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by Mick the Ram
The tragic shooting of 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a filmset back in 2021, has resulted in weapons handler Hannah Gutierrez-Reed being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
The incident occurred in October 2021 when Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin allegedly fired a gun that was loaded with live bullets and one round hit and tragically killed Ms Hutchins.
The 65-year-old Mr Baldwin was rehearsing a scene for the Western movie, Rust, in New Mexico and he too faces a manslaughter trial, which will begin in July of this year.
Prosecutors were able to prove that 26-year-old Ms Gutierrez-Reed had failed to ensure the weapon was only loaded with dummy rounds, and she now faces up to 18 months in prison; she will be sentenced at a later date.
Ms Gutierrez-Reed was found not guilty of a second charge – tampering with evidence.
Negligent and selfish accusations
Prosecutor Kari T Morrissey pointed to safety failures and highlighted negligence, carelessness, and thoughtlessness on Ms Gutierrez-Reed’s part, that had resulted in the tragic loss of life of Ms Hutchins.
The prosecution were also able to demonstrate that the accused had brought a box of live bullets from her California home and these live rounds had over the course of around 12 days, spread throughout the set.
They also suggested that Ms Gutierrez-Reed was “more worried about her career and less about the victim” in the aftermath of the shooting.
Went “off-script”
Her defence lawyer, Mr Jason Bowles, told the jury his client did not know that there were real bullets on set and he laid the blame at Mr Baldwin’s hands, arguing that he had “gone off-script” when he pointed the gun at film crew.
“It was not in the script for Mr Baldwin to point the weapon, she didn’t know that he was going to do what he did,” he said. This was backed up by script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell, who confirmed that Mr Baldwin was NOT required to fire a gun in the scene he was rehearsing.
Frantic attempts to save victim
The jury was also shown harrowing footage of the immediate scenes following the shot being fired. It included a video that appeared to show Ukrainian-born Ms Hutchins’ final moments, with paramedics frantically trying to save her life.
Despite their best efforts and a desperate helicopter transfer to hospital, she sadly died of her injury.
No emotion
Jurors deliberated for around three hours before returning their guilty involuntary manslaughter verdict, although they did find Ms Gutierrez-Reed not guilty of evidence tampering, stemming from accusations that she attempted to dispose of a small bag of narcotics after the shooting.
Ms Gutierrez-Reed remained expressionless throughout the reading of the verdict, but as she was led away by two officers she was heard to remark to her tearful mother: “It’ll be OK.”
Family want additional guilty verdict
Watching on were Ms Hutchins’ family and they said they were “satisfied” and followed that up by stating quite pointedly: “We look forward to the justice system continuing to make sure that everyone else who is responsible for Halyna’s death is required to face the legal consequences for their actions.”
That appeared to be a veiled dig towards Alec Baldwin, who despite a mountain of evidence, actually denies pulling the trigger and as such, has pleaded not guilty to his own involuntary manslaughter charge. He is expected to go on trial in July.
Not quite full co-operation
The Hollywood movie giant was also a co-producer of the film, Rust, and plays its lead role as an outlaw whose 13-year-old grandson, ironically is convicted of manslaughter.
His immediate public reaction to the incident was one of being horrified and said he would be “fully co-operating with the police investigation”.
That didn’t quite transpire when despite obtaining a search warrant, he refused to make his phone available to the police, arguing that although he had nothing to hide, he didn’t want certain things that were personal to him being seen.
“They can’t just go through your phone and take your photos, or your love letters to your wife, or what have you; that is a process that takes time.” He then maintained that “Of course we are going to comply 1000% with all that.”
Seemingly his interpretation of compliance differs somewhat from that of others. No doubt he will have his opportunity to put forward his version of events at his trial.
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