Halyna Hutchins Shot With Prop Gun - Alec Baldwin indicted & Hannah Gutierrez-Reed charged, 2021 #6

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Sorry if this has been addressed before. If I understand correctly, by the time LE got a hold of the gun AB used when Halyna was shot there was no ammo in it. So it seems someone removed the ammo -- do we know who did that?
From what I've read and saw in skimming yesterday's testimony, HGR removed the rounds from the gun after the shooting and put the rounds on a cart or table and the cops took possession later. And apparently at some point the other prop person removed rounds, unknown if dummy, blank or live, from other guns on set and threw them out.
 
Prosecution passes the witness. Defense cross-examine:Bowles begins by questioning her education, experience and credentials. Poppell admits that she has not been trained in identifying dummy, blanks and live ammo.

The defense is doing a great job to grilling Poppell, attacking different elements the prosecution keyed in on.We are now looking at search warrant pictures Poppell took from PDQ props, where Rust supplied its ammo on set. The warehouse is disorganized and there are weapons and ammo stacked everywhere alongside pizza boxes and beer glasses.


We are now taking a morning break.



State's Next Witness: Christopher Zook, former Sergeant for Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office.Zook searched the prop truck and found firearms inside a safe. He found a lever-action rifle and tried to clear it, but it was jammed with a 45 caliber cartridge. Witness passed.


That was a good way to show inexperience of an armorer who is loading the wrong ammo into a firearm. Defense is now pointing out that you don't need to use the lever-action to clear the gun, like Zook did, pointing out his inexperience with the weapon.


Witness dismissed. Next witness: Ryan Litzinger, he is a videographer and editor for a production company in Albuquerque. His production company provides crew, camera, lighting, directors of photography, etc. for movie sets.


On the set of Rust, Litzinger was contracted to provide additional video on set, specifically of the cast and crew working behind-the-scenes. The state discussed passing videos back and forth with Litzinger, but we have not seen any video.



Witness passed. Defense now asking if Alec Baldwin was in control of the production (pacing and filming) when he was a witness. State objects to that line of questioning. Now a private sidebar with the judge.


Defense reposes the question. Another objection. Another sidebar. Defense passes the witness. Witness excused.Next witness: Jason Hawks, who owns a company that looks at digital evidence, including smartphone analysis.



Hawks reviewed the cellphone extraction of HGR conducted on Dec. 8, 2021. Hawks identifies HGR's phone as the pseudonym "Gorilla Grip Pussy Pal.”


Text messages from Oct. 20, 2021 were extracted from HGR's phone of a text exchange with an unknown person. They are being published for the courtroom to view.

"lol I don't need that tonight anyways. Right on. I might go smoke in the jacuzzi soon. But maybe not, I'm so pooped.

""Headed down to get high out back"

"Time to eat now howd the blaze sess go"

"I'm still smoking"

"Hey, I need you to check out my boxes and send me pictures of our boxes of dummies"

The unknown person then responded with an image of a box of ammo

@alcaprari23



Edited to include:

A new text thread with three people, 12/1/21:"Yeah, honestly that gun won't go off unless he fully cocked it."We have now broken for lunch.
 
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I can’t fathom why at least one live round would be mistakenly loaded into a revolver, such carelessness. Not saying done purposely, but why, it is so irresponsible, imo. Defense did claim their client had a lot going on, many responsibilities, and asked for help, and was declined. No excuse. Waiting for more evidence.
There never should have been live rounds anywhere near the movie set. None at all. That was the first mistake she made - bringing live rounds (from her home?) to the movie set.
 
It's not needed.
My theory is that HGR, and others, were using the prop guns for target shooting after hours and the ammo got mixed with the dummy ammo by mistake. Something like:
Go target shooting. Have a few rounds left over, put them in your pocket.
Next day you're on set and grab a gun and some dummy rounds for a scene. Dummy rounds go in your pocket because your hands are full and the rounds are mixed.

Now if you're talking about not needing blank ammo, that's a different story. Guns with blank ammo, used properly, looks a lot better than most CGI (unless you have Marvel movie budget).

Agree, the most likely scenario. She shares full responsibility for that, no one else. Movie producers didn't force her to bring live ammo to the set.
 
As a teen my fav actor died from a blank on set. All dangerous imo. feel so bad for Halyna's son and husband. What do folks think will happen to Baldwin and HGR?
 
