Law&Crime Sidebar - How Alec Baldwin's 'Rust' Armorer Caused the Death of Halyna Hutchins - The Full Story

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on the set of Alec Baldwin’s movie “Rust” in 2021. The film production’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for her negligent actions that led to Hutchins’ death. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down all the evidence that led to Gutierrez’s conviction.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that will

keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Ms. Gutierrez-Reed loaded a firearm that killed my friend and injured a director. Do you agree that when you pulled that firearm out and pointed it in the direction of the judge, The deputy standing next to you had to intervene and grab the gun and point it down. I want to object. Whoever put the live round I set and then Mr. Baldwin in the end going off script and doing what he did. Those are outside events outside of Ms. Gutierrez-Reed's control.

My dad's the best one of the best armor is in the entire world and he trained me and I'm a failure. From revealing footage of actor Alec Baldwin to tense witness testimony to powerful legal arguments, this. is the full recap for the criminal trial of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armor on the set of the movie Rust, who is charged with involuntary manslaughter for the shooting death of cinematographer Helena Hutchins. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

We have come to the end of the Hannah Gutierrez-Reed trial, the armor who is charged with involuntary manslaughter, and tampering with evidence in connection with the October 20th, 21st, 2021 tragic shooting death of cinematographer Helena Hutchins on the Rust movie set out in New Mexico. And we remember that that day, a live round was discharged from an 1880s era prop gun that was being handled by actor and producer on the film Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal in a church. Now, Baldwin himself has also been criminally charged with involuntary manslaughter, too. He's set to go to trial in July.

But our focus right now is on the trial of Gutierrez-Reed. And we want to do a full recap from beginning to end, including the jury's decision and how they got there. So if you miss something, this is your opportunity to check it all out. Okay. We are going to start off with opening statements, right? Now, this is both the prosecution and the defense previewing their cases to this jury of seven men and five women. Now, remember, this is not evidence. This is the opportunity to provide a roadmap, a guide of where this case is going to go.

But here is Jason Lewis to start it off for the prosecution. What we want to do is give you the information that you need to answer two key questions. The first being, what are the events that happened on the set of rust that led to the death of Helena Hutchins? And the second question is, how did live ammunition end up on the set of the movie? As to both questions, we believe that it was the negligent acts and failures of the defendant, Ms. Gutierrez, that resulted in both the acts that contributed to Ms. Hutchins' death and to the live rounds being brought on to the set. So let me lay this out for you. The prosecution had two alternative theories for involuntary manslaughter, both rooted in negligence, but two theories by which the jury could find.

Ms. Gutierrez-Reed guilty. The first is that she endangered the safety of another by handling a gun in a negligent manner. The alternative theory is that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed loaded live ammunition into that firearm and or failed to perform an adequate safety check of the firearm. Now, either way, she should have known the danger. She acted with willful disregard for the safety of others,

that she was a substantial cause of the death of Elena Hutchins. So even if the jury is undecided as to whether she handed the weapon over directly to Alec Baldwin herself, there's been some debate and conflicting accounts about that. And even if the jury doesn't believe that she was the one who loaded the live ammunition into that gun, if they feel that she failed to properly check that gun, she could be found guilty. So this gives the prosecution a lot of leeway, a lot of room for the jury to convict her. But now let's move over to the defense. Here is Jason Bowles.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we are privileged our team to represent Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. He's sitting over here. And we're here because of a tragedy. There's no doubt. There was a tragic occurrence on that movie set. But let me tell you something you already know. Just because there was a tragedy does not mean that a crime was committed. It does not mean that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed caused the crimes they have charged her with.

And we are going to, through the course of this case, show you that production and the state have both very early on sought to make Hannah Gutierrez-Reed a scapego. That's what this is about. And as you're going to see, the defense is going to focus on their theory that it wasn't that their client failed to do her job, but that it was impossible for her to do her job. that management and production messed up, that she couldn't do what she needed to do. Alec Baldwin went off script. He was an intervening cause for what happened when he fired the weapon, allegedly fired the weapon. But that is the defense's argument. But now let's move on to the prosecution's case.

It is their burden to prove this. They have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is guilty of involuntary manslaughter and guilty of tampering with evidence. We're going to get into that in a minute. But one of the things we heard was the defendant herself made some interesting admissions in her conversations with law enforcement. Like, here was Hannah Gutierrez-Reed right after the shooting. This was her caught on body cam from an officer. I just kind of wish that any of my coworkers could stop seeing me because I already feel super bad. I don't want to go back.

