The armorer from the film rustThe Alec Baldwin-produced film, whose cameraman was shot and killed on set, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter by an American court on Wednesday.
• Also read: “Like a baseball bat to the shoulder”: The injured director’s report on the film “Rust”
• Also read: Fatal shooting in the film “Rust”: The gunsmith reveals in court where the bullets came from
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, responsible for the weapons on this tight-budget production, was accused by prosecutors of repeated negligence. She faces up to 18 months in prison.
His sentence will not be decided until next month.
The filming of “Rust” turned into a drama in October 2021 on a ranch in New Mexico (southwest of the USA). Alec Baldwin had aimed a gun that was supposed to contain only empty bullets, but a very real projectile had killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.
For two weeks, the trial tried to explain how this deadly bullet – one of the many live rounds collected by investigators – ended up on set in defiance of safety regulations that apply to the entire cinema industry.
In particular, during the hearings, jurors viewed images of Alec Baldwin dangerously handling weapons and pointing them at other members of the team without the gunsmith's intervention.
“This is not a case where he made a mistake that was that he accidentally put a live bullet into that gun,” prosecutor Kari Morrissey argued in her closing argument Wednesday.
“Endless failures”
“This case is about persistent and endless safety failures that resulted in the death of one person and the near death of another,” she added.
According to the prosecution, the gunsmith was again negligent on the morning of the tragedy: she was not present when Alec Baldwin prepared his scene and left the twenty guns used in the production unattended.
“She left the weapon in the church” where the tragedy occurred, “contrary to all the standards that govern the work of gunsmiths on the set,” the prosecutor emphasized. “As many witnesses have told you, she left weapons unattended all the time. October 21st was nothing unusual.”
Ms Morrissey accused the gunsmith of bringing live ammunition to set and failing to carry out the necessary checks to ensure the ammunition loaded into the gun was safe: blank bullets produce an easily recognizable clicking sound when the gun is shaken.
“If the dummy ammunition (…) is not checked to ensure that they are actually blank bullets, (…) it is a game of Russian roulette that takes place every time an actor carries a weapon,” it was about the prosecutor.
scapegoat
Prosecutors also accused the gunsmith of hiding cocaine that she had consumed outside of work hours after the tragedy. The jury found him not guilty on that count.
Ms. Gutierrez-Reed served as a scapegoat for a production that neglected safety for financial reasons and made her a “designated perpetrator,” argued Jason Bowles, one of her lawyers.
According to him, the young woman did not know that live ammunition had entered the set and assumed that the production only received blank bullets.
“As in any organization, responsibility lies with production. “It starts at the top,” he argued.
He also denounced the producers' willingness to report them to investigators the day after the tragedy.
“What the big guys want (…) is to continue working on finishing the film and making money,” he fumed.
Alec Baldwin, star and producer of the film, is also charged with manslaughter. His trial is expected to take place in July.
Filming on Rust resumed several months later, concluding in Montana, with Halyna Hutchins' widower Matthew serving as executive producer.
At the end of 2022, he dropped the civil proceedings he had initiated against Alec Baldwin following the expiration of a settlement, the amount of which was not disclosed.