As a teen my fav actor died from a blank on set. All dangerous imo. feel so bad for Halyna's son and husband. What do folks think will happen to Baldwin and HGR?
If you're talking about Brandon Lee, that's a perfect example of why proper dummy rounds are important. The prop crew made dummy rounds from live and left the primer in. The actor did a close up where he pulls the trigger and the primer caused a squib, bullet stuck in barrel. The gun was reloaded for a different scene and the blank round pushed the squib out and killed Lee.
 
@alcaprari23

In past criminal trials I've covered, cell phone extraction is always analyzed. But the defendant's phone number is usually redacted save for a few numbers, like the area code or the last four digits. This, in my opinion, was a critical oversight of the attorney teams.


3:30 PM · Feb 23, 2024
 
If you're talking about Brandon Lee, that's a perfect example of why proper dummy rounds are important. The prop crew made dummy rounds from live and left the primer in. The actor did a close up where he pulls the trigger and the primer caused a squib, bullet stuck in barrel. The gun was reloaded for a different scene and the blank round pushed the squib out and killed Lee.
Oh actually it was Jon Erik Hexum, in 1986. My understanding was he was lying around between scenes bored and as as a joke he fired the gun loaded with a blank at his head. It blew a piece of his skull into his brain. He was on a TV show called Cover Up and a TV movie called the Making of a Male Model.
 
There never should have been live rounds anywhere near the movie set. None at all. That was the first mistake she made - bringing live rounds (from her home?) to the movie set.
Yes, agreed. However, would like to see state’s evidence of how a live round of ammo found its way on the set, and how they are going to prove she brought them to the set. moo
 
Afternoon posts:

@alcaprari23

Witness excused. Next witness: Catherine Walters, unit production manager on the set of Rust. Walters says that HGR never requested additional armorer days to work with Alec Baldwin on gun safety. Says she never requested additional armorer days, in general.


Walters says that department heads or Teamsters would be in charge of locking the prop trucks at night after filming. Department head for prop truck was Sarah Zachary.After the shooting, the locks on the prop truck changed and only few people had the keys to the lock.HGR asked after the shooting to meet at the prop truck so she could get a few things, Walters says. She does not know exactly what she took out that day, but remembers gun belts and cardboard boxes being taken.Witness passed.


Defense cross:Walters testifies it wasn't just HGR retrieving items from the scene, but multiple people. The scene had been cleared by law enforcement at this time.Walters testifies that the disgruntled camera crew threatened to walk off the night before the shooting. Six members, the full camera crew, walked off set the day of the shooting.


Walters says she had to scramble to get a camera crew ready on 10/21/21. The disgruntled crew still showed up, pulling their own gear off the camera truck. Walters testifies that the prop truck was not secure during that day the disgruntled crew came back. Walters says, theoretically, everyone on set had access to that truck, ammo and weapons. Defense leaning in on the possibility that this shooting was sabotage.


Walters says HGR never had any complaints lodged against her during her time on Rust. Walters says she returned to the church two days later to retrieve media on the cameras that might have captured the shooting. She says there was no filming of the incident that was recorded.


Walters says Seth Kenney, owner of PDQ Props, was present when a search warrant was executed on the prop truck. He owned some of the guns that were inside the safe.


No further questions from defense. State redirect.Walters clarifies that one of the reasons the camera crew was disgruntled was because of other accidental discharges of firearms on set.


No further questions from state. Defense wants another crack.Defense pointing to a pre-trial interview in which Walters said that Baldwin was not paying attention during weapons training. She did not personally see it, however. Witness excused.


Edited to include:

The judge just told the court that they will break early for the day. But there is a caveat. The jury is being excused to their private room and the bailiff is going to ask them "one question." They will have to reply privately and deliver their answer to the judge. We have no idea what the question is or what it pertains to. If I was to guess, I think it has to do with the HGR's phone number being publicly blasted. The attorney teams are speaking privately while we wait for the jury to return.
 
Day 2 of witness testimony in the trial of #Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. Yesterday we saw heartbreaking body cam video of the moments immediately following the shooting that killed Halyna Hutchins. We could see possibly incriminating text messages today.


Marissa Poppell is still on the witness stand. She is a crime scene technician who photographed and analyzed evidence found on the Rust movie set. We begin by looking at additional photos of the evidence, including ammo (both live and dummies) as well as ammo boxes.