Okay. I just wanted to go out of here and never show my face in this industry every. I'm, like, the only female armor in the game, and I just f*** up my whole entire career. Have you studied armory, or did you go to classes, or how did you get into it? My dad's the best one of the best armor is in the entire world. They trained me, and I'm a failure. In my view, this helped the prosecution establish that Gutierrez-Reed knew from the beginning that she messed up, that this was her fault. Now, of course, just because she feels responsible doesn't mean that she is legally responsible.

But I tell you what, let's continue on with some statements that the defendant made in follow-up conversations and interviews with investigators. I went back through a bag that I had. This bag had, like, a bunch of loose dummies in it. And I went through, and I checked all of them, and I put them into two boxes. And so we had two boxes of 45 long cool dummies that were mine from the last show originally. Yeah. Okay. And I just brought those off of the old way, and they were in my car.

for like two weeks. I jumped right off of the old way into this. I was barely home for like a week. But he told you to check your supply. Yeah. And what you had to take it. Yeah. So you authorized you to bring.

He authorized me to bring, yeah, don't know. Now, to be clear, in case you missed that, she admitted that she took ammunition from another production, rounds that she left in her car for two weeks, and then put them in boxes for the Russ set. Prosecution saying that is not proper safety protocol here. And there's more. This one is exactly what it looked like was in there.

Okay. And that one doesn't have any hole. The last time, yeah. Honestly, that box of dummies might have some wonky ones in it. And we got that, I think, a week ago. Have you ever in your history of working encountered by rounds on the side? Never.

Okay. And how do you know that? Because every dummy I've ever shaken has been a dummy and the other ones have holes in the side and I've never experienced the round that look like a dummy and behave like a blank or anything. So, yeah, I am shaking all of them most of the time. Admits that there might be some wonky ones, says she shakes for the rounds to check to see if there are dummies most of the time. Again, you shake a dummy, it rattles. That

lets you know it can't be fired. That's what we learned during the course of this trial. But all of this, the bigger picture is, is when you show this sloppiness, it goes to that negligence component. It goes, more importantly, to the foreseeability argument, that there were so many problems that were happening, so many mistakes, she should have known that the shooting of Helena Hutchins could have happened. We're going to get to more of that in a minute, But there is also the question, and what this also raises is the idea of where did these live rounds come from? Where did the live round come from that was put into that gun? Now, the prosecution argued and suggested that it came from Gutierrez-Reed.

They don't necessarily have to prove that, but it would definitely help their case. The defense suggested this actually came from the weapons and ammo supplier, Seth Kenney, of PDQ ammo and prop. but then listen to lead investigator Alexandra Hancock. The live ammunition that you seized from PDQ props, what did you do with it? We submitted all the live ammunition for testing with the FBI. And did you receive information that the live ammunition from PDQ didn't match the live ammunition on the set of rest? That's correct. It didn't match at all. Which brings us to the testimony of Seth Kenny himself, the ammo supplier.

Sir, did you provide any live ammunition to the set of rest? No. Did you ever give any live ammunition to Sarah Zachary? No. Have you seen photos of the live ammunition that was found on the set of rest? I have. Did you possess any ammunition? that looked like that?

No. So it definitely helps the prosecution's argument to suggest that the ammunition didn't come from Seth Kenney, but maybe it came from Hannah Gutierrez-Reed if she has all these rounds all over the place. Now, under cross-examination about the rounds of ammunition,

things got a bit tense between Seth Kenny and Jason Bowles, the defense attorney. You said, as you're on the phone, I'm like, oh God, Well, I mean, still trying. Damn. Do you recall saying that? Vaguely, yes. You also recall saying, you said it twice.

He said, well, she still didn't do her effing job. Do you recall saying that? That sounds like me. Why did you say that? I think I was worried that it was going to be some of these rounds that that Thale had given to Troy Teske and had been using, you know, to shoot, right, shooting live rounds, that somehow they migrated in some of Thales' leather or, you know, through Hannah in some way.

So you just gave a long explanation and you just kind of blamed, try to blame Hannah in that. didn't you just know how did I do that you gave the implication that you were worried that this was going to be some that Bill had and Troy was shoot and again that that's to try to link it to Hannah isn't it no no just telling you my thought process at that point trying to figure out where did this where did the rust live ammunition come from

and you recall after that that you wanted to fire Ms. Cuterres Reed it wasn't that I wanted her fired because it wouldn't be for me to fire her she can tell me to go to hell all day long and it wouldn't make a difference to the rust production my question was pretty simple and let me ask it again

you just testified that you did not want to get rid that you did not want to fire Hannah? Is that your testimony? It's not that I wanted her fired. She was doing a horrible job at props. That was an issue. Okay, you answered my question, and I just want to know. I see, it's a real... I had mixed feelings about it. Do you recall in your interview on November 1st stating she was just being an idiot, I wanted, I wanted Sarah, to get rid of her. Collectively, yes.

