Arms supplier denies providing live ammo to "Rust"

An Albuquerque arms supplier who testified Monday in the trial of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed denied providing live ammunition to the production prior to a fatal shooting on the New Mexico movie set.

Seth Kenney, owner of PDQ Arm & Prop, also said that “dummy” ammunition was in short supply because two other Westerns were in production when filming started on “Rust.”

Kenney acknowledged that law enforcement who searched his business found live .45-caliber ammunition in the weeks after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Kenney made the statements on the eighth day of testimony in the trial of Gutierrez Reed, 26, who is charged with involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death. The trial is expected to continue through Wednesday in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe before Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer.

Actor Alec Baldwin, the movie’s star and co-producer, was holding a prop Colt .45 pistol on Oct. 21, 2021, when it discharged during a rehearsal on the New Mexico movie set. The round killed Hutchins, 42, and injured director Joel Souza.

Baldwin was indicted in January on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death and is scheduled for trial in July.

The question of how live ammunition arrived on the movie set is a central issue in Gutierrez Reed’s trial.

Prosecutors allege that Gutierrez Reed provided ammunition for the production that included live rounds and loaded one of those rounds into Baldwin’s prop firearm.

Gutierrez Reed’s attorney, Jason Bowles, has argued in court filings that Kenney provided the live rounds in a box of dummy ammunition he supplied to the set.

Kenny acknowledged that he provided a box of 50 harmless dummy rounds to the set on Oct. 12, 2021, but denied that the box contained any live rounds.

Kenney testified that he had been in frequent contact with Gutierrez Reed and prop master Sarah Zachry throughout the production.

Kenney told jurors that Gutierrez Reed had contacted him about supplying .45-caliber dummy rounds. Kenney’s business had supplied ammunition for the Western TV show “1883,” which was in production in Texas.

“Everything else from PDQ was slated for ‘1883,’” Kenney told jurors. “In fact, some of it wasn’t even manufactured yet. So there was just no inventory.” The ammunition shortage was a potential problem for the “Rust” production, he said.

“The only way they were going to have dummy rounds on ‘Rust’ was to reach out to other suppliers in the business, and they needed them straightaway,” Kenney said.

Special prosecutor Kerri Morrisey asked Kenney if anyone else had supplied ammunition for “Rust.”

“Yes, Hannah,” Kenney replied. Gutierrez Reed provided ammunition left over from the Western movie “The Old Way,” which had been her first job as head armorer.

Gutierrez Reed told Kenney that many rounds of ammunition had been lost during action scenes for the Montana production but that some rounds remained in prop belts, he testified.

Under questioning by Bowles, Kenney said he had provided live rounds for a “training camp” in Texas for actors in the “1883” television production.

Kenney brought the live ammunition, including .45-caliber rounds, back to Albuquerque, which he stored in a box labeled “live ammunition” in the bathroom of his business.

Bowles showed jurors photographs of the box taken by law enforcement officers who served a search warrant at the business in December 2021.

Kenny also testified that he kept “self-defense” live ammunition at the business, but none were .45-caliber rounds.

Gutierrez Reed also faces a charge of tampering with evidence for allegedly passing a bag of cocaine to another crew member after the shooting.