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6 months ago
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Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s trial for involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on October 21, 2021 could see an industry veteran take the stand later this week.
Mentioned repeatedly since Gutierrez-Reed’s long delayed trial started on February 22, the defendant’s stepfather Thell Reed was in the Santa Fe County courthouse Tuesday. Whether today or in the next few days, the defense plan on calling the Once Upon a Time …in Hollywood crew member as a part of its case, sources tell me.
With Gutierrez-Reed charged with involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering, and facing up to three years if found guilty, Reed’s testimony could be crucial for the defense. Lead defense Jason Bowles did not respond to request for comment on potential testimony by Reed.
Despite subsequent findings to the contrary by the FBI and independent investigators, Rust star/producer Alec Baldwin has always insisted he did not pull the trigger on the Colt .45 that killed Hutchins. As of over two and a half years after the shooting, no one has been able to definitively prove how live rounds got on the set of the indie Western – though there are plenty of theories.
An alum of flicks like Quentin Tarantino’s Oscar winning Once Upon a Time, 3:10 to Yuma, Django Unchained and L.A. Confidential, to a few over his multi-decade career, the acclaimed sharpshooter and gun coach has actually been mentioned frequently in the case since 2021 as well as this trial over the past two weeks. It was Reed’s long career and status in the industry that has been seen in no small part how Gutierrez-Reed got her first job as an armorer on the Nick Cage flick The Old Way and then Rust.
“She knows what to do,” Reed told ABC News of Gutierrez-Reed after the 2021 shooting that killed Hutchins and injured Rust director Joel Souza. “She does the job as good as I do now.” In that sit-down, Reed also postulated that there was “sabotage” involved on the Rust set. He added that if his stepdaughter had actually been in the church set during the rehearsal between Baldwin, Hutchins and others, the accident likely wouldn’t have occurred.
On March 4, Rust ammunition supplier Seth Kenney testified for the prosecution in part about his relationship with Reed, the industry vet’s skills and use of ammo that may have been used by Gutierrez-Reed.
Near the end of his testimony, PDQ Arm and Prop owner Kenney told Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer’s courtroom bluntly he believed the 81-year-old Reed was trying to pin the blame on him of how live ammo got on the Rust set. “Knowing Thell and having been friends with him for a few years at that point, I know how much he loves his daughter,” Kenney declared.
The prosecution having rested its case at the end of Monday’s session, the defense began its presentation this morning.
The first witness for the defense was Lorenzo Montoya, OSHA Compliance Officer who relatively new defense attorney Monnica Barreras questioned. Montoya was on the Rust set in the aftermath of the October 2021 shooting and was a key part of OSHA’s investigation of the accident. In his testimony today, Montoya told the court that the OSHA conclusion was “the management team was responsible for a series of failures that in our opinion culminated” in the shooting accident.
The defense attempted to use Montoya’s testimony to impress upon the jury that OSHA concluded Gutierrez-Reed was not provided “time to conduct her duties to the best of her diligence” and asked to “focus on other tasks” like working in the props department.
“Rust movie productions identified a hazard and adopted a firearm safety policy but totally failed to enforce,” Montoya asserted today. “They adopted it and stopped at the words adopted and nothing more happened.”
Back in 2022, the New Mexico OSHA office issued a civil penalty to Rust Productions for $136,793, which was reduced to $100,000 in early 2023 on protest from the indie Western’s producers.
Montoya also said Tuesday that Rust producers violated safety procedures by not giving Gutierrez-Reed the time or authority for proper firearms training for the actors and inventorying ammunition. In her deductive questioning, Barreras made sure the jury knew that Gutierrez-Reed’s expressed concerns about this went “unheeded and uncommented on” by first assistant director David Halls, who was ultimately supposed to be responsible for safety, and other vital management. The production was “indifferent” to the requirements and measures needed for the use of firearms, the OSHA official stated.
A witness for the prosecution, Halls took a plea deal in the Rust case, He declared no contest to a negligence misdemeanor charge, and was given six months probation, a $500 fine and ordered to take a safety class. Since retired from the industry after a long career, Halls now says he did not hand the gun to Baldwin that killed Hutchins – – though a number of witness, including Baldwin initially, say otherwise.
Fellow OSHA official Robert Genoway testified later that in his opinion Gutierrez-Reed was not given the proper authority nor time to do her armoror job. In a well-documented effort to say money, the producers on the $7 million budgeted Rust had Gutierrez-Reed doing double duty as armorer and as assistant to props master Sarah Zachery.
On cross of both Montoya and Genoway, the prosecution pointed out that OSHA does not conduct criminal investigations and they did not have access to police reports and other material. Both Montoya and Genoway agreed, but indicated it would not have altered the final OSHA report anyway.
Before the jury of five women and seven men were brought in Tuesday, Judge Sommer dealt with some self-described “housekeeping matters” and heard motions. In particular, the defense put forth a motion for a directed verdict based on what they cited as a lack of evidence by the prosecution.
Specifically, in what is a pretty standard move as a case shift from the prosecution to the defense the motion declared the case against the ex-armorer should be tossed because the state hadn’t been able to prove Gutierrez-Reed had brought the live ammunition on to the Rust set.
The judge denied that motion as well as an effort by the Special Prosecutors to remove the word “cocaine” from the evidence tampering charge against Gutierrez-Reed. After pressing uncertain witnesses hard the past few days on the evidence of the small bag of white powder Gutierrez-Reed allegedly had during Rust filming, the prosecution sought to have the term altered to the much more ambiguous “suspected controlled substance.” Knowing this has become a weak spot for the prosecution, with antidotal evidence at best, the defense objected. Judge Sommer denied the request and the specific “cocaine” remains on the charge.
As of right now, Judge Sommer and all parties anticipate the case going to the jury on March 8. That being a Friday and based on judicial precedent of sorts, there is some expectation that the jurors could come to a potentially quicker verdict to avoid having to come back next week.
Regardless of how long Gutierrez-Reed’s jury deliberates, Rust will be back in the Santa Fe County courthouse fairly soon. Alec Baldwin’s trial for involuntary manslaughter is scheduled to start on July 9. Having entered a plea of not guilty soon after being recharged this year, the Rust star/producer faces a potential 18 months behind bars and thousands in fines if found guilty.
The Santa Fe County courtroom was hearing from a private investigator for the defense before the trial just broke for lunch.