We are looking at the bloodied t-shirt from Director Joel Souza. The right shoulder has intense blood stains on the front. When flipped over, the blood runs all the way to the base of the shirt.Now Halyana Hutchins shirt, also covered in blood. It is ripped from top to bottom from where paramedics likely cut it open to access her chest for treatment.



Prosecution passes the witness. Defense cross-examine: Bowles begins by questioning her education, experience and credentials. Poppell admits that she has not been trained in identifying dummy, blanks and live ammo.

The defense is doing a great job to grilling Poppell, attacking different elements the prosecution keyed in on.We are now looking at search warrant pictures Poppell took from PDQ props, where Rust supplied its ammo on set. The warehouse is disorganized and there are weapons and ammo stacked everywhere alongside pizza boxes and beer glasses.


We are now taking a morning break.



State's Next Witness: Christopher Zook, former Sergeant for Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office.Zook searched the prop truck and found firearms inside a safe. He found a lever-action rifle and tried to clear it, but it was jammed with a 45 caliber cartridge. Witness passed.


That was a good way to show inexperience of an armorer who is loading the wrong ammo into a firearm. Defense is now pointing out that you don't need to use the lever-action to clear the gun, like Zook did, pointing out his inexperience with the weapon.


Witness dismissed. Next witness: Ryan Litzinger, he is a videographer and editor for a production company in Albuquerque. His production company provides crew, camera, lighting, directors of photography, etc. for movie sets.


On the set of Rust, Litzinger was contracted to provide additional video on set, specifically of the cast and crew working behind-the-scenes. The state discussed passing videos back and forth with Litzinger, but we have not seen any video.



Witness passed. Defense now asking if Alec Baldwin was in control of the production (pacing and filming) when he was a witness. State objects to that line of questioning. Now a private sidebar with the judge.


Defense reposes the question. Another objection. Another sidebar. Defense passes the witness. Witness excused.Next witness: Jason Hawks, who owns a company that looks at digital evidence, including smartphone analysis.



Hawks reviewed the cellphone extraction of HGR conducted on Dec. 8, 2021. Hawks identifies HGR's phone as the pseudonym "Gorilla Grip Pussy Pal.”


Text messages from Oct. 20, 2021 were extracted from HGR's phone of a text exchange with an unknown person. They are being published for the courtroom to view."lol I don't need that tonight anyways. Right on. I might go smoke in the jacuzzi soon. But maybe not, I'm so pooped.""Headed down to get high out back""Time to eat now howd the blaze sess go""I'm still smoking""Hey, I need you to check out my boxes and send me pictures of our boxes of dummies"The unknown person then responded with an image of a box of ammo


A new text thread with three people, 12/1/21:"Yeah, honestly that gun won't go off unless he fully cocked it."We have now broken for lunch.


Witness excused. Next witness: Catherine Walters, unit production manager on the set of Rust. Walters says that HGR never requested additional armorer days to work with Alec Baldwin on gun safety. Says she never requested additional armorer days, in general.


Walters says that department heads or Teamsters would be in charge of locking the prop trucks at night after filming. Department head for prop truck was Sarah Zachary.After the shooting, the locks on the prop truck changed and only few people had the keys to the lock.HGR asked after the shooting to meet at the prop truck so she could get a few things, Walters says. She does not know exactly what she took out that day, but remembers gun belts and cardboard boxes being taken.Witness passed.


Defense cross:Walters testifies it wasn't just HGR retrieving items from the scene, but multiple people. The scene had been cleared by law enforcement at this time.Walters testifies that the disgruntled camera crew threatened to walk off the night before the shooting. Six members, the full camera crew, walked off set the day of the shooting.


Walters says she had to scramble to get a camera crew ready on 10/21/21. The disgruntled crew still showed up, pulling their own gear off the camera truck. Walters testifies that the prop truck was not secure during that day the disgruntled crew came back. Walters says, theoretically, everyone on set had access to that truck, ammo and weapons. Defense leaning in on the possibility that this shooting was sabotage.


Walters says HGR never had any complaints lodged against her during her time on Rust. Walters says she returned to the church two days later to retrieve media on the cameras that might have captured the shooting. She says there was no filming of the incident that was recorded.


Walters says Seth Kenney, owner of PDQ Props, was present when a search warrant was executed on the prop truck. He owned some of the guns that were inside the safe.


