Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter following the death of Halyna Hutchins.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has been found guilty
The armorer has been on trial for the last two weeks in connection with the passing of the cinematographer - who was fatally shot during rehearsals on the set of 'Rust' in October 2021 when a gun held by star Alec Baldwin accidentally discharged - and on Wednesday (06.03.24), it took the 12-person jury less than three hours of deliberation to deliver their verdict, which also included a not guilty ruling on the charge of evidence tampering.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ordered Hannah to be taken into custody almost immediately after the verdict was read and she will likely be sentenced next month, with a potential maximum prison term of 18 months and a fine of several thousand dollars.
Hannah's team plan to appeal the verdict.
In their closing arguments, Hannah's lawyers said she had been a "convenient Scapegoat".
Lawyer Jason Bowles said: "There’s reasonable doubt she had anything to do ultimately with Halyna Hutchins’ death...
"The buck stops with production .. as in any organisation, it starts at the top.”
But the prosecution had argued Hannah had been "careless" and "thoughtless" and slammed her team's "shotgun approach" strategy.
Special Prosecutor Kerri Morrissey said of the defense: “This is all smoke and mirrors and deflection, they don’t want the truth.
“She was negligent, she was careless, she was thoughtless."
In July, Alec - who was also a producer on the movie - is set to also face trial for involuntary manslaughter in connection with the incident.
The 'Boss Baby' star has repeatedly insisted he didn't pull the trigger on the gun he was holding when it discharged, killing Halyna and injuring director Joel Souza.
First assistant director Dave Halls entered a plea of no contest to a misdemeanour charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence with unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, 24 hours of community service and a firearms safety class.
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