I mean, you know, even now, frustrated with her, but at the same time, you know, understand, well, you know, what she's up against. So it's a mixed bag of emotions. So there's this whole back and forth about the ammunition, but the bigger question is, who loaded the gun? Here's Sarah Zachary, the Rust Prop Master.

Did Ms. Gutier's leave, walk away from the cart, Mr. Baldwin's gun? Yes. And who put the dummies in Mr. Baldwin's gun? Hannah. Again, for the prosecution to prove involuntary manslaughter, they need to show that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed

loaded that weapon and or failed to check it. But something with Sarah Zachary, we have to talk about. She is someone who actually threw out the rounds that were on the set after the shooting. And the defense questioned her pretty hard about that. Didn't you have a disagreement with Ms. Gutierrez-Reed? A small one, yes. Did you thereafter have discussions with people about wanting to fire Hannah?

I didn't want to fire her. I had my disagreements with her, but I never actually fired her or wanted to. Okay, you said you didn't want to fire her? No. do you recall being interviewed on november 2nd 2023 in this case yes and you were asked the question okay did you want to fire her your answer is yes during the time that you worked with miss gutierrez as her supervisor in props did she call you a ct yes was it around that time that you decided you might want to fire her?

No, it was just overall. So, is she the most credible person? That is obviously something for the jury to consider. I got to say, I was very impressed with the lawyering in this case from both sides, presenting strong arguments with a tough, tough set of facts. I always like to call out great lawyers. And you know, who are experts in the law? Morgan and Morgan, they are our great partner.

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But what about handing the gun to Alec Baldwin for that rehearsal in the church when the gun went off? Now, we always believe that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed had handed the gun to Dave Halls, the assistant director, who actually ended up pleading no contest to the charge of negative. negligent handling of a firearm, served six months unsupervised parole, but when Dave Halls took the stand, he said something very, very interesting. First, says that Gutierrez-Reed really didn't do the proper safety check of the gun, and he was to blame too, but that she was the one who handed the gun to Baldwin.

You indicated that you only saw three or four, you didn't see six. I don't recall her fully rotating the cylinder. Okay. You don't recall her fully rotating it? I do that. Okay. And even though the cylinder wasn't fully rotated, did you let that safety check sort of pass?

I did. Okay. Were you criminally charged in this case? I was. Yes. And did you enter a no contest plea to negligent use of a firearm? I did. I was negligent checking the gun properly.

And Ms. Guderis appeared on my left-hand side with the revolver, and she said, let's do the gun check. She opened up the latch to show the drum of the revolver. She rotated the cylinder. It was empty. checked the barrel it was what was referred to as a cold gun

and Miss Goodyear's just took a few steps and gave the gun to Mr. Wallen Jason Bowles, the defense attorney, took major issue with that. Isn't it true that you handed that firearm to Mr. Baldwin? It's not true.

Do you know that your account conflicts with Mr. Baldwin's? I am aware of that. And do you know that it conflicts with Ms. Gutier's reef? I am aware of that, but I, however, in Mr. Baldwin's initial statement with Detective Hancock, hours, a few hours after the incident on October 21st, when asked the question, who handed him the gun, he said Hannah did like she always did. And after that, he changed Instead, you had handed it to him, right? Yeah, yes. By the way, talking about the actual shooting,

I have to highlight the testimony of Ross Adiego. He was the dolly grip on the set. He was there when Helena was shot. I think Alec had drawn it once to kind of audition what he thought his action should be for Joel. And then he drew it again. and it went off. Instantly, I mean, a firearm went off

in a small wooden church. So the concussion, ears ringing, that moment of panic in everybody, I think the first person I made eye contact with was Selena. He would explain that he believed Gutierrez-Reed loaded that gun and that this was not a case of sabotage, like someone deliberately planted live ammunition in the gun when she wasn't looking.

Now, what made his testimony really interesting is when he talked about other accidental discharges on that set. Can you describe the first accidental discharge that you recall happening? We were outside of the character Rust's cabin, and I don't know if she was loading or unloading a handgun. but unannounced to any of the crew that firearm discharged. So we considered that a negligent discharge. It made a bang, but it didn't, you know, I don't know if there was a bullet or not,

because I don't know if it hit her foot, but it certainly made a loud noise that spooked us and the animals we had on set. Have you ever experienced an accidental discharge on another movie? I don't know that I have. Again, goes to that foreseeability and responsibility issue. She should have made sure this wasn't happening. And the fact that it was, she should have acted with more care to prevent the shooting of Helena. So again, it's negligent handling of the firearm, but also failing to show due caution or circumspection.

