Jason Bowles, Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney, declined to comment for this story.
After the case against Alec Baldwin was abruptly
dismissed with prejudice last week, TheWrap combed through all the testimony from both trials, including dozens of photo, video and police bodycam exhibits. A half-dozen key principals and witnesses from the case were contacted and interviewed on condition of anonymity to assess the many theories that have been floated about the original source of the deadly loads.
The 'Rust' trials are over, but the mystery remains of how live bullets got onto the set. TheWrap investigates and finds the likely answer
www.thewrap.com
July 19, 2024
Among those alternate theories are that munitions supplier Seth Kenney and Thell Reed (Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s father, a legendary trick shooter and Hollywood armorer) somehow brought them after a live-rounds training exercise on the Texas set of the “Yellowstone” spinoff “1883.” Kenney took the stand in both trials and
denied any involvement, and no evidence was ever presented that would link him or his PDQ Arm & Prop shop to the live rounds.
Another theory was that “someone” wanted to create mischief for Gutierrez-Reed, who was feuding with Kenney while a
union camera crew walked off the job over sloppy safety measures. The “sabotage” theory was suggested by defense teams for both
the armorer and Baldwin — though there was never any evidence to support it.
There is plenty of evidence, however, to suggest that the live bullets were on the “Rust” set — even in Gutierrez-Reed’s possession — for several days before Hutchins’ death, and before any of Kenney’s ammunition supply arrived. Though their presence is obvious in photos, they weren’t detected until after catastrophe struck.
Gutierrez-Reed told detectives she had brought two boxes of her own prop ammo over from a previous project, a low-budget Western starring Nicolas Cage. Investigators later admitted that they somehow lost track of one. The other, pictured below, was found to contain a live round.
![1721745885723.png 1721745885723.png](https://www.websleuths.com/forums/data/attachments/492/492756-d7f81753b25404ee597dbafc6bd73f82.jpg)
Evidence photo of the ammo box from which the deadly round (not pictured) was pulled. One other “live” bullet, right column with the silver dot in the center, was found in the box. (Court exhibit)