Gun supervisor for ‘Rust’ movie gets 18 months in prison for fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin on set
apnews.com
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed faces up to 18 months in prison for the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of film “Rust."

A movie weapons supervisor is facing up to 18 months in prison for the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film “Rust,” with her sentencing scheduled for Monday in a New Mexico state court.

Movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted in March by a jury on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and has been held for more than a month at a county jail on the outskirts of Santa Fe.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for “Rust,” was pointing a gun at Hutchins when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

…

Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust” where it was expressly prohibited and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols. After a two-week trial, the jury deliberated for about three hours in reaching its verdict.

  • glimse@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    Weren’t they firing rounds off for fun during breaks? Or was that claim never substantiated

    Not that it makes it better but it would explain how it happened

    • homura1650@lemm.ee
      0·
      3 months ago

      That was never alledged during the trial itself. There was live round practice, but it was done properly at a fireing range.

      The prosecution’s theory was that they came from a different set which did use live rounds. Reed brought dummies herself (instead of going through the prop house for everything) due to shortages.

      The defenses theory was that their prop house messed up and provided live rounds with their dummies.

      • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        The Variety article on the closing arguments is fairly succinct.

        The prosecution has argued that the evidence shows Gutierrez Reed inadvertently brought them to set, mingled among dummy rounds. In a police interview, Gutierrez Reed said she brought some dummies that were loose in a bag in her car and were left over from her previous job as armorer on “The Old Way,” a Nicolas Cage film.

        “I’m not telling you that Hannah Gutierrez intended to bring live rounds on set,” Morrissey said. “I’m telling you that she was negligent. She was thoughtless. She was careless… For all we know those dummy rounds were floating around the set of ‘The Old Way,’ and Nicolas Cage is lucky to have walked away with his life.”

        Throw in the fact that she apparently didn’t even give the rounds a little shake to confirm that they were empty except for the little BB rattling around in there, and “without due caution and circumspection” is a slam dunk. Baldwin’s case is a little more iffy, but certainly a reasonable one to bring to a jury.

        • ABCDE@lemmy.world
          0·
          3 months ago

          Was Baldwin wrong on anything? Was he not just given the gun or were there other things at play?

          • homura1650@lemm.ee
            1·
            3 months ago

            Based on testimony and evidence presented at the Reed trial:

            • He was not paying attention during his gun training.
            • He broke gun protocals throughout the filming. Including fireing a (blank loaded) gun after cut was called.
            • (The actual event) He pointed a “prop” gun at a real person and pulled the trigger. Even with a cleared gun, this is something that is not supposed to be done. Additionally, this was during a “blocking” session, so the camera was not even rolling. He was not supposed to be using the prop gun at all for this.

            Even if the gun was loaded with blanks, this even would likely still have caused an injury (and possibly death, although likely not).

            Baldwin will likely argue that Reed was supposed to know all of this and stopped him before the accident happened.