‘Rust’ armorer posed with live rounds in box of blanks on set, jurors hear as trial opens
Damning evidence kicked off the involuntary manslaughter trial against “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed Thursday, as jurors reviewed photos of live rounds found on the set.
Special prosecutor Jason Lewis said investigators combed through movie set photos, determining there were six live rounds that circulated the set of the Alec Baldwin-starred western movie — including one displayed in a photo that Gutierrez-Reed took of herself at work.
“There is a live round sitting right on Ms. Gutierrez’s lap and she failed to identify it,” Lewis told the 12 jurors as they were shown the image.
Lewis went on to spell out how Gutierrez-Reed’s alleged negligence and failure to follow standard safety protocols led to the tragic Oct. 21, 2021 shooting of Halyna Hutchins — a Ukrainian-born wife and mother.
Lewis also showed the jury photos of the rounds that cops removed from the set — one of the 37 rounds had a silver bottom, an indication it was a real bullet, he explained.
The fact that not one — but six — live rounds has allegedly made their way onto the set and had been circulating, with one landing in Baldwin’s ammunition bandolier and another ending up in a second actor’s bandolier, “is incomprehensible” when taken against the stringent movie set safety standards, Lewis argued.
“The defendant treated the safety protocols as if they were optional,” Lewis said, noting Gutierrez-Reed, 26, failed to take out and inspect each of the six rounds inside the gun — which was real and not a prop — and that was only supposed to be holding dummy rounds.
“Instead, she cracked open the gun and partially spun the cylinder,” before handing the firearm off to first assistant director David Halls, who then gave it to Baldwin, Lewis claimed.
The brand new gun, made to look like gun from an old western, contained a .45 bullet that killed Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.
The rookie armorer — who’d only ever held the position one other time — then walked out of the church on the set of the western film that was being shot at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, Lewis described.
Baldwin — who has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter in a separate case — was sitting on a pew bench inside a church rehearsing for an upcoming scene when he held and “manipulated” the gun causing it to fire off a live round that “shot completely through Ms. Hutchins” before landing in Souza’s shoulder, Lewis told jurors.
The onset paramedic attended to the two injured crew members while they waited for emergency responders to reach the remote desert location. After, Hutchins was eventually taken to the hospital by helicopter but she was not able to be revived, Lewis said.
The prosecutor called Gutierrez-Reed — who was 24 at the time — “sloppy” and “unprofessional” and said she “treated the safety protocols as if they were optional.”
She is charged with involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence for allegedly handing off a bag of cocaine to a friend just after she was interviewed by law enforcement.
“By failing to make those vital safety checks the defendant acted negligently and without due caution and the decisions she made that day ultimately contributed to Ms. Hutchins death,” said Lewis.
Gutierrez-Reed to law enforcement during an interview: “I don’t know. I wish I would have checked it more,” Lewis said, reading from a transcript.
“And so do we,” he told the jury.
But Gutierrez-Reed’s defense attorney, Jason Bowles, in his opening remarks told jurors his client is being used as a “scapegoat” by the production company, Baldwin and prosecutors.
“Just because there was a tragedy does not mean that a crime was committed,” Bowles said. “It does not mean that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed caused the crimes that they charged her with.”
“You cannot tell a live round from a dummy from a picture,” he added. “The reason for that is in Hollywood the dummies are made to look just like a live round.”
Bowles argued that the production company forced his client to work two separate positions of both an armorer but also a props assistant and she was only allotted eight days to work in the armorer role.
He also showed jurors an email that Gutierrez-Reed sent to a manager asking for more help.
“Production put her in the position of having two jobs and expected a 24-year-old under really tough conditions to be able to keep up with everything that was going on,” Bowles said.
“You’re not going to hear anything about her being in that church or firing that weapon,” Bowles said, noting that Baldwin violated the golden rule of never pointing a gun at someone.
“He violated some of the most basic gun safety rules you can ever learn,” Bowles said. “You treat all guns as loaded and you keep your finger off of the trigger until you’re ready to shoot. He violated all of them.”
Later Thursday, the jury was shown dramatic footage taken from the body camera worn by Tim Benavidez — then a shift commander in the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office who responded to the scene.
A panicked and emotional Gutierrez-Reed assisted Benavidez — who has since retired — with collecting the gun and the boxes she took rounds from to load it.”I need to know where the gun’s at right now,” Benavidez could be heard saying in the video.
“That’s the gun!” she replied, after handing over the firearm.
“Oh my god. F–k. Are they okay? Oh my god. Oh my god,” she said before beginning to hysterically cry.
The officer tells her to breathe and try to calm down as she appeared to be hyperventilating.
The case continues Friday.
