Hannah Gutierrez Reed, Rust
's gunsmith
, was found guilty this Wednesday of the reckless homicide of Halyna Hutchins.
The jury in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has announced its verdict on the tragic events that occurred on October 21, 2021 during the filming of the independent western.
That morning, Gutierrez Reed, the inexperienced daughter of a seasoned weapons consultant, was in charge of the revolver with which Alec Baldwin accidentally shot the director of photography during a rehearsal.
The defense of the accused, who can be sentenced to up to a year and a half in prison, has indicated that she will appeal the ruling.
The conviction serves as a preamble to the trial that the protagonist and producer of the film will face in July.
Gutierrez Reed, 26, is the second person found guilty in the
Rust case
.
The first was David Halls, the assistant director, who last year accepted a charge of negligent handling of a firearm.
The gunsmith, however, had pleaded not guilty to the crime of reckless homicide.
Prosecutors had also accused her of destroying evidence of her for allegedly getting rid of a bag of drugs.
The jury, which deliberated for two and a half hours, acquitted her of that charge.
In addition to the penalty, the gunsmith must pay a fine of $5,000.
The two-week trial focused on Gutierrez Reed's role in handling the gun.
This one, a replica of an 1873 Pietta revolver, had a real bullet in the chamber.
The jury members have told the press that they concluded that the gunsmith, then 24 years old, did not respect security protocols.
“That was her job, to check the bullets from those weapons,” said Alberto Sánchez, one of the twelve members of the jury.
Prosecutors presented a robust case full of evidence and in which dozens of experts and witnesses paraded to give their testimonies.
Joel Souza, the film's director, who was wounded by the same bullet that killed Hutchins, told his version of events in public for the first time.
“I knew something had happened to me,” the filmmaker said on the seventh day.
Souza was rushed to a hospital, but he told medical staff that he ruled out that the damage had been caused by a real bullet.
Hollywood prohibits live projectiles on film sets, he told them.
“I told them, 'You don't understand it.
It's a movie and that's impossible.'
They insisted to me: 'No, no, no... IT IS a real bullet.'
In the end they got fed up with my complaints and showed me an x-ray of my back that showed a huge bullet,” he said from the stand in a story broadcast on YouTube.
Throughout the trial, the New Mexico Prosecutor's Office blamed Gutierrez Reed for having brought the real bullets to the filming.
The prosecution, led by Kari Morrissey, showed to prove it an image of the gun rack in the first days of filming, before the supplier sent the main shipment of blanks to the set.
This point was dismissed by the defense, who relied on testimony from an FBI agent, who pointed out that with the naked eye you cannot distinguish real bullets from fake ones.
The police found at least six real projectiles at the crime scene, the Bonanza ranch.
“Every time an actor held a loaded gun on that set it was a game of Russian roulette,” Morrissey assured the jury during closing arguments.
The Prosecutor's Office, however, did not prove how the real bullets arrived on the set.
The gunsmith's strategy focused on blaming those responsible for production.
Jason Bowles, the defense attorney, denied that his client brought the projectiles.
The lawyer argued that it was not her responsibility, a 24-year-old young woman in her second production, to enforce the safety protocols of the entire team.
The testimonies have drawn a chaotic filming where several responsibilities fell on one person.
This way, producers could stay on budget.
Gutierrez Reed herself also had to supervise tasks related to
props
.
Bowles blamed Baldwin for Hutchins' death.
The actor has publicly denied pulling the trigger.
The lawyer indicated in his final arguments that the gunsmith could not have foreseen that the protagonist would fire the revolver.
“That wasn't in the script, not even that he pointed the gun.
"She didn't know that Mr. Baldwin was going to do what he did," she said.
The courtroom witnessed a video of another moment of filming where the
30 Rock
star empties a gun.
The last shot is taken after Souza shouted “cut!”
Baldwin will finally know the outcome of the
Rust case
in mid-July.