A jury has found Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer for the film Rust, guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Actor Alec Baldwin firing a prop gun on the movie set which resulted in him killing cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal for a scene for the movie, which was being filmed near Santa Fe, New Mexico last October. He also wounded director Joel Souza.
Prosecutors say Gutierrez-Reed was responsible as she brought at least one live round of ammunition that was loaded which was placed in the prop gun.
“This is not a case where Hannah Gutierrez made one mistake,” special prosecutor Kari Morrissey said in closing arguments. “This case is about constant, never-ending safety failures that resulted in the death of a human being and nearly killed another. This was a game of Russian roulette every time an actor had a gun with dummies.”
Defense attorney Jason Bowles argued Gutierrez-Reed was “scapegoated” as she did not fire the weapon.
“You had a production company on a shoestring budget, an A-list actor calling all the shots,” he said. “In the end, they had someone they could all blame.”