Rust Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed Found Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter

Photo: Gabriela Campos/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on March 6, 2024 in the fatal Rust set shooting. Gutierrez-Reed was found not guilty of evidence tampering in relation to the 2021 incident that left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead. Hutchins died on set after Alec Baldwin allegedly shot a prop gun loaded with live ammo in her direction. Director Joel Souza was also shot, but survived. Santa Fe, New Mexico, prosecutors alleged that Gutierrez-Reed, 26, neglected to properly review the ammunition in the gun, and that she was responsible for letting live ammunition onto the set. Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin pleaded not guilty in their cases. Baldwin contends that he did not pull the trigger.

Gutierrez-Reed’s two-week-long trial was light on bombshells and largely reiterated what the prosecution and defense had long contended. The state said that Gutierrez-Reed was riding roughshod of common-sense gun safety on set, while the defense argued that she was a powerless “scapegoat.” “By failing to make those vital safety checks, the defendant acted negligently and without due caution,” prosecutor Jason Lewis alleged in his opening statement on February 21. “The decisions she made that day ultimately contributed to Ms. Hutchins’s death.” Lewis concluded his opening by citing Gutierrez-Reed’s own words in an interview with police after the shooting. “She says at the end: ‘I just, I don’t know. I wish I would have checked it,’” Lewis remarked. “And so do we.”

Jason Bowles, Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney, argued in his opening that the set was filled with safety problems. “Just because there was a tragedy does not mean that a crime was committed. It does not mean that Hannah Gutierrez really caused the crimes they have charged her with,” Bowles told jurors, noting that Baldwin had pointed the gun. “What they tried to do, and what you’re seeing in this courtroom today, is trying to blame it all on Hannah, the 24-year-old, because, why? Because she’s an easy target. She’s the least powerful person on that set.”

The significant twist during Gutierrez-Reed’s trial came during assistant director David Halls’s testimony. While Baldwin initially said that Gutierrez-Reed had handed him the gun, he later claimed it was Halls. During Halls’s testimony, he claimed that Gutierrez-Reed handed Baldwin the gun. Baldwin will face an involuntary manslaughter trial on July 9, 2024, in the Rust incident.