THE WOMAN responsible for the firearm in Alec Baldwin’s film Rust, when a cinematographer was shot dead, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Wednesday (6/3).
A jury in a New Mexico court took 2 hours to find Hannah Gutierrez guilty in the October 2021 death of Halyna Hutchins while filming the Western.
A 10-day trial found that Gutierrez, the man responsible for using live ammunition on set, broke film industry rules.
The court heard that Gutierrez repeatedly failed to observe basic safety rules, left firearms lying around, and allowed actors, including Baldwin, to brandish loaded firearms.
“This is not a case where Hannah Gutierrez made one mistake and that mistake was loading a live round into that firearm,” prosecutor Kari Morissey told the jury in her closing argument Wednesday.
“This is a case where repeated mistakes led to the death of one human being and another person’s near death,” he continued.
Also read: Filming on Rust continues this week.
Hutchins was hit by live ammunition from a Colt .45 pistol that Baldwin used for a scene inside a church in New Mexico. Director Joel Souza was injured by the same bullet.
Baldwin repeatedly emphasized that he was innocent because he never pulled the trigger on the gun.
However, a ballistics investigation refuted Baldwin’s claim following finding the firearm would not have fired if the trigger had not been pulled.
The trial with Baldwin as the defendant will be held next July.
The tragedy shocked Hollywood and prompted a ban on the use of firearms on film sets. (AFP/Z-1)
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