A New Mexico judge has set the involuntary manslaughter trial for “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed to begin on Dec. 6.
Reed, 26, submitted a plea of not guilty on Wednesday in writing to charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in connection to the accidental death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. She faces up to three years in prison if convicted.
Reed, as the armorer for the “Rust” production, was the one who loaded the revolver that was being held by lead actor Alec Baldwin when it fired, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Prosecutors claim that Reed failed to check whether the bullets she loaded into the revolver were live rounds or blanks.
Baldwin was also initially charged with involuntary manslaughter, but those charges were dropped by the special prosecutors assigned to the case by the Santa Fe District Attorney’s office in April due to a lack of sufficient evidence determining whether the revolver he was holding was functioning properly at the time of Hutchins’ death.
The prosecutors said that their decision to drop the charges “does not absolve Mr. Baldwin of criminal culpability and charges may be refiled.”
