SANTA FE, N.M. — A New Mexico jury found “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed guilty of involuntary manslaughter and not guilty of tampering with evidence on Wednesday after deliberating for about two and a half hours.
The 26-year-old faces up to three years in state prison and will be sentenced at a later date. A judge ordered that Gutierrez-Reed be taken into custody and held until her sentencing.
The nearly two-week criminal trial centered around the 2021 shooting on the “Rust” film set in which actor Alec Baldwin held a prop gun that fired a live round of ammunition, killing the film’s cinematographer, Haylna Hutchins. The bullet also injured director Joel Souza.
During the prosecution’s closing arguments on Wednesday, Kari T. Morrissey told the jury that Gutierrez-Reed “was negligent, she was careless, she was thoughtless.”
Morrissey also said that following the fatal shooting, the 27-year-old armorer was more “worried about her career” and less about the victims.
But Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney, Jason Bowles said that the prosecutors had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Gutierrez-Reed was responsible for bringing live rounds onto the set and alleged that Baldwin was ultimately responsible for Hutchins’s death.
“I submit to you what caused her death is Mr. Baldwin going off script. No one ever knew there would be a live round on set. The only act is the pointing of the weapon. Ms Gutierrez didn’t point that weapon,” Bowles said.
The prosecution also called out Baldwin, as a “prima donna.”
“Alec Baldwin’s conduct and his lack of gun safety in the church that day is something he’s going to have to answer for … Not with you not today, that’s for another jury for another day.”
NBC News has reached out to the actor’s legal team for comment. His criminal trial begins in July.
Throughout the trial, a series of eyewitnesses who were on set took the stand, including Souza, who recounted what it was like to be shot and the confusion that ensued.
“Nothing made sense,” Souza said last week. He said he remembered looking up at Gutierrez-Reed after the incident and hearing her repeatedly say, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Joel.”
Souza described the feeling of being shot as though someone had “taken a baseball bat to my shoulder.”
But he said he did not realize he had been injured by a live round of ammunition, and when medical personnel informed him at the hospital, “It could not compute for me,” Souza said.
Dave Halls, who was the film’s safety coordinator and pleaded no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon last year as part of a plea deal, also took the stand. His testimony was the first time he had spoken publicly about what happened that day. An emotional Halls testified that he should have checked the gun more thoroughly, admitting that he “did an improper check of that firearm.”
Halls went on to say that he did not recall seeing Gutierrez-Reed spin the entire cylinder around to ensure all bullets were dummy rounds. While wiping away tears he said, “I let a safety check pass.”
During opening statements, special prosecutor Jason Lewis called Gutierrez-Reed’s behavior on the “Rust” set “sloppy” and “unprofessional.”
“We believe that it was the negligent acts and failures of the defendant … that contributed to Ms. Hutchins’ death,” he said.
Dana Griffin and Sumiko Moots reported from Santa Fe, and Chloe Melas from New York City.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