That's what we're talking about with involuntary manslaughter. Now, sticking with Mr. Adiego, he had some very heated exchanges with Mr. Bowles as well. You've sued Rust Production and Alec Baldwin, haven't you? I have. You what? Yes. You have a pending lawsuit right now, don't you?

As far as I know, it's pending, yes, sir. You've sued Alec Baldwin and Rust Production, but you have not sued Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, have you? Again, you'd have to talk to my counsel about who I've actually sued. Have you read the lawsuit? I perused it. You perused it. What does that mean? Did you read all the paragraphs, or did you just read page one and just said, knock yourself out, lawyer, go ahead.

I think I got past page one, but since I'm not in your industry, I don't understand what a lot of that is, and I trust my counsel to represent me. It seems like you're making a lot of opinions earlier in what armors do. You file the lawsuit. Let me ask you this. Are you hoping that you can come in and testify here today and something happens to Ms. Gutierrez-Reed, you can, it'll help your lawsuit? I'm hoping for justice, sir. Two people were injured on a film set. That has not only affected me, that has affected the film industry. And you want money for that? I want justice. Ms. Gutierrez-Reed loaded a firearm that killed my friend and injured a director. Speaking of Alec Baldwin firing the weapon,

remember, Alec Baldwin was originally charged with involuntary manslaughter. Those charges were dropped. Then they refiled because our understanding is there was a retesting of forensics and ballistics an FBI analyst testified more about this did you form an opinion about whether the handler would have to pull the trigger of the gun to make the gunfire my opinion is that the only reason this occurred is because of the breakage so in order to move the trigger away from the hammer that's typically accomplished by pulling the trigger. So in this case, the only way that was possible is because the trigger actually fractured. Okay. So in order for you, just so that

we're clear, in order for you to make the gun fire without pulling the trigger, when it was in the full-cock position you had to break it that's that's what I had to do in my lab I can't account for all the other possibilities that may have existed in you know some hypothetical scenario but this is the result as I tested in my laboratory it would not fire without pulling the trigger in the full-cock setting without being broken that is so important this witness the prosecution's argument that the only way under these circumstances this gun could go off is if the trigger was pulled. You know why that's particularly bad for Alec Baldwin?

Because he previously told George Stephanopoulos in an ABC interview, he did not pull the trigger. And focusing on this shooting a little bit more, we also heard from Joel Sousa, the director of Rust, who was actually hit with that projectile that struck and killed Helena Hutchins. There was an incredibly loud bang that was not like the half and quarter loads you hear on a set. Those are sort of, they're loud poofs and pops. This was deafening.

And it felt like somebody had taken a baseball bat to my shoulder. I remember that distinctly and sort of stumbling back and shouting. I don't remember exactly what I said. were you able to see miss hutchins at that time i did i i remember sort of stumbling back and i either fell to my knees or i was sitting and i distinctly remember her being lowered to the ground people had her sort of by either side. And I still didn't quite know what had happened. Nothing made sense. And then I, I saw the blood on her back. And to the best of your recollection, what happened after that? Um, it got very chaotic. Um, I remember them,

laying me down. I remember them laying her down next to me. Although we were sort of facing in opposite directions, my head was this way, her head was that way. I remember a lot of panic. And sir, do you know whether Ms. Gutierrez was inside the church at the time that the gun went off? I don't know. in your experience would you have had an expectation that she would have been in the church yeah the armor would be where the gun is just absolutely chilling testimony from a guy who was not only there when helena was shot but he was shot himself now i got to tell you some of the most important testimony for the prosecution it came from a firearms expert brian carpenter

Now, this is a man who said he worked on 100 movie sets, worked as an armorer, and he reviewed all of this footage from behind the scenes of rust, and he noted all of the safety problems, and he criticized Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's failures. In your experience, should the armor ever leave a gun with anyone else and leave the area? Not a live weapon, no. And when I say live, I mean a weapon capable of firing a round or a blank. Do you see anything concerning in this video?

The number one thing is muzzle discipline. That performer, that stunt performer, I'm assuming that's a stunt performer out there, has got what appears to be live weapons, and he's got zero muzzle discipline. He's holding the shotgun, and if you'll back it up to the beginning, he points it almost directly at, I believe it's Joel Sousa. How is Ms. Gutier is supposed to be responsible for what this actor is doing with this gun? Well, from what I can see from the camera angles is I don't know if she's present here and it appears that they have live weapons out without her presence.

