The Rust weapons supervisor has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter following the fatal shooting of the film’s cinematographer on set.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found not guilty of evidence tampering.
Gutierrez-Reed, 26, was in charge of weapons during production of the Western film in New Mexico in October 2021, when a gun fired by star and co-producer Alec Baldwin went off during a rehearsal.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died following the incident, while director Joel Souza was injured.
Halyna Hutchins, pictured in 2017
Involuntary manslaughter means causing someone’s death due to negligence, without intending to.
Jurors sitting on Gutierrez-Reed’s trial in Santa Fe, New Mexico, reached their verdict after hearing evidence in the 10-day trial from dozens of witnesses, including eyewitnesses, FBI evidence analysts and an ammunition supplier to Rust, as well as Mr Souza.
The filmmaker said the noise of the shooting was “deafening” and “felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to my shoulder”.
During the trial, jurors were shown footage of Baldwin waving a gun before the fatal shooting.
What is happening with Baldwin’s case?
Gutierrez and Baldwin (below) pictured on set in the aftermath of the shooting. Pics: Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office/AP
Baldwin was originally charged in January 2023, more than a year after the shooting.
Those charges were dropped a few months later based on evidence the hammer of the revolver might have been modified, allowing it to fire without the trigger being pulled.
The star was then charged again in January this year, and earlier this month pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He faces his trial in July.
Baldwin has said he pulled back the gun’s hammer – but not the trigger – and the weapon fired.
The revolver that actor Alec Baldwin was holding on the set of Rust was shown during the trial. Pic: Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal/AP
Filming of Rust resumed last year in Montana – with Baldwin reprising his role as the main character – after an agreement made Ms Hutchins’ widower an executive producer.
Gutierrez-Reed’s defence lawyer Jason Bowles said his client was being used as a “scapegoat” during the trial.
He said: “We’re here because of a tragedy, there’s no doubt, there was a tragic occurrence on that movie.
“But let me tell you something you already know: just because there was a tragedy, it does not mean that a crime was committed.”
Assistant director ‘was negligent checking the gun’
David Halls was the assistant director for Rust. Pic: Gabriela Campos/Santa Fe New Mexican/AP
Assistant director David Halls, who last year entered a plea bargain for negligent use of a deadly weapon, receiving a six-month suspended sentence, gave evidence during Gutierrez-Reed’s trial.
He was emotional at times as he told the trial: “I was negligent checking the gun properly.”
Halls told the court how Gutierrez-Reed showed him the rounds in the reproduction Colt 45 revolver and that he recalled “seeing three to four what I believed to be dummy rounds”, which looked “very distinctive” and different from live rounds.
However, he said he did not remember Gutierrez-Reed “fully rotating” the gun cylinder to show him all six rounds.
Asked if he let the safety check pass, he said: “I did.”
Gutierrez-Reed then gave Baldwin the gun, he told the court.
His testimony also included an account of standing about a metre from Ms Hutchins when the single gunshot rang out. As she was on the ground, he asked if she was all right.
“She said, ‘I can’t feel my legs’,” he said.
Halls said he struggled to understand how a live round could have been fired. “The idea that it was a live round of ammunition that went off… it wasn’t computing,” he said.
