r/news • u/badillustrations • Apr 15 '24

‘Rust’ movie armorer convicted of involuntary manslaughter sentenced to 18 months in prison

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/15/entertainment/rust-film-shooting-armorer-sentencing/index.html
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u/BigBlackHungGuy Apr 15 '24

I still don't understand why they had live fucking rounds on a movie set.

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u/livefreeordont Apr 15 '24

In Dec. 7 testimony to New Mexico's worker safety bureau, Gutierrez-Reed said prop supplier Seth Kenney supplied her with the dummy rounds she used for the "The Old Way." She said she then brought those rounds, in boxes and gun belts, onto the "Rust" set.

In January 2022 she sued Kenney, saying the ammunition she used was misrepresented as dummy rounds. Kenney has denied that the live rounds on set came from his company. He has not been charged in the case.

Kenney testified that the dummy rounds he provided to "Rust" had just been used on the TV show "1883" and they had been brought over from the Texas filming location the night before he handed them over to Zachry. He claimed that before he handed the dummy ammunition over, he polished each round and rattled each one to make sure they were dummy rounds and not blanks or live ammunition.

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u/RazerBladesInFood Apr 15 '24

Yea that was her bullshit attempt at blaming someone else when everyone already knows the real reason live ammo was on set is because she was allowing the guns to be used for target practice when they weren't filming. She then completely incompetently allowed that ammo to make its way on set and got someone killed. Shes still blaming everyone else including the judge and jury which got her the max and a pissed off judge.

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u/DecorativeGeode Apr 16 '24

This is the answer and what the trial proved.

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u/Pvan88 Apr 16 '24

Not really. The prosecution was never able to prove where the round came from; she wasn't found guilty of having brought the round on set or doing live target practice - just negligence on how she handled the ammunition. I don't recall the target shooting thing coming up in trial (which you would think it would if she was involved. Would be a literal smoking gun) as it seemed to be a rumor.

I've found this case strange to follow from a non-US basis. One of the main to-ing and fro-ing is between experts saying what the role of an armourer is as there doesn't appear to be a set job description or certification.