A New Mexico court has found guilty of involuntary manslaughter to Hannah Gutiérrez-Reed, the gunsmith from the filming of ‘Rust’, in which died accidentally director of photography Halyna Hutchins in an incident in which the actor was also involved Alec Baldwin.

The person also responsible for the security protocol, which has been acquitted of another charge of tampering with evidencenow faces a sentence of up to 18 months in prison and has received an order preventive prison after the verdict reached this Wednesday by the jury, after two weeks of testimony.

Gutiérrez-Reed is the first person to be tried in this case. The Prosecutor’s Office considered her the ‘main culprit’ in Hutchins’ death on October 21, 2021 in a shooting in which Baldwin was also involved, the judicial process of which will begin on July 9. The armory was the one who loaded the gun prop that Baldwin would later use during the recording and from which the bullet that killed Hutchins came out. ‘Rust’ director Joel Souza was also injured in this incident.

The jury has now largely agreed that Gutiérrez-Reed acted negligently by not properly verifying that the ammunition in the 45 caliber revolver used in the filming of this western was not real, so the death of the director of photography was a “foreseeable consequence” of her way of proceeding.

Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey argued in her closing argument that the gunsmith’s actions constituted a “astonishing breach” of security protocol when filming scenes with weapons established in the film industry.

Gutiérrez-Reed’s legal defense, for its part, defended throughout the process that the reduction of security expenses to make this film, of which Baldwin also served as producer, caused her to have an excessive workload and could not focus on tasks purely related to weapons and ammunition.

The gunsmith was also accused in the months prior to this trial of consume cocaine during filming of ‘Rust’ and having tampered with evidence by trying to hide the drugs through a member of his team on the day of the police investigations on the set. However, These accusations could not be proven and the additional charge against him has been dismissed.

The trial against the gunsmith included Souza as witnesses; first assistant director Dave Halls, who avoided jail time by accepting a plea deal; producer Gabrielle Pickle; as well as veteran gunsmith Thell Reed (Hannah’s stepfather) and representatives of the company that supplied the cartridges for filming.