"Rust" Trial: Hannah Gutierrez-Reed Found Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter

On Wednesday, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on the Western film “Rust,” was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of the film’s cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Jurors returned a verdict after less than three hours of deliberations in the afternoon, following two weeks of testimony about safety lapses on set.

Gutierrez-Reed was acquitted of a separate charge of tampering with evidence. She faces up to 18 months in prison at sentencing, which is expected sometime in April. Following the verdict, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ordered Gutierrez-Reed remanded into custody. 

Gutierrez Reed was the first person to stand trial in the October 21, 2021, shooting on the film set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch outside Santa Fe, N.M.

Alec Baldwin is set to face his manslaughter trial in July. The first assistant director, Dave Halls, took a plea deal last year to a misdemeanor count of negligent handling of a gun and served six months of unsupervised probation.

Gutierrez-Reed loaded a live bullet into Baldwin’s pistol, which should have contained only dummy rounds. The gun fired, killing Halyna Hutchins and seriously wounding director Joel Souza.

Gutierrez-Reed got the job largely because her father, Thell Reed, is a legendary film armorer who worked on “Tombstone,” “3:10 to Yuma,” and “L.A. Confidential,” among many others.

Thell Reed and his wife Stacy Reed were in the courtroom when the verdict was read. Though his name was on the defense witness list, he was not called to testify. 

Rachel Mason, a friend of Hutchins’, attended the trial, and is directing and producing a documentary about her life called “Halyna.” 

To convict on the involuntary manslaughter charge, jurors had to agree that Gutierrez-Reed acted with “willful disregard for the safety of others” and that the death was a “foreseeable” consequence of her actions.

In her closing argument, prosecutor Kari Morrissey argued that Gutierrez-Reed’s actions constituted an “astonishing” failure to adhere to industry safety practices. 

She argued that Gutierrez-Reed was responsible for bringing the live rounds to set and that she never properly rattle-tested them to ensure they were dummies. The jury appeared to agree with that assessment.

“She could have paused work, stopped, and cleared it all up, and just never did,” Sanchez said outside the courthouse. “That was her job to check those rounds — those firearms. No one wanted to pay attention or do that sort of stuff and stop work.”

Defense attorney Jason Bowles countered that a workplace safety investigation laid the blame on management, in part for failing to give Gutierrez-Reed adequate time to do her job. He also sought to blame Seth Kenney, the weapons supplier who provided blanks and dummy rounds to the production.

Outside court, Bowles said was disappointed with the verdict and would appeal.

“The evidence wasn’t sufficient to convict,” he said. “It was a lot of guesswork, a lot of speculation.”

Mary Carmack-Altwies, the elected district attorney in Santa Fe, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon thanking the jury and Morrissey and Jason Lewis, the outside attorneys whom she appointed as special prosecutors on the case.

“From the outset of this case, the FJDA’s sole pursuits were to bring justice to Halyna Hutchins’ family and friends and to ensure that those responsible for her death were held accountable,” Carmack-Altwies said. “In order to do so, the prosecution team exhausted investigative efforts which proved pivotal to successfully moving forward with this tragic and entirely preventable case.”

Morrissey and Lewis took over the case last March after Carmack-Altwies and another special prosecutor withdrew.

The two private attorneys hired a new firearms expert and an imaging expert to enhance photographs. They subpoenaed behind-the-scenes footage and conducted an exhaustive review of thousands of photos and videos, ultimately concluding that Gutierrez Reed had brought the live rounds to the film set.

Sanchez said the jury agreed with that conclusion.

Gloria Allred, who has sued Baldwin and the “Rust” producers on behalf of Hutchins’ parents and sister, issued a statement saying she is “satisfied” with the verdict, but that her clients wish for everyone responsible to be held accountable.

“Today was the first trial and conviction in the criminal justice process,” Allred and co-counsel John Carpenter said. “We look forward to the justice system continuing to make sure that everyone else who is responsible for Halyna’s death is required to face the legal consequences for their actions.”