Jury selection begins in trial of armorer in movie set death
SANTA FE, N.M. — Prosecutors in New Mexico are pursuing accountability for the 2021 death of a cinematographer who was fatally shot by actor Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal for the Western film “Rust.”
Before Baldwin’s case progresses, the armorer on the set is being tried on charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence. Jury selection in Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s trial started Wednesday in Santa Fe.
Gutierrez-Reed has pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintains she’s not directly to blame for Halyna Hutchins’ death. Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary-manslaughter charge in a separate case.
The process for selecting 12 jurors began with a pool of 70 residents from the Santa Fe area, including non-English speakers, a welder, a teacher, a graduate student and a mother who provides for six children. A prosecutor began with questions about their exposure to intensive media coverage and social media chatter about the case.
Prosecutors plan to present evidence that Gutierrez-Reed loaded a live round into the gun that killed Hutchins after unknowingly bringing live ammunition onto a set where it was expressly prohibited. They say the armorer missed multiple opportunities to ensure safety on the movie set.
Defense attorneys say they have evidence that will show otherwise.
The evidence and testimony have implications for Baldwin, who was pointing a gun at Hutchins during an October 2021 rehearsal outside Santa Fe when she was killed and director Joel Souza was wounded.
Gutierrez-Reed, the stepdaughter of renowned sharpshooter and weapons consultant Thell Reed, was 24 at the time of Hutchins’ death. “Rust” was her second assignment as an armorer in a feature film.
She faces up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine if convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The evidence-tampering charge stems from accusations that she handed a small bag of possible narcotics to another crew member after the shooting to avoid detection by law enforcement.
Her attorneys say that charge is prosecutors’ attempt to smear Gutierrez-Reed’s character. The bag was thrown away without testing the contents.
More than 40 people are listed as witnesses; the trial is scheduled to run through March 6.
Authorities located six rounds of ammunition on the movie set in locations that included a box, a gun belt and a bandoleer worn by Baldwin. Baldwin has said he assumed the gun only had rounds that couldn’t be fired.
Special prosecutors have argued in court filings that Hutchins died because of a series of negligent acts by Gutierrez-Reed. They say she should have noticed live rounds and intervened long before the shooting.
Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys say she’s unfairly been scapegoated. They contend that live rounds arrived on set from an Albuquerque-based supplier of dummy rounds. They also pointed to a broader atmosphere of safety failures that were uncovered during an investigation by state workplace-safety inspectors that go beyond Gutierrez-Reed.
Gutierrez-Reed is accused in another case of carrying a gun into a bar in downtown Santa Fe in violation of state law. Her attorneys say that charge has been used to try to pressure Gutierrez-Reed into a false confession about the handling of live ammunition on the “Rust” set.
Gutierrez-Reed was responsible for storage, maintenance and handling of firearms and ammunition on set and for training members of the cast who would be handling firearms, according to state workplace-safety regulators.
Live rounds are typically distinguished from dummy rounds by a small hole in the dummy’s brass cartridge, indicating no explosive inside; or by shaking the round to hear the clatter of a BB that is inserted inside. A missing or dimpled primer at the bottom of the cartridge is another trait of dummy rounds.
A trial date hasn’t been set for Baldwin.