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Halls was the first "Rust" crew member to praise armorer Hannah
Gutierrez during her two-week involuntary manslaughter trial in
which former colleagues have said she was less professional than
other weapons handlers they had worked with.
Jurors at the trial heard Halls, an industry veteran with
credits like "The Matrix Reloaded," testify the armorer on Oct.
21, 2021 "abandoned" her usual habit of checking firearms,
handing him a revolver she had mistakenly loaded a live round
into.
Halls said he failed to have Gutierrez show him all the rounds
in the reproduction Colt. 45 "Peacemaker" to ensure they were
dummies - as is standard practice in the industry - before the
gun went to actor Alec Baldwin inside a movie-set church outside
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
"I let a safety check pass," said Halls, at times wiping away
tears. Halls entered a plea bargain last year for negligent use
of a deadly weapon with a six-month suspended sentence.
He said he may have been the first person to speak to Hutchins
after Baldwin pointed the gun at her while setting up a scene
and it fired the live round. Baldwin has said he did not pull
the trigger.
"She said 'I can't feel my legs,'" Halls said, a day after the
medical examiner who autopsied Hutchins told the court that the
bullet went through her spinal cord.
Gutierrez said she shook the rounds she loaded into the gun to
test they were dummies with ball bearings inside that rattle
before handing the firearm to Halls. She has pleaded not guilty.
Both Halls and props supplier Sarah Zachry testified on Thursday
that they did not recall Gutierrez ever rattle-testing rounds on
set to check they were dummies.
Halls defended Baldwin, also charged with involuntary
manslaughter, saying the actor did not endanger safety by
rushing production, as prosecutors allege.
Baldwin - also producer and writer on Rust - has a July 10 trial
date and has pleaded not guilty.
"There was never any Mr. Baldwin rushing anybody," Halls said.
(Reporting by Andrew Hay; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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