Gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed of Rust had live ammunition mixed with shotgun shells on the set, prosecutors told jurors in her involuntary manslaughter trial Thursday.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 25, has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence. If found guilty, she could be sentenced to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Halyna Hutchins, 42, died in 2021 after Gutierrez-Reed accidentally loaded a live cartridge into a replica Colt .45 revolver that Baldwin was rehearsing with on the film set outside Santa Fe.
Five more live cartridges were later found on set by investigators.
Sitting in the courtroom wearing a gray blazer and white top, Gutierrez-Reed appeared impassive as District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer read the charges to the jury. Opening statements were delayed Thursday because a juror was late.
“We believe that it was the defendant's negligent acts and omissions that resulted in both the acts contributing to the death of Miss Hutchins and the live cartridges being brought to the set,” prosecutor Jason Lewis said in opening statements of the state further.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 25, has entered a New Mexico courtroom to stand trial in the 2021 death of a cameraman who was fatally shot by Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal
Gutierrez-Reed had a live round mixed with dummy rounds on set, prosecutors told jurors in her involuntary manslaughter trial Thursday.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of the western film Rust, was pointing a gun at camerawoman Halyna Hutchins (pictured) during a rehearsal outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went off, killing her
A picture of the gun used in the fatal on-set shooting was shown in court Thursday
Gutierrez-Reed's lawyers have previously claimed that live cartridges arrived on set from an Albuquerque-based dummy cartridge provider.
Lewis said it was a “pretty chaotic” day when filming took place, as the night before a group of cameramen who had “some concerns about safety issues on set sent an email to the production team saying they were not happy.” that they would stop.”'
The next day, producers decided to “move ahead with filming anyway and use less camera equipment” as they tried to “improvise and make do with what they had.”
The jury was shown raw footage from the filming of Baldwin sitting on a church pew practicing drawing a gun. He continued filming the scene after lunch and the camera crew was “close to him,” Lewis said.
“During the lunch break, Miss Gutierrez took the gun from Mr. Baldwin and brought it back to the safe, the gun safe, which was loaded on a prop cart,” the prosecutor told jurors.
“After lunch was over, the production decided to continue the work in the church. They weren't filming anything at that point. They were doing blocking, which in film jargon is what you do before you get to rehearsal, a very rough rehearsal where the lighting director and the cameraman are trying to get things right so they can start rehearsing.
Alec Baldwin said he killed Hutchins accidentally and denied pulling the trigger. The jury was shown raw footage from the filming of Baldwin sitting on a church pew practicing drawing a gun
Prosecutors tried to portray Gutierrez as negligent and disorganized. On Thursday they showed the jury the above picture
“Whenever there is a blockage because there is no filming going on, there is no need for the actor to have a live firearm in his hand or for the live firearm to even be on set.”
Lewis said that several witnesses and “one in particular” would say that “Mr. Baldwin may have used a stick, a rubber gun or anything that would allow him to imitate a weapon to block.”
During the morning, Gutierrez had fired only five rounds into the gun Baldwin was using, but for the afternoon shooting she put a sixth round in it, Lewis said. She brought it to the church and presented it to First Assistant Director Dave Halls.
They both conducted a “sloppy and incomplete safety inspection of the weapon, the dummy cartridges were not removed and were rattling,” which would have told them what types of cartridges were in the weapon.
Lewis added: “Instead she opened the gun and partially rotated the cylinder to show Mr Halls a few cartridges. “They were not removed from the gun and not all were checked.
“After the incident occurred and when Miss Gutierrez was interviewed, when she took the gun out of the safe, she stated that she had not double-checked the ammunition. When she fired the sixth bullet, she didn't check the cartridges at the time either.
“Witnesses will testify that when the defendant pulled the gun out of the safe, what she should have done was open the gun and check every single shot. “Then when she took it to church, she would have one at Mr. Hall's should carry out a second complete ammunition check. This double redundancy helps prevent an incident like Miss Huchins.”
In a picture shown to the jury, Rust's set in New Mexico can be seen
Lewis said Gutierrez gave Halls the gun, left the church and Halls gave it to Baldwin.
“Mr. Baldwin was sitting in the pew practicing how to hold the gun. “As Mr B manipulated the weapon, he triggered it to fire, which unfortunately resulted in a projectile striking directly at Miss Hutchins,” the prosecutor told the court.
“(It) went completely through Miss Hutchins and hit the film's director, Joel Souza, in the shoulder.”
Paramedics on set attempted to save Hutchins, but due to the remote location it took some time for additional help to arrive. Hutchins was flown to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, but she did.
As Lewis said this, Gutierrez-Reed looked uncomfortable and closed his eyes.
Lewis said: “By failing to carry out these important security checks, the defendant acted negligently and without due caution. “The decisions she made that day contributed to the death of Miss Hutchins.”
Judge Marlowe Summer had earlier told the panel of seven men and five women to wear layers of clothing in court and apologized for the cold temperatures. She also urged jurors to “not miss a word of their testimony” and to address any concerns immediately.
Jurors were selected from a pool of 70 Santa Fe area residents, including non-English speakers, a welder, a teacher, a graduate student and a mother caring for six children. Prosecutors questioned potential jurors about their exposure to the intense media coverage and social media chatter about the case.
Baldwin also pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter charges in a separate case.
Gutierrez-Reed, the stepdaughter of noted sniper and weapons consultant Thell Reed, was 24 at the time of Hutchins' death. Rust was her second outing as a gunsmith in a feature film.
The evidence tampering charge stems from an allegation that she gave another crew member a small bag of possible narcotics after the shooting to avoid detection by law enforcement.
Her lawyers say the charges are an attempt by prosecutors to denigrate Gutierrez-Reed's character. The bag was thrown away without checking the contents, defense attorneys said.
Authorities found six rounds of ammunition on the film set, including a box, a gun belt and a bandolier worn by Baldwin. Baldwin said he assumed the gun only contained cartridges that couldn't be fired.
Baldwin also pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter charges in a separate case
Rust gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was seen in court Wednesday as a jury was selected for her trial in the 2021 death of a cameraman who was shot by Alec Baldwin
The gun Baldwin used to shoot Hutchins was supplied by gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed (pictured).
Baldwin is seen in the parking lot outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office
Gutierrez-Reed, the stepdaughter of noted sniper and weapons consultant Thell Reed, was 24 at the time of Hutchins' death
Exclusive photos showed Gutierrez-Reed pacing outside her home for the first time after the shooting
Special prosecutors have argued in court papers that Hutchins died as a result of a series of negligent actions by Gutierrez-Reed. It is said that she should have noticed live gunshots and intervened long before the shooting.
Gutierrez-Reed's lawyers claim she was unfairly scapegoated. They claim live cartridges arrived on set from an Albuquerque-based dummy cartridge supplier.
They also pointed to a broader atmosphere of safety deficiencies uncovered by an investigation by state workplace safety inspectors that goes beyond Gutierrez-Reed.
Additionally, in a separate case, Gutierrez-Reed is accused of carrying a gun into a downtown Santa Fe bar in violation of state law.
Her lawyers say the prosecution was used to pressure Gutierrez-Reed into a false confession about handling live ammunition on the set of Rust.
More than 40 people are listed as witnesses for the trial, which is scheduled to run until March 6th.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of Rust, was charged with involuntary manslaughter in January.
Baldwin said he pulled back the gun's hammer – not the trigger – and fired the gun.