Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced to 18 months in prison on April 15 in the fatal Rust set shooting in New Mexico. Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter on March 6 for the 2021 on-set incident that left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead. Hutchins was killed after Alec Baldwin allegedly fired a prop gun loaded with live ammunition in her direction. Director Joel Souza, who was also shot, survived. “You alone turned a safe weapon into a lethal weapon,†said Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, delivering the maximum sentence. “But for you, Ms. Hutchins would be alive, a husband would have his partner, and a little boy would have his mother.†During Gutierrez-Reed’s recent trial, prosecutors argued that she failed to properly check ammunition in the gun — and that it was her fault that live ammunition wound up on the set. Both Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin pleaded not guilty in their respective criminal cases. Baldwin, who faces a trial in July, has argued that he did not pull the trigger.
Gutierrez-Reed made a tearful request for probation during the sentencing hearing. “I am saddened by the way the media sensationalized our traumatic tragedy and portrayed me as a complete monster, which has actually been the total opposite of what is in my heart,†she said. She called Hutchins an “inspiration†to her and said she is “beyond grateful†that Souza survived. Judge Sommer later said she “did not hear†Gutierrez-Reed “take accountability.â€
In advance of Gutierrez-Reed’s sentencing, prosecutors requested that she serve an 18-month sentence. They painted her as unrepentant in court filings, citing jailhouse phone calls since her conviction. “She continued to complain in jail calls about the negative effects this incident has had on her life and her modeling career while never expressing genuine remorse at any time,†they wrote, noting that she referred to jurors as “idiots.â€
Over the course of her two-week-long trial, both the prosecution and defense largely rehashed their long-held positions. Prosecutors told jurors that Gutierrez-Reed flouted common-sense gun-safety protocols on the set; the defense, meanwhile, insisted that she was a “scapegoat.†In his opening statement, prosecutor Jason Lewis told jurors, “By failing to make those vital safety checks, the defendant acted negligently and without due caution … The decisions she made that day ultimately contributed to Ms. Hutchins’s death.†Lewis ended his opening statement by quoting Gutierrez-Reed’s own words in a police interview after the incident. “She says at the end: ‘I just, I don’t know. I wish I would have checked it,’†Lewis told the jury. “And so do we.â€
Jason Bowles, Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney, said that the set was rife with dangerous safety issues. “Just because there was a tragedy does not mean that a crime was committed. It does not mean that Hannah Gutierrez really caused the crimes they have charged her with,†Bowles said, telling the jury that Baldwin had pointed the gun in Hutchins’s direction. “What they tried to do, and what you’re seeing in this courtroom today, is trying to blame it all on Hannah, the 24-year-old, because, why? Because she’s an easy target. She’s the least powerful person on that set.â€
The most dramatic twist in her trial emerged when assistant director David Halls testified. Baldwin initially told authorities that Gutierrez-Reed had given him the gun, but later alleged it was Halls. When Halls — who previously pleaded no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon over the incident — testified, he told jurors that Gutierrez-Reed passed the gun to Baldwin.