International Courant
Jurors within the involuntary manslaughter trial of Hannah Gutierrez noticed footage of the “Rust” gun keeper being interviewed by regulation enforcement officers hours after cameraman Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on the set of the Western.
“I want I’d have checked it higher,” Gutierrez stated of the Colt .45 revolver whereas being questioned on the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Workplace in New Mexico on Oct. 21, 2021, in footage proven to jurors on the fourth day on Tuesday of her demise. course of.
Actor Alec Baldwin was training a crossfire in a church on set when the gun fired a dwell spherical, putting Hutchins and director Joel Souza, who suffered a non-life-threatening damage.
Gutierrez informed investigators she was “surprised” by the taking pictures and that she checked all six bullets with the prop gun, a totally functioning firearm.
“I am going to examine the dolls,” she stated. “I examine all of them. All of them confirmed they weren’t sizzling, you may say.”
Gutierrez informed investigators she had been loading prop weapons with dummies all morning. After lunch, she was exterior the church resulting from COVID-19 restrictions when she stated she heard a shot go off inside.
She stated she went inside and was “yelled at” so she ran exterior. She stated she checked the gun and located one bullet was lacking, however “every little thing else was positive.”
“One of many dolls was by some means discharged,” she informed investigators within the footage.
In a video seen throughout her trial on February 27, 2024, Hannah Gutierrez (sporting the blue masks) is interviewed on the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Workplace on October 21, 2021.
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One of many investigators confirmed Gutierrez a photograph that an officer had texted her from the hospital, exhibiting the projectile faraway from Souza’s shoulder.
“They thought it may very well be an actual dwell spherical at this level,” the investigator informed Gutierrez.
“Does it seem like it could have been a dwell spherical for you?” she requested the armorer.
“That appears like a clean,” Gutierrez initially responded, earlier than later saying, “That may very well be an everyday dwell lap although.”
“That is what they thought: it may very well be a dwell spherical,” the researcher stated.
“Holy f—,” Gutierrez replied.
Gutierrez claimed she checked the six bullets within the firearm to see in the event that they rattled, indicating they have been pretend bullets.
“If it did not rattle, I would not have put it in,” she stated. “I checked all six for rattling.”
Sheriff’s Workplace Cpl. from Santa Fe. Alexandra Hancock testified on the stand Tuesday that one of many dummy bullets within the firearm had a gap within the facet to point it was a dummy.
“It would not have rattled, which is opposite to her assertion: If it would not have rattled, I would not have put it in,” Hancock stated.
Hours earlier than filming, a number of members of the digicam division walked off the set in protest in opposition to poor working circumstances. When requested about that through the interview, Gutierrez stated the set was “poisonous” however he did not assume anybody was “that evil.”
“I really feel like it is a actual rattling accident,” she stated, because the footage confirmed.
When requested the place the ammunition for the set got here from, Gutierrez informed the investigator that that they had acquired packing containers of dummies from Seth Kenney, proprietor of PDQ Arm and Prop in Albuquerque.
Throughout a second interview with the sheriff’s workplace in November 2021, Gutierrez “revealed” that she and one other provider additionally equipped ammunition for the set, Hancock testified.
Throughout the November interview, a part of which was proven to jurors earlier than daybreak on Tuesday, Gutierrez stated she introduced alongside “unfastened dummies” she had from a earlier movie set that had been in her automobile for 2 weeks.
The PDQ ammunition didn’t match the dwell ammunition discovered on the “Rust” set, Hancock testified.
Hannah Gutierrez will seem in courtroom in Santa Fe, New Mexico on February 27, 2024.
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Gutierrez, 26, has pleaded not responsible to involuntary manslaughter and tampering with proof. Prosecutors allege she was handed a bag of cocaine after her interview with police after the taking pictures. The protection has argued there isn’t a proof there was cocaine within the bag and that she was charged with the crime at trial “in an effort to trigger unfair prejudice” to the defendant.
Prosecutors have alleged that the gunmaker didn’t all the time comply with “important” security procedures on set and unknowingly introduced the dwell bullets onto the set.
Lawyer Jason Bowles stated throughout opening statements final week that the manufacturing and the state made Gutierrez a “scapegoat” within the tragic taking pictures.
“Simply because a tragedy has occurred doesn’t imply against the law has been dedicated,” he stated.
He claimed that the manufacturing created a “chaotic scene” by giving Gutierrez prop duties that took away from her job as chief gunsmith. He stated she was not given enough time to coach the crew within the firearms, together with Baldwin, who he alleged improperly dealt with the weapon by pointing it on the crew, and has denied firing the dwell bullets at introduced the set with him.
Baldwin has additionally been charged with involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ demise. He has pleaded not responsible.
Earlier Tuesday, firearms knowledgeable Lucien Haag testified on behalf of the state that to fireplace the revolver, the hammer would have needed to be absolutely cocked and the set off pulled — matching FBI firearms knowledgeable Bryce Ziegler’s testimony on Monday.
Baldwin has stated he didn’t pull the set off on the gun.
His trial was scheduled to start in July.
“We look ahead to our day in courtroom,” Baldwin’s attorneys, Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, stated after his January arraignment.
Footage of ‘Rust’ gun handler Hannah Gutierrez’s interviews with sheriff’s workplace proven to jurors
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