Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 26, had taken cocaine and weed the night before Alex Baldwin shot dead cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of his western movie in October 2021.
Jurors were shown texts by New Mexico prosecutors on Friday in which the weapons handler said she had been smoking to ‘get high’.
In text messages shown to the court, Gutierrez-Reed said she was getting high to a friend the night before the fatal shooting.
The jury were shown texts she sent another person on October 20th 2021 in which she said: ‘LOL. I don’t need that tonight anyways. I might go smoke in the jacuzzi soon. I’m so pooped’.
The messages did not specify what she was smoking.
In text messages shown to the court, Gutierrez-Reed said she was getting high to a friend the night before the fatal shooting
Jurors were shown texts by New Mexico prosecutors on Friday in which the weapons handler said she had been smoking
Text messages sent between Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and another individual the night before the shooting was the focus of prosecutors in the courtroom on Friday
Gutierrez-Reed has pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the 2021 death of Halyna Hutchins
The gun Baldwin used to shoot Hutchins supplied by the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed (pictured)
In another message dated December 1st 2020, the same person messaged Gutierrez-Reed and her lawyer: ‘Get someone to show her a single action gun and how it works. They don’t go off by themselves’
She later sent another message to the other person saying she was ‘headed down to get high out back’.
In court filings, prosecutors in the trial have alleged Gutierrez’s use of marijuana, cocaine and alcohol on evenings after filming may have led to her being impaired at work on October 21, 2021.
It was on that fateful date when she mistakenly loaded a live round into a gun actor Alec Baldwin was rehearsing with.
The texts were shown on Friday, the second day of testimony in the trial, did not specify a drug.
Jason Hawks, a prosecution witness on cellphone data, who analyzed texts from Gutierrez’s phone, testified and showed texts in which Gutierrez says at 7:48 pm on Octover 20, 2021, ‘heading down to get high out back.’
Around half an hour later she texts ‘I’m still smoking.’
Prosecutor Kari Morrissey said she did not intend to call an expert witness on drug use because no blood tests were carried out on Gutierrez after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot dead.
The jury at the trial for Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was shown shocking images of cinematographer’s Halyna Hutchins’ the blood-stained shirt on Friday
Prosecutors also brought out the bloody shirt that director Joel Souza was wearing when the bullet that killed Hutchins struck him in the shoulder.
The bullet that killed the cinematographer and struck the film director is seen above
Baldwin is seen in the parking lot outside the Santa Fe County Sherriff’s office following the shooting in October 2021
Gutierrez’s defense lawyers have argued that prosecutors’ drug use allegations are speculative, without evidence and an attempt to infer character flaws and prejudice the jury against her.
Hutchins died when the Italian-made Pietta reproduction Colt .45 revolver Baldwin was rehearsing with fired the live round, hitting the rising star cinematographer in the chest.
Legal experts say that should prosecutors persuade the jury Gutierrez was impaired on set, where she was responsible for firearms safety, she could be convicted of a charge of involuntary manslaughter which carries up to 18 months.
Gutierrez is also charged with evidence tampering for allegedly handing a bag of cocaine to a fellow crew member after the shooting in order to prevent police from finding it.
Gutierrez has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Prosecution and defense have both tried to show chaos on the low-budget movie where two accidental firearm discharges on one day led a camera crew to walk off set hours before Hutchins died.
Baldwin, the lead actor and a co-producer on the Western movie Rust, was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins (pictured) during a rehearsal outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went off, killing her
Gutierrez-Reed had a live round mixed with with dummy ones on set, prosecutors told the jury in her manslaughter trial on Thursday
A picture of the weapon used in the fatal shooting on set was shown in court on Thursday
According to the records, the gun was one of three that the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez, had set on a cart outside the wooden structure where a scene was being acted
Defense lawyers said Hutchins died because of Baldwin’s reckless handling of the revolver while prosecutors blamed Gutierrez’s accidental introduction of live bullets to the set and failure to spot them.
The armorer’s lawyers said she was unfairly targeted by police after the shooting while Baldwin, who is also charged with involuntary manslaughter, was left to wander around talking on his phone. Baldwin’s lawyers are seeking a June trial.
‘I have the weapon, I have the ammo and I have the armorer,’ retired Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office Lieutenant Tim Benavidez, one of the first officers on the scene, testified Thursday that he told investigators after he held Gutierrez in his pickup truck.
During the second day of her trial on Friday, prosecutors also brought out the bloody shirt that director Joel Souza was wearing when the bullet that killed Hutchins struck him in the shoulder.
