Key moments from 'Rust' armorer's trial over fatal on-set shooting
The jury reached a verdict Wednesday in the case against Hannah Gutierrez.
Jurors reached a verdict in under three hours Wednesday in the trial of "Rust" armorer Hannah Gutierrez, finding her guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Actor Alec Baldwin was practicing a cross-draw in a church on the set of the Western movie in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Oct. 21, 2021, when the Colt. 45 revolver fired a live round, fatally striking Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
Both Gutierrez and Baldwin were charged with involuntary manslaughter. His trial is scheduled to start in July. Gutierrez has additionally been charged with tampering with evidence, with prosecutors alleging she handed off a small bag of cocaine after her interview with law enforcement following the shooting.
The jury began deliberations Wednesday afternoon after the state and defense gave their closing arguments. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter but acquitted on a tampering with evidence charge. She faces up to 18 months in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Prosecutors set out to prove that Gutierrez was responsible for negligent acts that led to Hutchins' death and unwittingly brought six live rounds to the set -- including the one that ended up in the revolver.
The defense argued that the low-budget production gave Gutierrez props duties that took away from her job as lead armorer and that she wasn't given sufficient time to train the crew on the firearms. They also cited the New Mexico Occupational Safety and Health Administration's investigation into the shooting, which found that the management "demonstrated plain indifference to employee safety."
Dozens of witnesses testified during the nearly two-week trial, including several crew members who recounted the shooting.
Here's a look at some of the key moments in the two-week trial.
Gutierrez shown being interviewed by detectives
Gutierrez did not testify in her defense. Jurors were shown extensive footage of the armorer being interviewed by law enforcement hours after the on-set shooting.
One of the investigators showed Gutierrez a photo a deputy had texted her from the hospital of the projectile removed from Souza's shoulder.
"They were thinking it could be an actual live round at this point," the investigator told Gutierrez.
"That looks like a blank one," Gutierrez initially responded, before later saying, "That might be a regular live round, though."
"That's what they were thinking -- it could be a live round," the investigator said.
"Holy f---," Gutierrez responded.
She contended she checked all the rounds in the gun to see if they rattled from a BB pellet inside -- one way to distinguish dummy rounds from live rounds filled with gunpowder. She then later said, "I wish I would have checked it more."
Asked where the ammunition for the set came from, Gutierrez told the investigator they got boxes of dummies from Seth Kenney, owner of PDQ Arm and Prop in Albuquerque.
During a second interview with the sheriff's office in November 2021 that was also played for the jury, Gutierrez said that she also provided two boxes of .45-caliber long Colt dummies that had been in her car from a previous film set.
Cpl. Alexandra Hancock, the lead detective on the case for the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, testified they have "circumstantial evidence" tracing the live rounds back to Gutierrez. Among the evidence, Hancock testified that during the November 2021 interview, the armorer showed her a picture of the boxes she brought on set that matched a box where investigators found a live round. The box did not match the ones Kenney provided, Hancock said.
Footage questions gun safety on set
Prosecutors showed jurors footage of "Rust" crew members carrying around firearms on set and using them as pointers, in what an expert on firearms safety on films called concerning behavior.
The expert, Bryan Carpenter, pointed out what he called a lack of "muzzle discipline" in the footage, which includes rough rehearsals and takes.
In the footage, a stunt performer was shown repeatedly pointing a firearm at the crew and Baldwin could be seen using a revolver as a pointer.
In those instances, Gutierrez should have intervened, he said. The footage shown by prosecutors doesn't show her stepping in to address those issues.
In another video, Gutierrez could be seen holding a shotgun with the muzzle pointing toward her own face, which Carpenter pointed out as being concerning.
"Never let the muzzle of the weapon cover anything you're not willing to harm," Carpenter said. "It's a fundamental safety rule. You treat all weapons as they're always loaded -- also fundamental safety rule."
Carpenter also pointed out that in the footage shown, the armorer did not collect firearms from the crew when they were not filming.
"It opens the door to an unsafe act that might occur," he said. "At the end of the day, control is how you manage safety."
