Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on the set of “Rust,” where actor Alec Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021, pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering charges, The New York Times reported.
Gutierrez-Reed will go to trial on Dec. 6. Earlier this month, a judge decided not to dismiss the charges against her and told attorneys to “stay the course.”
While on set during a rehearsal in October 2021 in New Mexico, Baldwin was pointing a gun at Hutchins when it went off, killing Hutchins. Baldwin has said that he did not pull the trigger and has “no idea” how the gun went off.
“Someone put a live bullet in a gun. A bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” Baldwin told ABC in December 2021.
Prosecutors allege that Gutierrez-Reed was likely hungover the day of the shooting and had been drinking and smoking marijuana in the evenings during filming. They also allege that she “did transfer narcotics to another person with the intent to prevent the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of herself.” Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A special prosecutor on the case said in a statement in January that Gutierrez-Reed didn’t check the “rounds she was loading into the firearms” before the shooting, “allowing live rounds on scene.” The prosecutors argued that Gutierrez-Reed wasn’t a qualified armorer and didn’t have enough experience for the job.