If she were present, I would ask that she, well, I would think that she would tell that performer that you need to put that weapon pointed down at the ground if she's standing there with him. Did you see anything noteworthy in that clip? Muscle discipline, but more importantly, there was a weapon exchange that occurred with, I didn't see a safety check between those weapons. And did you just see Ms. Gutier's come into the frame? I did. Okay, she's carrying the double-billed shotgun, it looks like.

Muzzle end up. Is that a proper way to carry that gun? It is not. Is that a safe way to carry that gun? It is not. And you see the stunt performer in the rear swinging that hand. gun around, which was what I was watching. He was actually pointing. He was talking and pointing with his firearm. I know I sound like a broken record, but it goes back to foreseeability. In order to

prove manslaughter, she should have known with all of this going on that a tragic shooting could have occurred. This was not a one-off, but a symptom of a larger problem. Now, Carpenter, he also commented specifically on footage of Alec Baldwin, too. One more, one more, one more, one more. I forgot the recoil. Right away, right away, let's reload. Here we go. So Helena, hi.

Hi. What? Here we go, come on. Well, I had to go closer to the Danny did, so you want. Okay, I can't do. We should have two guns and both were reloading. conduct that we're seeing on the part of Mr. Baldwin, is that typical conduct from an actor on a movie set? No. Why not? Well, number one, he's basically instructing the

armor how to do their job at that point. This is that moment. This is that moment I spoke about earlier. This is that moment that you need to stop and say, no, I'm not going to hurry up. I'm going to slow down. And we don't need to be, you know, passing off weapons this fast or loading guns as fast. This is creating an unsafe and nerve-wracking situation to lack to describe it a more layman's terms. When you drop your arm, that means he's 10 feet away. I can't see how close it. I want to be almost up by the time he gets in. No, I'm going to go into this. Well, let me show you something. Hold on. Step back to your original mark. So 1-1-000, 2-1-thousand-3, I'm getting up. Then when he drops his arm, Helena, get out of it, he drops his arm. That means

Brady's close. I'm going to start to really get up. Okay. He's doing what we saw previously in one of the other videos with the stunt performer. He's using the weapon as a pointing stick as his finger. When Mr. Baldwin behaves this way and is using the revolver as a pointer, what is the responsibility on the part of Ms. Gutierrez? To intercede and correct any unsafe behavior. Now, obviously, again, we're talking about the nuances of doing it. I would start off pulling him aside or talking to him individually

and say, you know, if we could, let's be careful with that, Muslim. Now, Hattacutierrez-Reed's team, they raised the defense that she was a young, female, inexperienced armor, would be very hard for her to stop the production, hard for her to stand up to a Hollywood actor like Alec Baldwin, who was also the producer on the film. But here is Brian Carpenter's response to that. Does her lack of experience, in your opinion,

change the amount of responsibility she has as the armor around the movie set? Once you take on the responsibility of safety for another person, you take on a responsibility of making sure that you do what's necessary, even if it's inconvenient, even if it's not in your best interest. And if that isn't something that you feel capable of doing,

that you should never step into that position. into that position. Pretty powerful, pretty powerful. And on that same vein, we heard from line producer Gabrielle Pickle, another important witness. Now, you could see these looks that were exchanged between the defendant and her when she was testifying and when she was leaving the stand. I will tell you, my personal view, no love loss between these two. Let's see why.

So, let me stop you. So when she asked you for additional armorer days, you gave them. to her. Yes. Did you actually double the number of armorer days that she was originally scheduled for? Yes. So I think you just testified that she had 10 armorer days total. Is that right? That is to my, the best of my recollection, yes. At any point in time, did you express concerns to Ms. Gutierrez that she was leaving firearms unattended? I did in an email and then in person. That is big.

That is big because the defense suggested that she wasn't given what she was needed to ensure the set was safe. A set that we learned had live ammunition on the prop cart, accidental discharges, actors holding weapons the wrong way. But according to Gabrielle Pickle, that might not be the case. There she might have been given everything she needed. Well, finally, the prosecution also focused on the drug. drug use and the tampering with evidence charge. I mean, there were these messages that were extracted from Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's phone.

