Lawyers for the woman responsible for the weapons on the set of the movie “Rust,” who is being tried in the United States in the case of the murder of photographer Halina Hutchins in 2021, in an accidental accident during the filming of the work, pointed to the responsibility of the actor and producer Alec Baldwin, who was carrying the weapon at the time of the shooting.
Hannah Gutierrez Reed’s defense team presented its first arguments during the trial held in Santa Fe (New Mexico).
Defense attorney Jason Bowles redirects blame to actor Alec Baldwin, who carried the gun during the filming of Rust, during opening arguments (AP)
Tragedy
Filming of the Western film “Rust” on a farm in the US state of New Mexico witnessed a tragedy on October 21, 2021, when Baldwin operated a weapon that supposedly contained caliber bullets, but live ammunition fired from the weapon caused the death of photographer Halina Hutchins (42 years old). Director Joel Souza was injured.
Like Alec Baldwin, who is supposed to be tried later, Gutierrez Reed (26 years old) is being prosecuted for manslaughter, a crime punishable by 18 months in prison.
Baldwin’s name was mentioned at the beginning of the opening sessions, which began yesterday, Thursday.
“Careless and unprofessional”
Jason Bowles, Gutierrez Reed’s defense agent, said, “Alec Baldwin, one of the main producers and hero of the work, was running the set,” adding, “You will hear during the trial that he violated some basic gun safety rules,” and continued, “He was the one who violated them, not Gutierrez Reed.”
The prosecution, for its part, began to portray Gutierrez Reed as a “negligent and unprofessional” person. Prosecutor Jason Lewis said the evidence added to the file “shows that the defendant treated safety protocols as if they were optional, not that people’s lives depended on her doing her job right.”
One of the issues that will be addressed during the trial, which is expected to last two weeks, is determining how live ammunition got inside the gun that Baldwin was carrying.
Live bullet
Prosecutors showed a photo of Gutierrez Reed that they confirmed showed a live bullet placed in her lap, more than a week before the incident.
“This indicates that the live ammunition could not have been provided by anyone other than Gutierrez,” Lewis said.
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But Jason Bowles cast doubt on this evidence, considering that distinguishing between a live bullet and a live bullet based on an image alone is impossible. The defense lawyer pointed out that there were gaps in the evidence collected by the investigators, stressing that the film’s producers wanted to make Gutierrez Reed a “scapegoat.” He stressed that Gutierrez Reed was responsible for two tasks during the filming of “Rust,” managing the weapons and assisting in charge of the accessories. He said “She had to focus on rolling cowboy cigarettes instead of devoting her time to gun safety.”
part time
He stressed that adopting a “part-time weapons official” to film a movie that contains a large number of scenes in which weapons are used is “a bad idea, but they adopted it.” The lawyer denounced the pressure from those responsible for production to film the work quickly, in a decision he considered to have been made out of motive. Greed.
The start date for Baldwin’s trial has not yet been set.
The actor (65 years old) denied that he pulled the trigger, and always stressed that he received assurances from those in charge of filming that his weapon was not loaded with live bullets.
Stop prosecutions
A first charge of manslaughter against Baldwin ended the prosecution in April, but the Public Prosecution indicated that “new elements” had emerged in the investigation.
In January, he was charged with manslaughter again, because a new evaluation of the weapon in question, conducted last summer, concluded that it could only be operated by pulling the trigger, according to Variety magazine.
