special prosecutors said at the time.
During Gutierrez-Reed’s two-week trial, prosecutors said the then-24-year-old had unknowingly brought live ammunition on the set while being lax at following basic gun-safety guidelines that were industry standard. Witness after witness described set safety protocols that were akin to playing Russian roulette.
After the shooting, state officials found “willful and serious violations” and fined the production $136,793, the maximum allowed.
Prosecutors built on such allegations, doubling down in detailing “constant, never-ending safety failures” on the set, as prosecutor Kari Morrissey described it in her closing arguments. She also said Gutierrez-Reed exhibited an “astonishing lack of diligence” when it came to gun safety.
The young armorer’s defense meanwhile argued that she could not have shown “willful disregard” if she didn’t know the rounds were live. It has never been made clear how live ammo made it onto the set.
Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys also argued she was being made a scapegoat, adding she was not the one ultimately in control of the pace of the production.
“You had a production company on a shoestring budget [and] an A-list actor that was really running the show,” her attorney, Jason Bowles, said. “At the end, they had somebody they could all blame.”
After the verdict was read, Bowles said they planed to appeal.
Wednesday’s verdict shifts blame for Hutchins’ death in the wake of assistant director David Halls’ no-contest plea last year. Halls served six months of probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor negligent use of a deadly weapon for declaring the gun “cold” before handing it to Baldwin.
Baldwin meanwhile has maintained that he did not pull the trigger and would never have pointed and fired a gun at another human. The FBI said otherwise. If found guilty, he could face up to 18 months behind bars in New Mexico.
With News Wire Services
