Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed becomes visibly distressed as photos of cinematographer Halyna Hutchin’s bloody body are shown in court after Alec Baldwin’s gun went off

The gunsmith accused of putting a live bullet in Alec Baldwin’s gun on a movie set became distressed in court as he watched footage of the crew member who shot the actor.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed closed her eyes and shook her head as photos of cameraman Halyna Hutchins’ bloodied body were shown to the jury.

Gutierrez-Reed, 26, put her fingers to her nose and looked down, seemingly choking back tears as one of her attorneys rubbed her shoulder for comfort.

She is charged with involuntary manslaughter for her role in the accidental death of Hutchins in October 2021 on the set of the Western film Rust.

Gutierrez-Reed pleaded not guilty during the trial in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Baldwin, 65, who was the film’s lead actor and producer, will face a separate trial in July for involuntary manslaughter, which he denies.

Both Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed face up to 18 months in prison if convicted.

Dr. Heather Jarrell, the lead investigator at the Albuquerque medical examiner’s office, told the jury that, as usual, she took photos of Hutchins’ body before disposing of her.

She told the jury that the images showed a “gunshot wound to the right armpit region.”

Gutierrez-Reed initially closed her eyes and shook her head, appearing distressed as the images were shown.

Finally she opened her eyes and looked at the images, of which Dr. Jarrell said the bullet entered the right armpit.

The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest.

Dr. Jarrell said: ‘It entered the right part of the chest, (went) into the right thoracic cavity, injured some blood vessels, broke a rib, entered the right lung and exited the right thoracic cavity just adjacent to the spinal column, through the spinal cord, through the soft tissue from the back’

Hutchins, 42, a mother of one, suffered “significant blood loss” and the injury to her right lung was “fatal”, said Dr. Jarrell.

After leaving Hutchins’ body, the bullet hit Rust director Joel Souza in the shoulder, but he survived.

Dr. Jarrell said she concluded the killing was not murder, which she described as a “voluntary act caused by another to cause fear, harm or death.”

She said: ‘Looking at the material available to me through law enforcement reports, it became clear to me that there was no apparent intent to cause death. That does not mean there is no negligence.’

Dr. Jarrell said other medical examiners may have classified the death as a homicide, but for her it was “obvious to me that there was a suspicion on set that the firearm was not loaded with live ammunition.”

In a dramatic moment, a firearms expert showed the jury a firearm similar to the one Baldwin used to shoot Hutchins.

Lucien “Luke” Haag said the weapon “worked fine” when it was taken to the FBI for analysis.

Haag checked that the gun was bulletproof when he first took it out of the box and checked it again before showing it to the jury.

State District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer also asked if it was clear before Haag stood in the court pit and explained the shooting mechanism to jurors.

Haag said Baldwin could not have fired the bullet that killed Halyna Hutchins without pulling the trigger.

Baldwin has repeatedly claimed that he never did this and merely withdrew the hammer.

But Haag said there was nothing dangerous about the scene Baldwin was photographing when he opened fire “as long as you don’t load (the gun) and pull the trigger.”

Haag is the second gun expert to contradict Baldwin, and earlier in the trial, Bryce Ziegler, an agent with the FBI’s firearms unit who examined the gun he used, said the trigger must have been pressed.

Under questioning by prosecutor Kari Morrissey, Haag said Baldwin’s gun was “working fine” the day Hutchins was shot.

Morrisey asked, “Have you seen any evidence that the notch of the full cock hammer has been filed or modified to permit faster firing?”

No, says Haag, an expert in reconstructing gun crime scenes who has provided evidence in hundreds of cases in the U.S., Guam, Northern Ireland and Canada.

Baldwin has claimed in an interview that what happened to him was similar to ‘fanning’, a technique used in Western films to fire multiple bullets at once.

Morrisey asked, “Even if the gun’s hammer were damaged on October 21, 2021, would the trigger have to be pulled to fire the gun?”

Haag said, “Yes, the trigger should be pulled, the hammer should be in full position.”

Haag told the jury that hours before the fatal shooting, he had studied videos of Baldwin pulling the gun from his holster on the set of Rust.

According to Hagg, there was “realistically” nothing for the gun to get stuck on, as the hammer was so secure that it would not budge even if caught on something, while the trigger was “well shielded”.

The way Baldwin drew the gun when he shot Hutchins could have been “very dangerous,” the jury heard.

Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney Jason Bowles asked Haag if he had seen the video of Baldwin rehearsing the scene in which he accidentally opened fire.

Haag said yes.

Bowles said pulling a weapon across your body, as Baldwin did, could be “very dangerous” if the weapon was fully cocked.

“When loaded and fully cocked,” Haag said.

After watching the video, Baldwin could be seen cocking the gun as he practiced pulling it from the holster, Haag said.

The jury heard that in the days after the fatal shooting, Gutierrez-Reed repeatedly harassed a crew member to get back a bag of cocaine she had given her.

The court previously heard that Gutierrez-Reed gave the crew member, named Becca, a bag of white powder hours after the shooting and asked her to hold it.

When Becca came out of the room and realized what it was, she threw it away, the court was told.

The allegations led to charges against Gutierrez-Reed that she tampered with evidence, which she denies.

The jury was shown texts sent by Gutierrez-Reed to a crew member named Courtney on Oct. 23, 2021, two days after Hutchins was shot dead.

She asked for Becca’s phone number, which apparently she got from Courtney.

In a message on October 23, Gutierrez-Reed asked Becca, “Hey, I might be coming to Albuquerque and was wondering if I could get that stuff.”

A follow-up message sent shortly afterwards read: ‘Becca, call me when you get a chance’

Becca replied that she was working in Jemez, New Mexico.

On November 7, Gutierrez-Reed wrote to Becca that she would come to Albuquerque the next day and stay there for a week.

Becca said she was in Roswell, New Mexico, shooting another movie.

Gutierrez-Reed replied, “Hey Becca, do you mind if my brother-in-law picks up my stuff from you after Thanksgiving? He lives in Albuquerque’.

On November 13, Gutierrez-Reed wrote to Courtney, “Can Becca drop off my stuff?”

Courtney replied, “I asked her, hopefully she does.”