{"id":21347,"date":"2024-02-22T17:28:38","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T22:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/manslaughter-trial-begins-of-rust-armorer-in-alec-baldwin-shooting\/22\/02\/2024\/"},"modified":"2024-02-22T17:28:38","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T22:28:38","slug":"manslaughter-trial-begins-of-rust-armorer-in-alec-baldwin-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/manslaughter-trial-begins-of-rust-armorer-in-alec-baldwin-shooting\/22\/02\/2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Manslaughter Trial Begins of \u2018Rust\u2019 Armorer in Alec Baldwin Shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/article\/armorer-alec-baldwin-rust-shooting.html\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">involuntary manslaughter trial<\/a> of the armorer who loaded the gun Alec Baldwin was rehearsing with on the set of \u201cRust\u201d when it fired, killing the movie\u2019s cinematographer, began on Thursday with prosecutors accusing her of performing \u201csloppy and incomplete\u201d safety checks of the weapon and of being responsible for the presence of live rounds on the set.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During opening arguments one of the prosecutors told the jury that the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, had treated gun safety protocols on the film set \u201cas if they were optional,\u201d leading her to miss the fact that she had loaded a live round into an old-fashioned revolver she was preparing for Mr. Baldwin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The gun went off as he practiced drawing it at a blocking rehearsal, killing the film\u2019s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe 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\u2019s death and to the live rounds being brought onto the set,\u201d the prosecutor, Jason J. Lewis, said in the First Judicial District Courthouse in Santa Fe, N.M., as the trial began.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Baldwin is being tried separately <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/01\/19\/arts\/alec-baldwin-charged-involuntary-manslaughter.html\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">on an involuntary manslaughter charge<\/a>. He has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On the day of the fatal shooting \u2014 Oct. 21, 2021 \u2014 the crew was setting up a tight frame of Mr. Baldwin drawing a revolver ahead of a gunfight when the weapon fired a live round, striking Ms. Hutchins and then hitting the movie\u2019s director, Joel Souza, who survived.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Gutierrez-Reed, who has pleaded not guilty, has been a focus of scrutiny as investigators sought to figure out how live ammunition turned up on a film set where it was banned, and how it ended up in a gun that should only have been loaded with dummy rounds, which are inert cartridges that resemble real rounds but cannot be fired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In his opening arguments, one of Ms. Gutierrez-Reed\u2019s lawyers, Jason Bowles, argued that she was being made the \u201cscapegoat\u201d for other people\u2019s mistakes. He accused Dave Halls, the movie\u2019s first assistant director, of failing to uphold safety protocols, said that the production had overburdened his client with multiple responsibilities on set and faulted Mr. Baldwin for pointing the gun toward crew members.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">(Mr. Baldwin has denied responsibility for the shooting, saying that he was told where to point the gun and had no reason to think it was loaded with live ammunition; Mr. Halls took a plea deal related to the case.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhat you\u2019re seeing in this courtroom today is trying to blame it all on Hannah, the 24-year-old,\u201d Mr. Bowles said of his client, who is now 26. \u201cAnd why? Because she\u2019s an easy target. She\u2019s the least powerful person on that set.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In addition to an involuntary manslaughter charge, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed faces one count of evidence tampering, which prosecutors brought based on an account from another \u201cRust\u201d crew member, who said Ms. Gutierrez-Reed passed off a baggie of cocaine to her on the day of the shooting, after she spoke to the police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In laying out their theory for why they are arguing that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed brought the live ammunition onto the film set, prosecutors showed the jurors a photo of the armorer with a case of rounds sitting on her lap, pointing to at least two rounds with silver primers that they say match the appearance of other live rounds found on set. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe believe that was a live bullet sitting on her lap and she failed to identify it,\u201d Mr. Lewis said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Bowles countered that the color of the primer on the rounds did not definitively prove that they were live. \u201cYou cannot tell a live round from a dummy by a picture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The question of who supplied live ammunition to the set will be a central dispute during the trial. The defense argues that it was the fault of the movie\u2019s primary weapons and ammunition supplier, who has denied responsibility and is expected to testify.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/22\/movies\/rust-trial-hannah-gutierrez-reed.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The involuntary manslaughter trial of the armorer who loaded the gun Alec Baldwin was rehearsing with on the set of &ldquo;Rust&rdquo; when<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/manslaughter-trial-begins-of-rust-armorer-in-alec-baldwin-shooting\/22\/02\/2024\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}