SANTA FE, N.M. — A jury began deliberating on whether a movie weapons supervisor should be held responsible for the fatal shooting of a cameraman by Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal on the set of a Western film, after attorneys delivered closing arguments Wednesday in the trial of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed .
Gutierrez-Reed, a 24-year-old in her second feature as a gunsmith at the time of the 2021 shooting, pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence during the trial held in downtown Santa Fe.
The proceedings are a preamble to a planned trial against Baldwin in July on a single charge of involuntary manslaughter. The actor, who has pleaded not guilty, was pointing a revolver at cameraman Halyna Hutchins when the gun went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.
Prosecutors say Gutierrez-Reed unknowingly brought live ammunition to the set of “Rust” at a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe, arguing that the bullets lingered for at least 12 days until the fatal shooting.
In his closing argument, prosecutor Kari Morrissey described “constant, never-ending safety lapses” on the set of “Rust” and Gutierrez-Reed’s “astonishing lack of dedication” to gun safety.
“We end exactly where we started: in pursuit of justice for Halyna Hutchins,” Morrissey told the jury. “Hannah Gutierrez failed to enforce firearm safety, making a fatality intentional and predictable.”
Prosecutors allege the gunsmith repeatedly skipped or skimped on standard gun safety protocols that could have potentially detected the live rounds.
“This was a game of Russian roulette every time an actor had a gun with dummies,” Morrissey said.
Defense attorneys said the problems on the set extended far beyond Gutierrez-Reed’s control, including Baldwin’s mishandling of weapons. During the trial, they cited sanctions and findings by state workplace security investigators.
Prosecutors didn’t come close to proving where the live bullets came from and failed to fully investigate an Albuquerque ammunition supplier, the defense said during the trial.
Lead attorney Jason Bowles told jurors that no one in the cast and crew thought there were live rounds on set and that Gutierrez-Reed could not have anticipated Baldwin going “off-script” when he pointed the revolver at Hutchins. Investigators have found no video recordings of the shooting.
“It was not in the script for Mr. Baldwin to point the gun,” Bowles said. “She didn’t know Mr. Baldwin would do what he did.”
To drive home the point, Bowles played a video recording of Baldwin firing a revolver loaded with blanks — including a shot after a director shouted “cut.”
On the day of the shooting, Bowles said, Gutierrez-Reed was separated from others alone in a police car, making him a convenient scapegoat.
“You had a production company on a shoestring budget, an A-list actor really running the show,” Bowles said. “In the end, they had someone they could all blame.”
Dozens of witnesses testified during the 10-day trial, from FBI firearms and crime scene forensics experts to a camera dolly operator who described the fatal shot and watched as Hutchins turned red and lost feeling in her legs lost before she died.
The prosecution painstakingly collected photographic evidence that it said traced the arrival and distribution of live rounds on set, and argued that Gutierrez-Reed repeatedly missed opportunities to ensure safety and treated basic weapons protocols as optional.
The defense questioned the relevance of photographs of ammunition, noting that FBI testimonies are not completely distinguishable by sight from fake cartridges.
Bowles began his closing arguments by highlighting the testimony of “Rust” gunsmith Sarah Zachry, who said that in a panic in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, she discarded ammunition from guns used by actors other than Baldwin. That undermined all evidence about the sources of the ammunition, the defense argued.
Prosecutors said six live rounds found on the set have largely identical characteristics and do not match live rounds seized from the film’s supplier in Albuquerque. Defense attorneys said the cluttered supply office was not searched until a month after the shooting, undermining the significance of physical evidence.
Gutierrez-Reed also faces a second charge of tampering with evidence, which stems from allegations that she handed a baggie of possible narcotics to another crew member after the shooting to avoid detection.
The charges against Gutierrez-Reed carry a possible prison sentence of up to three years.