The armorer for the movie “Rust,” who loaded a bullet directly into a revolver that exploded on set in 2021 and killed its cinematographer, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Monday for involuntary manslaughter.
The sentence is the maximum that armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed could have received.
In her manslaughter trial last monthProsecutors said that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed was repeatedly reckless in her work managing weapons and ammunition, directly causing the tragedy on October 21, 2021, when the gun that Alec Baldwin was practicing pulled from its holster. The shoulder-mounted gun fired a live bullet. , killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Mr. Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. His trial is scheduled for July, although the judge is currently deliberating motion from his defense dismissed the indictment.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer’s sentencing came after prosecutors released a summary of calls Ms. Gutierrez-Reed made from prison, where she was taken after her conviction.
Prosecutors used calls in which Ms. Gutierrez-Reed called jurors in her case “idiots” to argue that she should receive the highest sentence possible. Call summaries include Ms. Gutierrez-Reed saying the judge was on a “power trip” and alleging, without evidence, that the judge was “paid off.”
Judge Marlowe Sommer said during the hearing that giving Ms. Gutierrez-Reed less than the full sentence would be a “pass” she did not deserve, citing calls for jail time as Evidence shows lack of remorse.
“You are the designer of the weapon, the one who stands between a weapon that is safe and a weapon that can kill someone,” the judge said. “You alone have turned a safe weapon into a deadly one. But for you, Miss Hutchins will be alive, a husband will have his mate and a boy will have his mother.”
Before the sentence was announced, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed, 26, pleaded for leniency and said that when she took the “Rust” job, she “was young and I was naive, but I took my job seriously.” As far as I know. ”
“Even though I didn’t have the right time, resources and personnel when things got tough, I still tried my best to solve the problem,” Ms. Gutierrez-Reed told the court, reading a statement, her wrists shackled. decide it”. “The jury found me partly to blame for this terrible tragedy but that doesn’t make me a monster, it makes me human.”
Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers said they would appeal her sentence and argue for leniency at the sentencing hearing, saying the defendant was deeply saddened by Ms. Hutchins’ death. They said the intense public attention on the case meant she had to endure “collateral consequences far harsher than what most defendants ever face”. , citing the overwhelming press coverage and death threats she had received.
The defense argued throughout the trial that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed was being used as a scapegoat for a tragedy that occurred because the production did not give her enough time to focus on the weapon, which some critics believed was the cause. production denied it throughout the trial.
In court papers, prosecutors detailed the calls to jail, in which Ms. Gutierrez-Reed argued that she “didn’t have to shake the dummy all the time,” referring to a measure safety in which weapons experts shake an inert cartridge, known as a dummy round, hearing a rattling sound inside, which indicates the bullet could not have been fired from the gun. On the day of the shooting, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed allegedly loaded six fake bullets into Mr. Baldwin’s revolver, but one ended up remaining live.
“Every time a gun is loaded with ‘dummy’ ammunition, it is a game of Russian roulette,” lead prosecutor Kari T. Morrissey wrote in court papers before sentencing.
In a separate call, prosecutors said, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed said she was trying to get her paralegal to contact Ms. Hutchins’ family about speaking on her behalf at the sentencing hearing. She also said she wants prosecutors to “put Alec Baldwin in jail.”
“It is my sincere hope during this process that there will come a time when Ms. Gutierrez will be held accountable, express some degree of genuine remorse, and that that moment will not come,” Ms. Morrissey said during the hearing. ever come”.
Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers wrote in court papers that those jail calls, which they described as expressing “frustration with the system,” did not alleviate the “heartbreak.” and her extreme sadness about what happened on the set of ‘Rust’.”
The armorer’s conviction is the first time anyone has been held criminally responsible at a jury trial for Ms. Hutchins’ death.
The prosecutors’ focus has now largely shifted to Mr. Baldwin, who were indicted this year for involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors allege he negligently failed to ensure the gun delivered that day was not loaded with live ammunition. He has vehemently denied responsibility, saying he was told the gun did not contain live ammunition and that he could have trusted the experts on set who were hired to monitor the gun and its safety. safe.
During Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s two-week trial, prosecutors said she was criminally responsible for Ms. Hutchins’ death because of a series of serious safety violations that they said led to her death. The production process encountered a disaster. They accused her of bringing live ammunition to the set, failing to properly check the ammunition she loaded into her gun and gun belt, and standing by as a member of the production crew, including one of the actors. stuntman, handling weapons contrary to safety procedures.
In a separate case, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed is facing charges of illegally carrying a firearm into a licensed liquor establishment. Prosecutors say a video on her phone that they discovered in the manslaughter case shows Ms. Gutierrez-Reed sneaking a handgun into a bar in New Mexico. She pleaded not guilty.
Before the judge sentenced the armorer, she heard testimony from family members, friends and colleagues of Ms. Hutchins, who spoke of her ambition and vision as a videographer as well as her dedication as a mother, to a friend, Jen White, told the judge, “I feel like she got lost in the crowd of criticism and blame in the aftermath of this completely preventable tragedy.”
Joel Souza, the director of “Rust” who was injured when the bullet passed through Ms. Hutchins and hit him, testified that Ms. Hutchins, who would have turned 45 last week, “had more than just a talent. incredible artistic talent, but she has a talent for living.”
And Emilia Mendieta, a friend and cinematographer, recalls Hutchins’s excitement at starting filming the Western, recounting a phone call just before “Rust” began in which she explained that the movie “ there were horses and gunfights and we shot in the desert” and “it was a big stepping stone” in her career.
“I often think about that moment,” Mendieta said. “Her excitement, her joy at embarking on this new adventure.”