It's, uh, L.O.L. I don't need that tonight anyways. Right on, I might go smoke in the jacuzzi soon, but maybe not, I'm so poop. At 748 and 46 seconds, uh, p.m. local time. Okay. And, uh, can you read that for us? It says, headed down to get high, out back, colon B. So the idea that she was smoking the night before the shooting, you couple that with a sloppy set, accidental discharges, all of these safety issues, the prosecution really beefing up that negligence. But getting back to this, the defendant was not only charged with involuntary manslaughter, but she was also charged with tampering with evidence.

she was accused of trying to get a crew member to hide a bag of cocaine after the shooting. And we heard from that Russ crew member herself, Rebecca Smith. Were you present at the hotel, the evening of October 21st, 2021? Yes, ma'am. And at some point that evening, did you go to Ms. Gutier's hotel room? Yes. Did anything unusual happen when you left Ms. Gutier's room? Yes. She asked me if I could hold on to something for her.

I said yes. She put it in my hand and I walked out as there was a knock on the door. And after you left the room, did you look to see what she had placed in your hand? Yes. It was a clear Ziploc baggie with a green, small Ziploc baggie inside and there was powder inside the green baggy. What color was the powder? White. When you were a younger person, did you have an opportunity to use the drug cocaine? Yes, ma'am. I'm a recovering addict.

Are you familiar with what cocaine looks like? Yes, ma'am. Are you familiar with the way that cocaine is packaged? Yes, ma'am. Um, based on that experience, what did you believe to be in the bag? I believed it to be cocaine. And what did you do with it? I threw it in the hallway trash can before even going downstairs to my hotel.

Now, she ended up throwing it out because she was a recovering addict, and she also said that she was offended, upset at the position that Gutierrez-Reed had put her in. Prosecution eventually wrapped up their case, and then it was time for the defense. to put on their case. And one of the things they focused on was a report from OSHA, the Occupational Safety Health Administration. And this was something that the prosecution

actually tried to get tossed from the trial. They didn't want the jury to hear about it. So Lorenzo Montoya, the safety inspector from OSHA, took the stand, and his findings were crucial for the defense. Montoya, in your report, did you conclude

whether Hannah was provided with enough time to inventory and inspect dummy rounds and blinks. That was one of our conclusions, yes. So what were your conclusions with respect to whether Ms. Gutiades was provided enough time to inventory and inspect the dummy rounds from her employer? We came to the conclusion that she was not afforded time to conduct her duties to the best of her diligence. And who didn't give her enough time to do that? She had been instructed by Gabrielle Pickle to focus on other tasks. And did Rust, did you determine whether Rust had any process to ensure that live rounds were not brought on to set?

We determined that Rust did not have any specific processes or procedures to prevent that possibility. And why was it that that was not, that that was on the employer? in your opinion versus the armor in that manner the employer is asking an individual to perform multiple safety-related functions for them while also telling them that they're spending too much time engaging in those safety-related functions and need to devote more time to other duties and on that matter we determined that to do maybe a managerial decision. What was, in total, bottom line here,

the root cause that you found? To summarize the entire report would be that Rust movie productions identified a hazard, a workplace hazard, working with firearms, and they adopted a firearm, safety policies, but they totally failed to enforce them, train their employees on them, practice them, reference them, nothing.

They adopted it, and it stopped at the word adoption. Nothing further happened. That's huge for the defense, because in other words, after a six-month-long investigation, the blame was centered on the management team of Rust that Gutierrez-Reed was not given the authority or the opportunity to correct all of these safety issues on set. and they didn't do enough to correct themselves all the problems that were happening on the set. Now, there were some issues with this report and these findings because this is an investigation from an independent civil agency, different from a criminal investigation. Also, Montoya conceded that while they interviewed over a dozen people, Gabrielle Pickle, the line producer who testified that she did afford the defendant more armor days, she was not one of the people that they interviewed.

But moving on, the defense also called private investigator Scott Elliott to the stand. And he was called to talk about all the lapses in the actual investigation of the shooting. Can you tell the jury, do you have any conclusions about the quality of the investigation by the sheriffs at the scene? Yeah, some of that was reached by my own observations and some of it through interviews of the deputies on the scene. and I felt like their response was probably not what it should be. Yes, there were hundreds of people on that ranch, but if you narrow it down to who was in the church at the time of the shooting and who may have had involvement with the case,

for example, the people that are just outside. There was really about 20 people. The first responding deputies, their job is first, of life, and then it is preservation of evidence and identifying witnesses and possible suspects. In this case, it was known very quickly who the shooter was, but it wasn't known who the witnesses were. And those witnesses, once they were identified, they should have been segregated so they couldn't talk among themselves. You also want to, those individuals, since you are preserving evidence, you also want to secure the evidence.

