- Prosecutors alleged Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was hungover the day of the fatal "Rust" shooting.
- Jurors were shown text messages that indicated she was smoking weed the night before.
The weapons supervisor who loaded the gun that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust" may have smoked marijuana the night before the fatal shooting, it was alleged on day three of her trial.
The trial of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, which opened with jury selection on Wednesday, comes over two years after Hutchins died when a gun that producer and star Alec Baldwin was holding went off during a rehearsal, mortally wounding her and injuring director Joel Souza.
Per Variety, prosecutors alleged that Gutierrez-Reed was using weed during her off-hours while the movie was in production outside Santa Fe and could have been hungover on October 21, 2021, when she loaded a live bullet into Baldwin's revolver.
Jurors were shown text messages between the armorer and other crew members, which alluded to her drug use.
"Right on, I might go smoke in the jacuzzi soon, but maybe not. I'm so pooped," Gutierrez-Reed wrote to one colleague the evening before the incident.
"Headed down to get high out back:b," she wrote in another message.
Later on, the same crew member asked: "How'd the blaze sess go." Gutierrez Reed wrote back: "I'm still smoking."
According to the Los Angeles Times, Special Prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey also intends to call a witness to corroborate the alleged drug use and build their case that Gutierrez Reed's reckless conduct led to the death of the cinematographer.
Gutierrez-Reed has pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter as well as a separate felony charge of tampering with evidence, relating to the claim that she gave a small bag of a white substance to an acquaintance for safekeeping a few hours after sheriff's deputies questioned her on the day of the incident.
The shooting unfolded on the Bonanza Creek Ranch set near Santa Fe while filming the low-budget Western film.
It happened as Baldwin was practicing a cross-draw technique that involved pointing a Colt .45 revolver at a camera on set, according to affidavits previously released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office.
A bullet from the gun struck Hutchins, a 42-year-old married mother-of-one, mortally wounding her. The movie's director, Joel Souza, was also injured by the bullet.
Baldwin is also facing criminal charges for his role in Hutchins' tragic death.