No further questions from defense. State redirect.Walters clarifies that one of the reasons the camera crew was disgruntled was because of other accidental discharges of firearms on set.


No further questions from state. Defense wants another crack.Defense pointing to a pre-trial interview in which Walters said that Baldwin was not paying attention during weapons training. She did not personally see it, however.Witness excused.


The judge just told the court that they will break early for the day. But there is a caveat. The jury is being excused to their private room and the bailiff is going to ask them "one question." They will have to reply privately and deliver their answer to the judge. We have no idea what the question is or what it pertains to. If I was to guess, I think it has to do with the HGR's phone number being publicly blasted. The attorney teams are speaking privately while we wait for the jury to return.


The judge was handed a piece of paper with the jury's answer to their "one question." We won't know what the question was. Jury dismissed. Court is adjourned for the day.


@alcaprari23
 
The jury was then shown a photograph taken by Marissa Poppell, a crime scene technician with the Santa Fe County Sheriff's office, of the prop cart which appeared highly disorganized and strewn with dummy bullets alongside a live round

Prop cart which appeared highly disorganized and strewn with dummy bullets alongside a live round.
The disorganized cart showed dummy rounds mixed with one live round, that ended up accidentally killing Hutchings


Gutierrez-Reed had a live round mixed with with dummy ones on set, prosecutors told the jury in her manslaughter trial on Thursday.

Gutierrez-Reed had a live round mixed with with dummy ones on set.

One of the prosecution's evidence photos is seen above. Authorities found six rounds of ammunition on the movie set in locations that included a box, a gun belt and a bandolier worn by Baldwin

One of the prosecution's evidence photos is seen above. Authorities found six rounds of ammunition on the movie set in locations that included a box, a gun belt and a bandolier worn by Baldwin.

A rifle that they found on set - not the gun Baldwin used - appeared to have jammed because the wrong kind of ammunition was put inside it.

 
During break, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed had her hair chopsticks confiscated.HGR appeared annoyed but willingly handed them over to a deputy and returned to court with readjusted hair style. Before court resumed, she was given hair accessories back and put them in her hair.

1708726938993.png


Hair chopsticks are not listed on the court’s contraband list but the last items says “all items the deputy believes could be used as a weapon.” Appears that decision was challenged and HGR was allowed to keep them in her hair.

1708726993653.png
 
Witness #3 -Marissa Poppell, Santa Fe Sheriff crime scene tech back on the stand. Going through series of photos including projectile recovered from Joel Souza’s shoulder (it traveled through Halyna Hutchins) and blood-stained shirts belonging to Joel Souza and HH.


1708727140457.png1708727151997.png
 
Oh actually it was Jon Erik Hexum, in 1986. My understanding was he was lying around between scenes bored and as as a joke he fired the gun loaded with a blank at his head. It blew a piece of his skull into his brain. He was on a TV show called Cover Up and a TV movie called the Making of a Male Model.
And a small show first called the Voyagers. his character was Finneas Bogg iirc.
 
i think it was Seth’s fault the live ammo got there when it was supposed to be dummies only, it was Hannah’s fault that she wasn’t paying close enough attention to realize what she was loading, AD for taking the gun in a rush for an impromptu scene and deciding to call it himself, then Baldwin who loves this gun and doesn’t want to put it down and starts practicing his cross draw and actually shooting while pointing a real firearm at a human.. acting like Halyna herself was egging him on. So many things went wrong, and I’m just hopeful for a little bit of peace for Halyna’s family :(
 
During break, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed had her hair chopsticks confiscated.HGR appeared annoyed but willingly handed them over to a deputy and returned to court with readjusted hair style. Before court resumed, she was given hair accessories back and put them in her hair.

View attachment 485664


Hair chopsticks are not listed on the court’s contraband list but the last items says “all items the deputy believes could be used as a weapon.” Appears that decision was challenged and HGR was allowed to keep them in her hair.

View attachment 485665

I wonder why security allowed someone in the courthouse with a non concealed weapon?

And why did this weapon become a non weapon?

I don't get this at all.
 
That nose in the air doesn’t do her any favors. To me she holds it up there- like she is holding her place in not being responsible.

All JMO


That nose in the air doesn’t do her any favors. To me she holds it up there- like she is holding her place in not being responsible.

All JMO

Right, she is a true rebel. Her facial expressions are speaking loudly. She looks annoyed with it all. Spoiled and zero remorse.
 
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