‘Rust’ Trial: Armorer’s Texts Allude to Marijuana Use on Night Before Shooting
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SANTA FE, N.M. — Jurors in the trial of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed were shown text messages on Friday that indicated she was smoking marijuana the night before a fatal accident on set.
Prosecutors are building a case that Gutierrez Reed’s sloppiness and lack of professionalism led to the death of Halyna Hutchins, the film’s cinematographer.
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In one text to a fellow crew member on Oct. 20, 2021, Gutierrez Reed wrote: “Right on, I might go smoke in the jacuzzi soon, but maybe not I’m so pooped.”
“Headed down to get high out back:b,” she wrote in an other message.
Later on, the crew member asked, “How’d the blaze sess go.” Gutierrez Reed wrote back: “I’m still smoking.”
In a pre-trial ruling, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer allowed the prosecution to introduce a limited number of text messages referencing drug use. The prosecution has argued that Gutierrez Reed was smoking marijuana while in possession of ammunition that was to be used on set.
Hutchins was killed when actor Alec Baldwin fired a live round during set-up for a scene on Oct. 21, 2021. The gun was supposed to contain only dummy rounds.
Six live rounds were found on the set, along with about 250 dummy rounds and nearly 1000 blanks.
On Thursday and Friday, the prosecution showed the jury dozens of photos of rounds recovered from the scene. The images showed a variety of different types of dummy rounds, some with holes in the side, and some that would rattle when shaken. Some of the rounds were in boxes, while others were loose inside a fanny pack or on a prop cart.
“There were multiple rounds of multiple caliber all over the top portion of this cart,” testified Marissa Poppell, an evidence technician for the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
Among the images shown was a container that included 36 dummy rounds with brass-colored primers, and one live round with a silver primer. The live round could be seen in the middle row, on the righthand side.
The evidence photos were released by the Sheriff’s Office in 2022 in response to an open records request.
The prosecution has argued that Gutierrez Reed brought that box to the set and failed to distinguish between the dummy rounds and the live rounds.
The defense has sought to place blame on Seth Kenney, who supplied ammunition and weapons to the set. While cross-examining Poppell, defense attorney Jason Bowles showed photos from a search of Kenney’s business, PDQ Props in Albuquerque, and argued that the business appeared to be very disorganized.
The prosecution has maintained that Kenney was not responsible for the live rounds. Poppell testified that only a few live bullets were recovered from Kenney’s business, and that they were visibly different than the live rounds found on set.
Kari Morrissey, the lead prosecutor, showed the jurors the different types of rounds on Thursday, and shook a dummy with a BB inside so the jurors could hear it rattle.
“This isn’t rocket science, right?” Morrissey asked the technician on Friday. “This is pretty easy?”
Bowles sought to show that it’s more complicated than that. He has pushed back on the prosecution’s claim that the live rounds could be easily distinguished by the silver primer. He showed the jurors an image of a gun belt, which was found in the prop truck, that contained dummy rounds with silver primers.
Two of the 250 dummy rounds found on set also did not rattle when shaken and did not have a hole in the side, Poppell testified. The technicians suspected that one of those rounds might be live, and sent it to the FBI for analysis.
“That’s not something that Ms. Zachry (the prop master) or Ms. Gutierrez Reed had the luxury of on set, did they?” Bowles asked.
“No,” Poppell said.
The defense has also argued that evidence had been tampered with, and that Kenney worked closely with the investigators to shift blame away from himself and onto Gutierrez Reed.
Gutierrez Reed faces up to three years in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering.
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