Rust jury shown photos of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins' blood-stained shirt and bullet that killed her as armorer stands trial for manslaughter

The jury at the trial for Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has been shown shocking images of cinematographer's Halyna Hutchins' blood-stained shirt and the bullet that killed her on set.

Gutierrez-Reed, 26, has pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the 2021 death of Hutchins during a rehearsal on a ranch outside Santa Fe.

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.

Actor Alec Baldwin, who was pointing the gun at Hutchins when it went off, killing her and wounding Souza, is separately fighting a charge of involuntary manslaughter. No trial date has been set. 

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, 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.

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.

She later sent another message to the other person saying she was ‘headed down to get high out back’.

The jury were shown other messages Gutierrez-Reed sent to another contact called ‘Dadclua’ on November 8th 2021, after the shooting.

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'.

Gutierrez-Reed's attorney Jason Bowles told jurors on Thursday that his client had to perform two jobs on Rust while being rushed — and that her requests for more resources went unanswered by her manager.

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.