Movie gun expert found guilty of handing Alec Baldwin live bullets before filmmaker shot dead
07.03.2024 - 10:33
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A movie armourer has been found guilty of handing Alex Baldwin a good containing real bullets moments before Rust filmmaker Halyna Hutchins was shot dead.
A jury contemplated for over two hours before reaching their verdict against movie armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. She will be staying in custody until she can be sentenced as she faces up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. As for her additional charge, tampering with evidence, she was found not guilty.
Prosecutors argued that she didn't maintain proper firearm safety multiple times. In fact, they argued that she brought live rounds on set and failed to perform industry-standard safety practices. However, her defense attorney, Jason Bowles, argued that no one knew there were live rounds.
Join our WhatsApp Top Stories and Breaking News group by clicking this link
The verdict assigns new blame in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October 2021 after an assistant director last year pleaded no contest to negligent handling of a firearm.
Baldwin, the lead actor and a co-producer on western movie Rust was indicted by a grand jury in January on a charge of involuntary manslaughter.
He was pointing a gun at Hutchins on the movie set outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, when the gun went off, tragically killing Halina and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwiin has pleaded not guilty.
During the gun expert's trial, her attorney blamed Baldwin for "going off-script" when he pointed the gun at the filmmaker and, therefore, Gutierrez-Reed could not have known it would be fired.
He said: "It was not in the script for Mr. Baldwin to point the weapon. She didn't know that Mr. Baldwin was going to do what he did."
Baldwin's previous indictment was dropped after he