1st assistant director says he was negligent
David Halls, the first assistant director for "Rust" who conducted the safety check on the revolver before handing it to Baldwin, took the stand during the trial.
Halls said he was one of the first people to reach Hutchins, who was on the ground, and asked her if she was all right.
"She said, 'I can't feel my legs,'" Halls said, crying.
Halls was charged with negligent use of a deadly weapon and sentenced in March 2023 to six months of unsupervised probation as part of a plea deal. Asked by prosecutors why he accepted that plea deal, he responded, "I was negligent in checking the gun properly."
Halls told the court Gutierrez loaded the gun with dummy rounds and showed him the cylinder. He said he did not recall her fully rotating the cylinder and only saw three to four of the six rounds during the safety check.
Asked by the defense why he didn't say something when he didn't see all the rounds in the cylinder, Halls responded, "This is what I'm admitting to, I did an improper check of that firearm."
Gutierrez was not in the church at the time of the shooting. The defense argued that someone on the set should have called her back because a live firearm was being used, while prosecutors said she had "autonomy" as armorer and should not have left the church.
Witnesses recount shooting
In addition to Halls, jurors heard from other crew members who were inside the church at the time of the deadly shooting -- including Souza.
The director recalled the "chaotic" scene and confusion after he and cinematographer Halyna Hutchins were shot on the set.
"There was an incredibly loud bang that was not like the half and quarter loads you hear on the set," Souza said. "This was deafening."
Souza told the court it felt like somebody had hit his shoulder with a baseball bat.
"I still didn't quite know what had happened. Nothing made sense," he said.
He recalled seeing crew members helping Hutchins and didn't realize she had been wounded at first.
"I remember initially thinking she had been startled by it," he said. "Then I saw the blood on her back."
Dolly grip Ross Addiego testified that there was a "moment of panic" after the firearm unexpectedly went off.
"I think the first person I made eye contact with was with Halyna, who was clearly injured by whatever that gunshot was, that noise we just heard," he said, crying. "She was starting to go flush and I think holding her right side and then I think that Joel let out a scream or made some noise that you know to indicate he was also injured."
Addiego is involved in an ongoing civil case against the production over set safety. When asked by the defense if he was testifying for his personal gain, Addiego told the court, "I am hoping for justice."
"I am suing the people that are responsible for killing my friend and injuring a director," he said.
Ammo supplier denies providing live rounds
Kenney, the owner of PDQ, maintained he never provided the crew with live rounds for the film shoot -- a theory floated by the defense during the trial -- when he took the stand during the trial.
Kenney testified that he had been in constant contact with Gutierrez and prop master Sarah Zachry during the shoot of the Western and had supplied them with a single box of dummy rounds for a Colt .45 revolver on Oct. 12, 2021, nine days before the fatal on-set shooting.
Kenney denied that he ever sent any live ammunition to the set of "Rust."
Kenney testified that the dummy rounds he provided to "Rust" had just been used on the TV show "1883" and they had been brought over from the Texas filming location the night before he handed them over to Zachry. He claimed that before he handed the dummy ammunition over, he polished each round and rattled each one to make sure they were dummy rounds and not blanks or live ammunition.
"I do not send out any dummy round that doesn't rattle," he said.
Prosecutors said the live rounds found on the set did not match live ones seized from Kenney's business.
Experts say trigger had to be pulled on gun
Prosecutors told jurors at the onset of the trial that while they would refer to the firearms on set as prop guns, they were "legitimate firearms." The "Baldwin revolver," as it was commonly referred to during the trial, was a new, functioning firearm that was made to look old, prosecutors said.
Baldwin told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in December 2021 that he "didn't pull the trigger" on the firearm.
Two experts testified for the state that the trigger had to be pulled for the gun to fire.
FBI forensic examiner Bryce Ziegler testified that for the revolver to fire, the hammer would have needed to be fully cocked and the trigger pulled -- matching testimony from firearms expert Lucien Haag.
Ziegler testified that the revolver was in working order when he received it for testing and was able to fire it 12 times. He said he was only able to get the gun to fire without pulling the trigger after striking it with a mallet.
ABC News' Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
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