their cell phones. Now, in this case, in the materials you reviewed, did it appear to you that Mr. Baldwin was segregated? Not at all. And along with the conclusion, you just stated, did it appear that his cell phone was taken from him? No, it was not. Mr. Elliott, did it appear to you that at any time at the scene that day, Mr. Baldwin was segregated? He was not. Now, Carrie Morrissey, the special prosecutor in this case. She fired back on cross-examination, highlighting that whatever problems or mistakes there were in the investigation, it didn't really matter in this case. One of the things that she highlighted was, and this was highlighted by Mr. Elliott, a concern of his, was that if someone had touched the firearm without gloves, normally that would be an issue of DNA

contamination, does it really matter here? Because we already know that Alec Baldwin fired that gun, or held that gun, I should say. But he is not even close. to arguably the most controversial witness we heard in this trial. This was a firearms expert, who I will tell you, took some perhaps warranted heat, including from the judge, for how he took out an empty revolver in the courtroom and at one point pointed it at the judge. You're going to hear the prosecution jump on this too. Mr. Kuski, are you able to take the cylinder out so you can show everyone also that it's unloaded?

Yes, I can. okay and here is an annex revolver all right first of all everybody's nervous because you have not demonstrated to us that they're unloaded so before you start showing us the weapons make sure they're unloaded including that one that you just touched. Mr. Kuski, do you agree with me that basic gun safety requires that the handler of the gun not point the gun at anyone?

If it's a real gun, yes. Do you agree with me that while you were sitting here in the courtroom you pulled out a gun and you pointed it at the judge? I do not. Do you agree that when you pulled that firearm out and pointed it in the direction of the judge, the deputy standing next to you had to intervene and grab the gun and point it down? I want to object.

Yeah, the deputy had to point the gun down when this witness took it out. I mean, I don't know. Maybe not the best look for a case where the defendant is accused of not police. that very conduct on a set that resulted in an accidental discharge killing someone. But moving on, we eventually came to closing arguments. Last attempt by both sides to summarize their case for the jury, their last pitch at a guilty verdict or acquittal. First up, prosecution.

And you are going to hear, Ms. Morrissey, really honing in on that foreseeability element that due to everything going on, the defendant should have known something like this could have happened and the responsibility theme too that this was hannah gutierrez reid's job to be the last line of defense to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen these videos if you recall that were taken by production outfitters they were taken on october 13th of 2021 what these demonstrate to you is that miss gutierrez was unwilling to to maintain proper firearm safety repeatedly. And it's really important because this is not a case

where Hannah Gutier has made one mistake and that one mistake was accidentally putting a live round into that gun, that's not what this case is about. This case is about constant, never ending safety failures that resulted in the death of a human being and nearly killed another. She left the gun in the church contrary to all the industry standards for armors on movie sets, for firearms safety on movie sets, and she went back out to her cart so that she could start doing other armor duties.

She's getting her fanny pack filled up. Well, we've seen that. She's filling it with blanks. She just leaves the gun in there. As you heard from many witnesses, she would leave guns unattended all the time. The astonishing lack of diligence with regard to gun safety is without question a significant cause of the death of Helena Hutchins. Did Mr. Baldwin also contribute when he pointed the gun? at people and pulled the hammer back and regardless of what he said to George Stephanopoulos pulled the trigger. Yes, he is. And again, we'll deal with that another time. You don't escape accountability when you load a live round into a prop gun. Tell the crew

that it has dummy rounds in it, hand it off to an actor and leave the room because he, He manipulated it? That's the whole point. That was the whole point to him having it. Of course, he was going to manipulate it. It's foreseeable. She also focused on the tampering with evidence charge. Again, this idea that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed passed off a bag of cocaine to a crew member after the shooting.

After the interview, Hannah goes back to her hotel. Rebecca Smith goes to Hannah's room, and Rebecca Smith is the. person that tells Hannah that Helena Hutchins has now died. And you have to understand, in the mind of Hannah Gutierrez, this investigation went from this big to this big, because the difference between shooting someone and them living and shooting someone and them dying is a really, really big difference. So she is told by Rebecca Smith, investigation just got giant and very, very serious.

So after receiving that information, she offloads this bag of cocaine to Rebecca Smith. Rebecca Smith is a lady that's lived a life. She's used cocaine before, many years previous, but she's used cocaine. She knows what it looks like. She knows how it's packaged. And because she's a former addict, she tosses it in a trash can.

