Determining bullet types central issue in trial
Prosecutors say inattention to safety on ‘gun-heavy’ set means armorer, 26, criminally negligent in Hutchins’ killing
How hard is it to tell a real bullet from a dummy round?
“It’s not rocket science,” special prosecutor Kari Morrissey said Friday, as she questioned Santa Fe County Sheriff ’s Office crime scene technician Marissa Poppell. Poppell is a witness in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.
It’s also not something one can determine at a glance, attorney Jason Bowles suggested in his cross-examination of Poppell.
Gutierrez-Reed, 26, faces two fourth-degree felony charges in connection with the shooting death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed by a bullet that came from a gun being handled by the film’s star and producer Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal at Bonanza Creek Ranch south of Santa Fe in 2021. She faces up to three years in prison if convicted and sentenced to the maximum on both charges.
By most accounts, Hutchins’ death was caused by the inadvertent intermingling of live and dummy rounds on the set of the Western film, which ironically tells the story of an outlaw who comes out of hiding to rescue his grandson who has been sentenced to hang for an accidental murder.
But, prosecutors say, as the person in charge of guns and ammunition on what has been called a “gun-heavy” set, Gutierrez-Reed’s inattention to safety protocols and alleged introduction of live rounds onto the set constitutes criminal negligence which resulted in Hutchins’ death. Her lawyer has argued Gutierrez-Reed is being made a scapegoat by producers, including Baldwin, who forced her into a chaotic work
environment in order to cut costs and maximize profits.
Baldwin is also charged with involuntary manslaughter in the case. He has said he didn’t pull the trigger on the .45-caliber revolver he handled in the scene, but a forensic examination of the weapon paid for by the prosecution determined it could not have fired otherwise. He has entered a plea of not guilty; his trial date has not been set.
Poppell — whose testimony started Thursday afternoon and continued Friday morning — told jurors there are two basic ways to differentiate between a real bullet and a dummy round.
One is visual: Many dummy rounds have a hole drilled into the cartridge. The other is auditory: If shaken, a dummy round will rattle.
But, the crime scene technician admitted under crossexamination by Bowles, those methods aren’t foolproof.
Poppell said she submitted at least one of the rounds she collected from the set in the wake of Hutchins’ death to the FBI for testing because it didn’t have a hole in it or rattle, unlike most of the other dummies examined. It turned out to be a dummy. Bowles highlighted that as evidence telling the two kinds of rounds apart isn’t as simple as it might seem, and got Poppell to admit she wasn’t specifically trained in making such determinations.
However, Poppell said under questioning from Morrissey, of the 255 dummy rounds she collected from the set, only two didn’t have a hole or rattle, and none of the six live rounds discovered on set were “identical” in appearance to the dummies.
Jurors heard from several other prosecution witnesses Friday, including a cellphone extraction expert, a production manager who worked on the set, and a videographer who shot behind-the-scenes footage of the filming of the movie.
First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer adjourned the ongoing trial — which started Wednesday with jury selection and has drawn a crush of national press to the courthouse in downtown Santa Fe — a few hours early Friday without giving a specific reason.
The trial is scheduled to resume Monday.