'Rust' Shooting: Armorer Receives Verdict in Manslaughter Trial

'Rust' armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has been found guilty on charges of involuntary manslaughter.

By Stephen Andrew

A verdict has been handed down in the manslaughter trial of Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. The Wrap reports that Gutierrez-Reed, 24, has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. However, the jury did not find her guilty on charges of obstructing justice.

Gutierrez-Reed was charged with involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The charges carried a possible prison sentence of up to three years. Notably, actor Alec Baldwin — who was holding the gun that was loaded with the live round that killed Hutchins — will be going to trial on manslaughter charges later this year.

During the trial, Rust set footage was screened in court, and it showed Baldwin rushing the crew during a shootout scene and complaining about the slow pace of filming. The footage was shown in conjunction with the testimony of Bryan Carpenter, a veteran armorer who served as the state's expert witness in its case against Gutierrez-Reed as well as Baldwin.

"One more! One more! One more! Right away!" Baldwin was heard shouting after doing a take with a gun in hand, per Variety. "Let's reload!" Gutierrez-Reed rushed to load more blanks into his gun, while Baldwin was said to appear impatient. "Here we go! C'mon," he's heard saying. "We should have two guns and both we're reloading."

Carpenter went on to testify that Gutierrez-Reed Baldwin should have slowed things down when Baldwin was hurrying the pistol reloading process. "Rushing with firearms and telling someone to rush with firearms is not normal nor accepted," Carpenter said. "In a situation like that, when you're getting rushed to that extent, that's when safety starts to fall by the wayside."

In another clip, Baldwin was seen lying on the ground, face up, while holding a pistol. He motioned with the gun to show the crew how he was planning to get and fire. "I don't want to shoot toward you," Baldwin told the crew. "I'm going to shoot close to you."

When asked if he found anything wrong with this particular take, Carpenter noted that the actor was "using the weapon as a pointing stick." At some point, Gutierrez-Reed was heard, off-screen, telling the crew: "Everyone in the path of the gun please move." Carpenter said that, to him, this seemed like Gutierrez-Reed was avoiding confrontation with Baldwin. "She was attempting to not correct Mr. Baldwin, but to try to make the crew move in a more safe position," Carpenter said.

When Gutierrez-Reed's defense attorney had a chance to cross-examine Carpenter, he noted that she was just getting her start in the business, and was not yet a union member. The lawyer asked Carpenter if he thought it would be tough for Gutierrez-Reed to address things with Baldwin, to which the veteran armorer replied, "It would be a difficult situation."

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