RUST Armorer Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Cinematographer’s Death
By Movieguide® Contributor
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, weapons handler for the western movie RUST, just got sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday.
“You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon,” said Judge Mary Marlow Sommer after she rejected the defense’s requests for probation and counseling. “But for you, Ms. Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner and a little boy would have his mother.”
Gutierrez-Reed received the maximum sentence allowed for involuntary manslaughter in the state of New Mexico.
Movieguide® reported last month:
RUST armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Hutchins was killed in October 2021 when actor Alec Baldwin discharged a weapon that was accidentally loaded with a live round. Director Joel Souza was also injured during the accident, getting shot in the shoulder.
Given her role as the movie’s sole armorer, Gutierrez Reed has faced the brunt of the focus for accident. Throughout the trial, the prosecution argued that Gutierrez Reed was negligent in her job, leading up to Hutchins’ death.
Before the sentence, Gutierrez-Reed pleaded for compassion.
“I beg you please don’t give me more time,” Gutierrez-Reed said. “The jury has found me in part at fault for this God-awful tragedy but that doesn’t make me a monster. That makes me human.”
Deadline said, “Judge Sommer didn’t buy it, quoting calls Gutierrez-Reed made from jail in recent weeks that put the blame for the live round getting in the gun on everyone but herself. “
According to the judge, Gutierrez-Reed didn’t take enough responsibility for the incident.
“I did not hear you take accountability,” the judge told her. “Your attorney had to tell the court you were remorseful.”
“Citing recordings of nearly 200 calls that Gutierrez-Reed made since being incarcerated, [prosecutor Kari Morrissey] said the RUST armorer did not take any responsibility for what happened on the repeatedly trouble set,” Deadline said. “As a filing from prosecutors last week revealed, the calls found 26-year-old Gutierrez-Reed calling the jurors of seven women and five men such things as ‘retards,’ ‘idiots’ and ‘a*******.’”
Two weeks earlier, the armorer’s defense tried to get her a new trial and out of her detention center with no success.
“Keep in mind there was a death that the jury determined was caused by her so I’m not releasing her,” said Judge Sommer on March 29.
Meanwhile, the man who was holding the gun that shot Hutchins, Alec Baldwin, seeks to get his own case dismissed.
His motion calls “the prosecution of the actor an ‘abuse of the system’ … accusing prosecutors of having failed to give the grand jury evidence that could have helped his case.”
NDTV said, “The plea cites an example that prosecutors did not call a witness who would have testified that Baldwin’s role as producer was purely for creative purposes and he had no role in enforcing safety protocols.”
Baldwin’s trial will start July 9. He faces two counts of manslaughter: negligent use of a firearm and failure to exercise due caution. He will also face up to 18 months in prison if found guilty.
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