World Courant
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed (R) sits in court docket together with her lawyer Jason Bowles (L) throughout the first day of her trial on the First District Courtroom in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on February 22, 2024.
Eddie Moore | AFP | Getty Photographs
A New Mexico jury on Wednesday discovered “Rust” gun guard Hannah Gutierrez-Reed responsible of involuntary manslaughter and never responsible of tampering with proof after deliberating for about two and a half hours.
The 26-year-old faces a jail sentence of as much as three years and will likely be sentenced at a later date.
The just about two-week felony trial revolved across the 2021 filming of the movie set ‘Rust’, through which the actor starred. Alec Baldwin was holding a prop gunfiring reside ammunition, killing the movie’s cinematographer, Haylna Hutchins. The bullet additionally injured director Joel Souza.
In the course of the prosecution’s closing arguments on Wednesday, Kari T. Morrissey instructed the jury that Gutierrez-Reed was “negligent, careless and inconsiderate.”
Morrissey additionally mentioned the 27-year-old gunsmith was extra “involved about her profession” and fewer concerning the victims after the deadly taking pictures.
However Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer, Jason Bowles, mentioned prosecutors had not confirmed past an inexpensive doubt that Gutierrez-Reed was answerable for bringing reside rounds onto the set and claimed Baldwin was in the end answerable for Hutchins’ loss of life.
“I can inform you that the reason for her loss of life is that Mr. Baldwin went off script. Nobody ever knew there was going to be a reside spherical on set. The one motion is to purpose the gun. Ms. Gutierrez didn’t purpose that gun .” Bowles mentioned.
The prosecutor additionally referred to as Baldwin a “prima donna.”
“Alec Baldwin’s habits and his lack of gun security within the church that day is one thing he should reply for… Not with you, not as we speak, that is for an additional jury for an additional day.”
NBC Information has reached out to the actor’s authorized crew for remark. AreThe felony trial begins in July.
In the course of the trial, quite a few eyewitnesses who had been on set took the stand, together with Souza, who talked about what it was wish to be shot and the confusion that resulted.
“Nothing was proper,” Souza mentioned final week. He mentioned he remembers wanting up at Gutierrez-Reed after the incident and listening to her repeatedly say, “I am sorry, I am sorry, Joel.”
Souza described the sensation of being shot as if somebody had “struck a baseball bat in opposition to my shoulder.”
However he mentioned he did not understand he had been injured by reside ammunition, and when medical employees knowledgeable him on the hospital, “I could not calculate that,” Souza mentioned.
Dave Halls, the movie’s security coordinator, pleaded no contest final yr to negligent use of a lethal weapon as a part of a movement image. plea deal, additionally took the stand. His testimony marked the primary time he spoke publicly about what occurred that day. An emotional Halls testified that he ought to have checked the gun extra completely and admitted that he “checked that firearm inappropriately.”
Halls went on to say that he didn’t recall seeing Gutierrez-Reed rotate the complete cylinder to make sure all of the bullets had been faux bullets. Wiping away tears, he mentioned, “I cleared a safety test.”
Throughout a opening statementsParticular Prosecutor Jason Lewis referred to as Gutierrez-Reed’s habits on the set of “Rust” “sloppy” and “unprofessional.”
“We consider it was the defendant’s negligence and failure … that contributed to Ms. Hutchins’ loss of life,” he mentioned.
Jury finds ‘Rust’ gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed responsible of involuntary manslaughter
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