The previous day prosecutors tried to portray her as disorganized and unprepared for the job, accusing her of mixing live ammunition with dummy rounds and doing cocaine the night before the tragic rehearsal.
Meanwhile the defense says Gutierrez-Reed is not to blame and is being smeared and unfairly scapegoated as they place the blame on Baldwin and the film’s producers.
Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys have previously claimed that live rounds arrived on set from an Albuquerque-based supplier of dummy rounds
On Friday the jury was also shown dozens of photos of the inside of the shop owned by Seth Kenney for his company PDQ Props
The photos were an attempt by Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer’s to show that Kenney stored his ammunition in a haphazard way
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 25, has entered a New Mexico courtroom to face trial for the 2021 death of a cinematographer fatally shot by Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal
The jury was also shown dozens of photos of the inside of the shop owned by Seth Kenney for his company PDQ Props, which is said to have supplied the ammunition to the Rust set. The court also heard it provided ammunition to 1888, the Kevin Costner TV series.
The photos were an attempt by Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer’s to show that Kenney stored his ammunition in a haphazard way. They showed dozens of used cardboard boxes in the alleyway by the shop.
Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer Jason Bowles asked Marissa Poppell, a crime scene technician with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office, about one image which showed a pizza box lying on the floor.
‘Does it appear to be very disorganized’, Bowles asked. Poppell said yes.
Bowles asked: ‘‘There’s stuff everywhere, agree with that?’ Poppell said: ‘Yes’.
The images showed dozens of boxes of white ammunition sitting on shelves in what appeared to be a residential apartment. More rounds were shown in a grab tub on the floor with the lid open.
Kenney has denied that he provided live rounds to Gutierrez-Reed.
The jury were shown other messages Gutierrez-Reed sent to another contact called ‘Dadclua’ on November 8th 2021, after the shooting.
Baldwin also has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge in a separate case
She wrote: ‘Hey I need you to check you to check out my boxes and send me pictures of our boxes of dummies.’
The contact called ‘Dadcula’ replied: ‘Will do’ and sent an image of an ammunition box.
It appeared that ‘Dadcula’ was Thell Reed, the renowned film armorer who is Gutierrez-Reed’s stepfather and mentor but it was not clear.
In another message dated December 1st 2020, the same person messaged Gutierrez-Reed and her lawyer: ‘Get someone to show her a single action gun and how it works. They don’t go off by themselves’.
Prosecutors said they plan to present evidence that Gutierrez-Reed unwittingly brought live ammunition onto the set, where it was expressly prohibited, and to show ‘how these live rounds slowly spread their way throughout the set, eventually landing in several of the actors’ costumes.’
Jurors have watched police body camera videos of the harrowing, chaotic scene after the shooting, with medical personnel treating a wounded and semiconscious Hutchins and loading her into an ambulance as a helicopter arrived.
They say the armorer missed multiple opportunities to ensure safety, eventually loading a live round into the gun that killed Hutchins and failing twice to properly check whether bullets in the gun were live or dummies.
‘We will show you, ladies and gentlemen, that by failing to make those vital safety checks, the defendant acted negligently and without due caution,’ prosecutor Jason Lewis told jurors. ‘And the decisions that she made that day ultimately contributed to Ms. Hutchins’ death.’
Lead defense counsel Jason Bowles countered by pointing to findings by workplace safety regulators of broad problems that extended beyond the armorer’s control. He contended that live rounds arrived on set from an Albuquerque-based supplier of dummy rounds, and that the supplier was never truly investigated.
Gutierrez-Reed, the stepdaughter of renowned sharpshooter and weapons consultant Thell Reed, was 24 when the shooting occurred.
Bowles sought to shift blame for safety failures away from Gutierrez-Reed, and toward Baldwin and his handling of the gun during rehearsal.
‘He either had his finger on the trigger and the hammer cocked, or he pulled the trigger, as he was pointing that at Ms. Hutchins and Mr. Souza,’ Bowles said. ‘You’re not going to hear anything about her being in that church or firing that weapon. That was Alec Baldwin.’
Baldwin has said he pulled back the gun’s hammer — not the trigger — and the weapon fired.
Gutierrez-Reed faces up to 18 months and a $5,000 fine if convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The evidence tampering charge stems from accusations that she handed a small bag of possible narcotics to another crew member after the shooting to avoid detection.
Her attorneys say that charge is an attempt to smear her character. The bag was thrown away without testing the contents, defense attorneys said.
Gutierrez-Reed’s trial will resume on Monday.
