Jury seated in trial of 'Rust' movie armorer amid intense media interest

Testimony is set to begin Thursday in the trial of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer for the movie “Rust,” as the Santa Fe County Courthouse braced for attendance by a lengthy roster of media organizations.

A court official estimated that 88 representatives of news organizations could be present during the trial for Gutierrez-Reed, who allegedly loaded the gun held by actor Alec Baldwin when it fired in 2021, killing the film’s cinematographer on the “Rust” movie set.

A jury of seven men and five women, plus four alternate jurors, was sworn in shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday after a full day of jury selection, said Barry Massey, spokesman for the state Administrative Office of the Courts.

Gutierrez-Reed, 26, was indicted in January 2023 with involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the Oct. 21, 2021, death of Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on the set.

The armorer has pleaded not guilty to the charges and contends she is not directly to blame for Hutchins’ death.

Interest in Gutierrez-Reed’s trial was heightened last month when a grand jury indicted Baldwin on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death.

Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his trial has not been scheduled. He is not expected to testify in Gutierrez-Reed’s trial.

Major news networks that have expressed interest in covering some portions of the trial include NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, FOX News, Telemundo and the BBC.

Print media signed up to attend include The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.

Court TV, the pool video producer for the trial, will livestream the proceedings, beginning with opening statements on its website at courttv.com and Court TV’s YouTube channel.

The trial is scheduled to continue through March 6 in the 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe before District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer.

Gutierrez-Reed is charged with criminal negligence in her handling of guns used on the set. Prosecutors allege she loaded the .45-caliber prop revolver Baldwin was holding when it discharged, killing the 42-year-old cinematographer.

The trial is likely to address a key question of how live ammunition was loaded into the prop gun Baldwin was handed in violation of safety protocols that allow only harmless “dummy” rounds on a movie set.

Prosecutors allege in court filings that Gutierrez-Reed brought a box of ammunition on the set that contained both dummy and live rounds and “inserted a live round in the prop gun” handed to Baldwin.

“Ms. Gutierrez was responsible for firearms and firearm safety on the set of ‘Rust’,” special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis wrote in a motion filed last month. The armorer “failed to ensure that the gun handed to Alec Baldwin was loaded solely with dummy rounds,” it said.

Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys, Jason Bowles and Todd Bullion, have said in court filings that live rounds found their way on the set from a New Mexico-based supplier that provided prop guns and ammunition for the “Rust” production — a claim denied by the company.