The armorer who loaded the gun that discharged on the set of the film “Rust” in New Mexico, killing its cinematographer, is set to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering charges starting Dec. 6.
The armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, entered a plea of not guilty to the charges on Wednesday after attempts by her lawyer to dismiss the case were unsuccessful. She waived her right to a preliminary hearing, a weeklong process at which a judge would have determined whether to proceed with a trial.
Ms. Gutierrez-Reed, 26, was accused by prosecutors in court papers of deviating from the protocols governing the use of firearms on film sets. The film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, was shot and killed in October 2021 when the gun that its star, Alec Baldwin, was rehearsing with on set fired a live round.
Live ammunition is supposed to be banned on movie sets, and prosecutors accused Ms. Gutierrez-Reed of failing to properly ensure that the gun was safe to handle, and of failing to thoroughly examine each of the six rounds she loaded into it that day. Those rounds were supposed to be dummy rounds, inert cartridges that are used to make guns appear loaded for the camera. They also accused her of not properly responding to previous accidental discharges of blanks on set in the days leading up to the tragedy.
A lawyer for Ms. Gutierrez-Reed, Jason Bowles, has defended her conduct on set, arguing that she had been overburdened with two jobs and that her requests for more gun training had been rebuffed.
The special prosecutors who took over the case several months ago, Kari T. Morrissey and Jason J. Lewis, added an evidence tampering charge, accusing Ms. Gutierrez-Reed of passing a bag of cocaine to someone else to hold on the day of the shooting.
Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s trial is expected to last more than a week at First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe. She is out on personal recognizance, meaning she does not need to be held in jail, provided she adheres to certain rules, including drug testing twice per month.
Mr. Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter in January but prosecutors dropped the charges in April. Mr. Baldwin has maintained that he did not pull the trigger before the gun discharged, firing a bullet that killed Ms. Hutchins and injured the director of the movie, Joel Souza. The prosecutors said in April that new evidence suggested the gun might have been modified in a way that would have made it easier for it to unexpectedly discharge. They have said that they have not ruled out recharging Mr. Baldwin, sending the gun to an expert for a close examination.
Dave Halls, the movie’s first assistant director, pleaded no contest to a charge of negligent handling of a weapon in connection with the case, avoiding prison time.
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