Jurors in the trial of Rust gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed have been shown shocking images of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ blood-stained shirt and the bullet that killed her on set.
Gutierrez-Reed, 26, has pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the 2021 death of Hutchins during a rehearsal at a ranch outside Santa Fe.
During the second day of his trial Friday, prosecutors also brought up the bloody shirt that director Joel Souza was wearing when the bullet that killed Hutchins hit him in the shoulder.
The day before, prosecutors tried to portray her as disorganized and unprepared for work, accusing her of mixing live ammunition with fake bullets and of using cocaine the night before the tragic rehearsal.
Meanwhile, the defense says Gutierrez-Reed is not to blame and is being unfairly defamed and scapegoated by blaming Baldwin and the film’s producers.
Gutierrez-Reed has pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the 2021 death of Halyna Hutchins.
The jury in the trial of Rust gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed saw shocking images of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ blood-stained shirt on Friday.
Prosecutors also brought to light the bloody shirt that director Joel Souza was wearing when the bullet that killed Hutchins hit him in the shoulder.
The bullet that killed the cinematographer and wounded the film director is seen above.
Actor Alec Baldwin, who was pointing the gun at Hutchins when it went off, killing her and wounding Souza, is separately fighting a charge of involuntary manslaughter. No trial date has been set.
Jurors were also shown on Friday dozens of photographs from inside the store owned by Seth Kenney for his company PDQ Props, which is said to have supplied ammunition to the set of Rust. The court also heard he provided ammunition for 1888, the Kevin Costner television series.
The photos were an attempt by Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney to show that Kenney stored his ammunition in a haphazard manner. They displayed dozens of used cardboard boxes in the alley next to the store.
Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney, Jason Bowles, asked Marissa Poppell, a crime scene technician with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, about an image showing a pizza box lying on the ground.
“Does he seem very disorganized?” Bowles asked. Poppell said yes.
Bowles asked: “There are things everywhere, are you okay with that?” Poppell said, “Yes.”
The images showed dozens of white ammunition boxes placed on shelves in what appeared to be a residential apartment. More bullets were shown in a bathtub on the floor with the lid open.
Baldwin, lead actor and co-producer of the Western film Rust, was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins (pictured) during a rehearsal outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went off, killing her. .
Gutierrez-Reed had a real bullet mixed with dummy bullets on the set, prosecutors told jurors at his manslaughter trial Thursday.
Dozens of photographs of the interior of the store owned by Seth Kenney for his company PDQ Props were also shown to the jury on Friday.
The photos were an attempt by Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney to show that Kenney stored his ammunition in a haphazard manner.
Kenney has denied providing live bullets to Gutierrez-Reed.
Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney, Jason Bowles, told jurors Thursday that his client had to work two jobs at Rust while she was rushed, and that her manager did not respond to her requests for more resources.
Prosecutors said they plan to present evidence that Gutierrez-Reed unknowingly brought live ammunition to the set, where it was expressly prohibited, and show “how these live bullets slowly spread throughout the set, eventually landing on the suits of several of the actors”. .’
Jurors have seen police body camera video of the harrowing and chaotic scene after the shooting, in which medical personnel tended to the wounded and semiconscious Hutchins and loaded her into an ambulance when a helicopter arrived.
They say the gunsmith missed multiple opportunities to ensure safety, ultimately loading a real bullet into the gun that killed Hutchins and failing to properly double-check whether the bullets in the gun were real or fake.
“We will show you, ladies and gentlemen, that by failing to perform those vital safety checks, the defendant acted negligently and without due caution,” prosecutor Jason Lewis told the jury. “And the decisions he made that day ultimately contributed to Ms. Hutchins’ death.”
Lead defense attorney Jason Bowles responded by pointing to workplace safety regulators’ findings about broad problems that extended beyond the gunsmith’s control. He maintained that the real bullets came to the set from an Albuquerque-based supplier of simulated bullets, and that the supplier was never actually investigated.
Gutierrez-Reed, stepdaughter of renowned sniper and weapons consultant Thell Reed, was 24 years old when the shooting occurred.
An image of the gun used in the fatal on-set shooting was shown in court Thursday.
The gun Baldwin used to shoot Hutchins was supplied by gunsmith Hannah Gutiérrez-Reed (pictured)
Baldwin also pleaded not guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in a separate case.
Bowles tried to place the blame for the safety lapses on Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin and their handling of the gun during the test.
“Either he had his finger on the trigger and the hammer cocked, or he pulled the trigger, while pointing it at Ms. Hutchins and Mr. Souza,” Bowles said. ‘You’re not going to hear anything about her being in that church or her firing that gun. That was Alec Baldwin.
Baldwin has said he removed the gun’s hammer, not the trigger, and the gun fired.
Gutierrez-Reed faces up to 18 months and a $5,000 fine if convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The evidence tampering charge stems from allegations that she handed a small bag of possible narcotics to another crew member after the shooting to avoid detection.
His lawyers say that charge is an attempt to defame his character. The bag was discarded without checking its contents, defense attorneys said.