When Mr. Bowles gets up here and says, I can't prove to you that it's cocaine, remember that when people destroy evidence to avoid prosecution, you don't have the evidence that they destroyed. They got rid of it. So I don't have to prove to you by some scientific, drug test. I don't have to send that to the lab and get it tested. It's gone. That's the point to the charge. All right, some strong arguments there, but now let's see how the defense

responded. They singled her out on that set. They singled her out and they rushed to judge on her and that's what you've seen ever since. Ms. Morrissey says, a camera crew, and she mocks things that we raise as possibilities on the idea that none of it can be possible, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed is guilty. She also sat there when Ms. Zachary was on the stand, and Ms. Zachary, I'll remind you, got an immunity agreement. Ms. Zachary was promised she would never be prosecuted. And Ms. Morrissey stands up and says,

there's no evidence against Ms. Zachary. Well, then why would she give them an immunity agreement? Why would she need immunity if there's nothing against Ms. Zachary? Sarah Zachary, I remind you, she threw away rounds on set after the shooting, took items off the prop card. She worked for Seth, Kenny, and she texted and called him right after the shooting. One of her texts, she indicated she had said she was talking to Alec Baldwin and trying to keep her facts straight. She mentioned that she had loaded firearms on set. She picked up ammunition from Kenny at PDQ.

I'll remind you in the testimony that Sarah Zachary and Hannah Gutier's Reed went to Kenny's place before production started, and he had given them ammunition, leathers, and firearms. So again, we don't know exactly what Mr. Kenney may have supplied to this set because it's not inventoried, it's not all that invoiced. I also remind you about Sarah Zachary when you're considering her credibility and her testimony. and her testimony, she had the text where she wanted Hannah to go to jail and she's given complete immunity. What it means is that what Hannah Gutierrez did had to be a foreseeable result,

but again, that caused her death. But again, without her knowing that there was a live round, that's impossible to meet that standard. She did not have that knowledge and there's no witness that came in here in this courtroom in two weeks to say she had that knowledge. Without it, nothing she did. She has that willful disregard because she just doesn't know. Now, was there an outside event as well?

There was an outside event. There's two outside events. Whoever put the live round on set and then Mr. Baldwin in the end going off script and doing what he did. Those are outside events outside of Ms. Gutierrez-Reed's control that she didn't know. She could not anticipate what Baldwin would do was not in the script. It was not foreseeable. Management was responsible for safety failures and not Hannah. There's zero evidence of cocaine. There's no testing.

And again, I go back to the idea that Hannah is a scapegoat for all the management failures. They do hope she gets convicted, so they're all exonerated. They can move forward. They can finish that movie, like Mr. Sousa said they did, make their money but as he also told you the buck always stops with production and it's their responsibility in any organization it goes from the top down and that's where the responsibility lies in this case that's what OSHA said and that's also the truth and the truth is important because justice

for Helena does not mean injustice for Hannah. She's the scapegoat. She couldn't predict what Alec Baldwin would do by deciding to allegedly fire the weapon. It was management's responsibility. We don't have the full answers about who's telling the truth, the potential sabotage, or how the live rounds came on the set. This is all reasonable doubt. Now, let us be clear about what the jury could do here. So, they could have found her guilty or not guilty of involuntary manslaughter, they have to be unanimous in their decision. Or if they were unanimous that she was not guilty of involuntary manslaughter, they could then find her guilty of a lesser charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.

I believe that was the same charge that Dave Halls had pled no contest to. And in my mind, I was thinking if the jury had heard that Dave Halls, who didn't load the weapon or didn't hand the weapon or allegedly didn't hand the weapon to Alec Baldwin, pled guilty or pled no contest for his role in this, it would have been very hard for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to not be found guilty of at least that charge, right? Basically, endangering the safety of another person by handling or using a firearm or other deadly weapon

in a negligent manner. Well, after only two and a half hours of deliberations, the jury came back with their verdict. We find the defendant, Hannah Gutierrez, guilty of involuntary manslaughter as charged in count one. We find the defendant, Anna Gutierrez, not guilty of tampering with evidence as charged in count two. Again, I think it came down to foreseeability and responsibility in terms of the not guilty

on the tampering with evidence charge. Perhaps the prosecution couldn't establish what exactly that baggie had in it. Could have been cocaine, but we're not sure. Perhaps they didn't reach that idea of intent, one of the elements you need for this, because tampering with evidence with intent to avoid arrest or being charged or convicted, maybe the cocaine was just or the drug or whatever the substance was. It was too far removed. Maybe it wasn't clear what Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's intent was.

Maybe the jury didn't believe this actually happened. Maybe it was disconnected from the shooting itself. But having said that she was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, and she now faces up to 18 months in prison, and we will make sure to do our best to cover her sentencing. when it happens. All right, everybody, that is all we have for you here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us as we did a full recap of this trial. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.